Μake us preferred on Google Eight Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its lengthy deployment in the fight against Iran, according to a letter the acting Navy secretary sent to a Democratic senator.
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao discussed the attempted suicides in a Tuesday letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.), who had asked about suicide attempts, mental-health resources and living conditions on the ship.
“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote . The Lincoln was deployed in November 2025.
He said one sailor went overboard from a ship in early August, then was soon recovered by an air wing search-and-rescue helicopter. The sailor was transferred off the ship for care, Cao said. Another sailor tried to jump overboard in March and was stopped by his shipmates, he said.
None of the eight, which include personnel from the multiple ships in the USS Lincoln’s strike group, died, Cao wrote. Around 7,000 people are a part of the strike group, a Navy official said. Two of the suicide attempts took place while the strike group was in a combat zone, and the remaining six attempts occurred when the strike group was outside the combat zone, the official said.
“The ship’s medical team is well-equipped to manage both routine and acute medical concerns of crew members,” Cao wrote to Gillibrand, who also asked about illnesses and injuries. A Navy analysis showed “no elevated mishap rates for the Lincoln during its current deployment when compared to other carriers” from a safety perspective, he said.
Separately on Sunday, Cao called on the Navy to tackle “the rising tide of suicide head-on” in a video posted on X. “Let’s defeat this enemy within called suicide,” he added in the post.
A Navy official has said previously that the military hasn’t observed an increase in suicidal ideations or attempts aboard the USS Lincoln.
“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our servicemembers,” said Gillibrand, a member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, referring to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth . “That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our servicemembers, is completely unacceptable.”
CNN earlier reported on the attempted suicides.
The USS Lincoln played a key role in the U.S. bombing against Iran and has also taken part in the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports. But its extended wartime deployment underscored the Navy’s stretched resources, and reports of suicide attempts, food rationing and mental-health challenges sparked concerns from the crews’ family members and criticism from Democratic lawmakers.
The Lincoln has five chaplains, as well as a counselor, psychologist, clinical social worker, three behavioral health technicians and one dog, Cao said.
The Lincoln is now heading home after it docked in Thailand earlier this month. The strike group was recently in Guam and earlier this week was in the Philippines Sea, according to the U.S. Naval Institute News’s fleet tracker.
A bipartisan congressional delegation is planning to embark the USS Lincoln once it returns home, Cao said.
