The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group experienced eight servicemember suicide attempts during its current deployment, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group experienced eight servicemember suicide attempts during its current deployment, which included more than 200 days of combat operations in the Middle East, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said this week.
In one instance, a sailor who went overboard from USS Abraham Lincoln in early August was rescued, and another service member who tried to jump off the carrier in March was stopped by shipmates, Cao said Tuesday in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.
The disclosure about the suicide attempts, first reported by CNN, is in stark contrast to responses from the Navy, the Defense Department and the commander of U.S. Central Command following reports by Stars and Stripes and other media last month about conditions aboard Lincoln and concerns about suicide attempts among its crew.
A statement Gillibrand gave to CNN singled out President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying that what they called fake news “turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members.”
“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” Gillibrand said. “That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms and billionaires but cannot take care of our service members is completely unacceptable.”
The Navy did not immediately respond to questions about the letter, which emphasized that there had been no suicides during the deployment and that Lincoln had five chaplains aboard the carrier in addition to medical, surgical and mental health personnel.
The Lincoln group includes its carrier air wing, among other personnel, and a cadre of ships, such as the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. About 4,500 to 5,000 service members typically are embarked on an aircraft carrier. Arleigh Burke-class destroyers typically have a crew of 300 to 330.
In August, Stars and Stripes reported family member concerns about the mental health of Abraham Lincoln sailors and Marines, including at least one suicide attempt. At the time, the carrier had logged more than 250 consecutive days at sea, including a record-breaking number of days without a port call.
The concerns first detailed in that reporting drew subsequent coverage from Navy Times and other news organizations, as well as commentary and additional claims online. The issue also drew the attention of U.S. lawmakers, some of whom have demanded an investigation into conditions aboard the carrier.
Shortly after, Cao said media reports about deteriorating mental health, food shortages, mail disruptions and other conditions on the ship were “dishonest.” They distracted from the “focus on the enemy and the threat it poses against our nation, people, and way of life,” Cao said in an X post. He did not identify specific reports or media organizations.
That message was soon followed by CENTCOM commander Adm. Brad Cooper’s statement that Lincoln had among the lowest numbers of mental health-related cases among carriers.
“That doesn’t mean everything is perfect,” Cooper said in the statement posted to CENTCOM’s X account Aug. 16. He added that everyone “reacts to stressors in different ways.”
Trump also dismissed reports last month about conditions aboard the Lincoln, saying family members were not worried about living conditions and mental health. When asked whether the carrier, which left San Diego in November, had been deployed too long, Trump responded, “No, no, no. Not nearly long enough.”
Hegseth said at the time that reports about the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.” But the Navy ultimately sent the aircraft carrier USS George Washington to relieve Lincoln, which left the CENTCOM area of responsibility in late August, subsequently making a port call in Thailand and a logistics stop earlier this week in Guam.
As of Thursday, Lincoln has been deployed more than 10 months and is nearing a post-Vietnam War carrier deployment record set by USS Gerald R. Ford in May of 326 days.
Earlier this month, the Navy’s top officials said the service was applying lessons gleaned from recent grueling deployments as it prepares another aircraft carrier for the Middle East.
The effort includes improving logistics by increasing storage aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt for food, hygiene products and other supplies, and paying careful attention to quality-of-life issues, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle and Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said.
Roosevelt is expected to depart San Diego in the coming weeks to relieve Washington in the Arabian Sea during a deployment expected to last more than seven months.
- Security