Eight Sailors in the USS Lincoln Strike Group Attempted Suicide During Its Iran War Deployment

Eight sailors serving with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its long Middle East deployment for the war with Iran, Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told Congress in a letter made public this week.

Cao disclosed the figure in a letter dated Tuesday to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York Democrat who had pressed the Navy about conditions aboard the Nimitz-class carrier. "Since the beginning of Lincoln's deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group," he wrote. The count covers the Lincoln's crew, the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, the escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons. Cao said no sailor in the strike group had died by suicide.

The letter confirmed two incidents that had fueled public alarm over the summer. A sailor assigned to the air wing went overboard from the carrier in early August and was quickly recovered by a search-and-rescue helicopter, then treated and medically evacuated. Another sailor tried to jump overboard in March and was stopped by shipmates before being evaluated and flown off the ship.

Concern about the ship peaked on Aug. 11, when Military Times reported that two sailors had attempted to jump overboard. At a town hall in San Diego that month, military families told defense officials about food shortages, collapsing morale and fears of self-harm as the Lincoln neared nine months at sea without a scheduled port call. Navy officials said at the time that the command had "not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship."

The administration brushed off the reports. President Donald Trump told reporters the Lincoln's deployment was "not nearly long enough," and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said conditions aboard had been "completely misrepresented."

"What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as 'fake news' turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members," Gillibrand said in a statement after receiving the letter.

Cao told Gillibrand the carrier had mental health support on board: five chaplains, an embedded prevention counselor, a psychologist, a clinical social worker, three behavioral health technicians and a facility dog. Only the psychologist and the social worker are licensed mental health clinicians, for roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines. A sailor aboard the Lincoln told Military Times that a deployed resiliency counselor, another licensed therapist, left about six months into the deployment for personal reasons and had not been replaced when the ship finally left the Central Command region and reached Thailand on Sept. 2. Wait times to see a mental health professional could run to weeks for sailors not reporting suicidal thoughts, the sailor said.

Navy mental health professionals told the outlet that the gaps show the current system aboard aircraft carriers does not adequately serve crews on extended combat deployments. The disclosure comes as the Iran war grinds on with the Pentagon's civilian leadership thinned by vacancies. Capt. Bianca C. Wilkerson, 37, of Norfolk, Virginia, became the 19th U.S. service member to die in the conflict after a non-combat incident on Sept. 18, Military Times reported.

Troops, veterans and family members in crisis can call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 and press 1, or text 838255.