US Navy confirms eight suicide attempts during USS Lincoln deployment
The USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group spent a record 286 days at sea
Eight sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted suicide during a record-length deployment for the war on Iran, CNN reported on 24 September.
“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao wrote in a letter responding to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s questions about conditions aboard the carrier.
“This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.”
Cao said none of the eight died as a result of their attempts; however, one US military official told CNN that “eight attempted suicides is incredibly high,” noting that recent carrier deployments have logged one or two per year.
“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” Gillibrand said.
The Lincoln sailed from California in November 2025 and was diverted to West Asia before the US-Israeli attacks on Iran began in late February. It spent the spring and summer as a launchpad for the sustained assault against the Islamic Republic, only making its first full port stop in Thailand in early September after 286 days at sea, months past its planned return in May.
In August, a sailor from the air wing jumped overboard and was pulled from the sea by a rescue helicopter, according to Cao. In March, shipmates reportedly stopped another sailor from jumping.
Reports in August exposed mold in the showers, shrinking stocks of food and soap, and the sailors’ worsening mental health. Cao acknowledged that meal choices were cut from two entrées to one and that resupply was delayed.
US President Donald Trump brushed the reports aside, while Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted the media had “completely misrepresented” the situation.