Eight U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its extended deployment, which included combat operations in the Iran war, according to a new report.
The figure emerged in a Tuesday letter from Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), CNN reported Wednesday. The eight attempts occurred across the strike group, which included between 6,000 and 7,000 sailors serving on around half a dozen ships.
“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote in the Tuesday letter. “This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier airwing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.”
Cao said there were no deaths by suicide during the deployment.
The carrier spent more than six months without a port visit as its strike group carried out combat operations against Iran. One military official told CNN that recent carrier strike group deployments typically recorded one or two suicide attempts annually.
“Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high,” the official said. “The strain of combat ops is much higher than normal deployments. No port calls, constant alerts, etc.”
The disclosure also follows a series of reports about difficult conditions aboard the Lincoln. Sailors and their families have described food and supply shortages, plumbing problems, and deteriorating morale.
The Navy had previously disputed suggestions that sailors aboard the Lincoln were experiencing an increase in suicidal behavior, telling CNN, “We have not observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the ship.”
Two sailors assigned to the strike group have intentionally gone overboard in recent months and were rescued, according to previous CNN reporting. Cao additionally confirmed that a sailor was stopped by shipmates while attempting to go overboard in March and that another sailor went overboard in August before being “quickly recovered.”
One of those sailors, a 19-year-old who went overboard from the Lincoln on Aug. 3 in what his wife described as a suicide attempt, is now facing Navy disciplinary action. MS NOW reported last month that he could lose as much as half of his regular pay after being accused of intentionally injuring himself to avoid duty and being absent from his required place of duty.
CNN also noted that the rate across the entire Lincoln strike group was roughly in line with the active-duty Navy’s 2024 rate. The service recorded 356 attempts that year among approximately 337,000 active-duty sailors.
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