Eight personnel with the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide while serving as part of the ship’s record-breaking deployment, according to a letter from Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao obtained by The Washington Sun.
Cao was responding to questions from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) about the conditions and well-being of sailors aboard the ship. The letter was first reported by CNN.
None of the personnel died, but Cao reported two attempted “man overboard” incidents had occurred. One sailor went overboard in August and was “quickly recovered by an air wing search and rescue helicopter, treated by LINCOLN’s medical department, and transferred off ship for follow-on care,” Cao wrote. The other sailor attempted to go overboard in March but was stopped by his shipmates.
Cao maintained that the mental health resources provided on the ship “have been adequate to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of the crew,” and said a comparative analysis of the Navy’s record for “mishap reporting shows no elevated mishap rates for the LINCOLN during its current deployment when compared to other carriers.”
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The Lincoln remained deployed for more than 300 days before ending its assignment on Aug. 19, when the USS George Washington relieved the aircraft carrier. The Lincoln spent about seven months without a port stop aiding U.S. operations against Iran in the Arabian Sea, a record.
When the ship’s prolonged deployment began to make news this summer, President Donald Trump brushed the concerns aside, telling reporters in August that the deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
Cao carefully addressed the lengthy operation for the ship, saying the department makes “every effort to limit extensions, executing them only when critical national security requirements leave no other viable alternative.”
Reports emerged in early August of depleted food supplies and substandard hygiene aboard the ship after MS NOW spoke with families of some of the service members. At the time, the Navy pushed back on the reports, and though Cao addressed some of the concerns in his letter, dated Sept. 22, he appeared to downplay any negative speculation about living conditions.
“The ship has encountered no medical supply issues,” Cao said in response to a question about the medical care on board.
Photos have circulated of extremely small portions of food served on the ship this year, supporting family member’s accounts.
Reports also indicated that sailors had seen potentially contaminated water on the ship, and had to use broken toilets and moldy showers.
“Earlier in deployment, the ship experienced localized piping failures and temporary issues with its reverse osmosis desalination units due to high-ambient seawater temperatures and continuous operations,” Cao said, adding that the issue was fixed and “the potable water supply remains safe and tested daily.”
Gillibrand, who is on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Trump and the Defense Department’s lack of effort to address issues during the Lincoln’s deployment “completely unacceptable.”
“What Trump and Secretary [Pete] Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” Gillibrand said in a statement. “Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect.”
Cao confirmed in the letter that a “bipartisan Congressional Delegation is in the planning stages to embark the LINCOLN following the ship’s return home.”
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