Eight U.S. Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a deployment that included combat operations against Iran and a modern record for time at sea, CNN reported.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao disclosed the figure in a letter dated Tuesday to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, a Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who had asked about morale and mental health aboard the carrier. Cao wrote that no service members died by suicide during the deployment.
The count covers the carrier's crew, its air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and embarked aviation squadrons. The strike group includes about 7,500 personnel, according to NBC News.
"Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high," a U.S. military official told CNN. "The strain of combat ops is much higher than normal deployments. No port calls, constant alerts, etc." According to CNN, however, the rate is roughly in line with the active-duty Navy as a whole in 2024, the most recent year with Pentagon data, when the Navy recorded 356 suicide attempts among about 337,000 sailors.
The disclosure contrasts sharply with how officials responded to earlier concerns. In August, sailors' families raised alarms about mental health, food shortages, and mail disruptions aboard the Lincoln, which had then spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea. Cao called those media reports "dishonest." Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, described the concerns as "old news" in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. A Navy official said at the time that no rise in suicide attempts had been observed.
Gillibrand's statement to CNN singled out President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying the reports they had dismissed as fake news turned out to be serious.
Cao's letter said the Lincoln deployed with five chaplains, a psychologist, a clinical social worker, an embedded prevention counselor, three behavioral health technicians, and a facility dog. He said meals were nutritionally balanced, and attributed earlier water problems to piping failures and to desalination issues caused by high seawater temperatures.
The Lincoln left San Diego in November and was relieved in the Central Command theater by the USS George Washington.
If you or someone you know is struggling, in the U.S. you can call or text 988, then press 1 for the Military and Veterans Crisis Line. In Israel, ERAN is available at 1201.
