Up to date Sept. 23, 2026, 7:49 p.m. ET
Performing Navy Secretary Hung Cao mentioned that eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln service strike group tried suicide throughout its prolonged deployment within the Center East.
The Lincoln, presently en path to its residence port of San Diego, has been deployed for greater than 300 days and can seemingly stay at sea for one more two weeks earlier than returning to the US. The plane service’s present deployment started on Nov. 21, 2025.
Cao revealed the variety of suicide makes an attempt in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, responding to questions in regards to the well-being of the Lincoln’s crew. The letter, obtained by USA TODAY, was first reported by CNN.
Cao mentioned that no sailors had died by suicide throughout the plane service’s deployment.
One sailor assigned to the Lincoln’s air wing went overboard in early August. An air wing search and rescue helicopter “rapidly recovered” the sailor, Cao wrote within the letter. One other sailor “tried to go overboard in March and was stopped by his shipmates.”
The Navy didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
“Practically one suicide try a month speaks to the extreme challenges our sailors confronted throughout a harmful operation,” a former Pentagon official informed USA TODAY. “The Navy should work to make each useful resource accessible to deployed sailors so they continue to be fight succesful.”
Issues about situations aboard USS Abraham Lincoln
The sailors aboard the Lincoln described poor situations and low morale because the plane service remained at sea for roughly 280 days, setting a contemporary report. The Lincoln’s crew performed operations in an energetic fight zone for many of that point because it enforced the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
Households of the sailors reported meals shortages and sanitation issues on the Lincoln.
The energetic fight operations made it a problem to resupply the Lincoln. Consequently, “the variety of principal entrée choices served throughout common meal hours was diminished from two to at least one for a short while,” the letter acknowledged. “This measure was carried out to optimize endurance and guarantee sustained time on station,” Cao wrote. “4 meals have been served each day, and all meals supplied have been nutritionally balanced, with sufficient energy per day made accessible to each Sailor.”
Cao additionally addressed the studies of damaged plumbing and poor sanitation on the Lincoln. “Earlier in deployment, the ship skilled localized piping failures and short-term points with its reverse osmosis desalination models as a result of high-ambient seawater temperatures and steady operations,” he wrote.
Stories of deteriorating situations on the Lincoln prompted outrage from lawmakers. The Trump administration initially tried to downplay studies of poor sanitation and diminished meal parts.
President Donald Trump mentioned in August that the Lincoln was being “fantastically maintained and fantastically taken care of.”
In a press release, Gillibrand criticized Trump and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth for initially dismissing issues in regards to the situations on the Lincoln.
“Our troops and their households make immense sacrifices each single day, but the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” Gillibrand mentioned. “That this administration can discover infinite taxpayer {dollars} for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, however can’t deal with our service members, is totally unacceptable.”
