Suicide Attempt Reports Raise Concerns Over USS Abraham Lincoln Deployment

Reports that sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln attempted to jump overboard have raised serious concerns about the mental health and living conditions of the carrier’s nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines.

The aircraft carrier has now spent nine months on deployment, including 250 consecutive days without making land. According to The Navy Times and Stars and Stripes, several incidents involving sailors attempting to jump overboard were reportedly stopped.

Families Raise Concerns

Around 200 relatives of personnel aboard the Lincoln attended a town hall meeting with Navy officials in San Diego last Thursday. They raised concerns about the long deployment and the impact it was having on sailors and their families.

One spouse said her husband had texted her that day saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.”

Another woman told acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao that the Navy had “broken trust between us and the leadership,” according to Stars and Stripes.

The Navy Times quoted Annabelle Loma as saying her husband had attempted to jump overboard after his deployment was extended several times.

“He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that,” she said.

Another sailor’s wife reportedly said her husband stopped a fellow crewmember from jumping by grabbing the person and bringing them back onto the deck.

Lawmakers Criticize Conditions

Democratic Congressman Mike Levin of California also raised concerns about the conditions aboard the carrier. He described “moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas. No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste.”

Congressman Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, said the pressure on sailors and their families was “building week by week.”

The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on November 21. It was initially scheduled to operate in the Pacific but was later redirected to West Asia following the latest US and Israeli military actions against Iran.

The deployment was originally expected to end in May but has since been extended.

Hegseth Rejects Earlier Complaints

Earlier complaints about food, water, mold and broken laundry facilities were dismissed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as “more fake news.”

Levin criticized Hegseth, saying, “The least their country owes them (the personnel) is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars.”

The latest reports come alongside a separate account of a deadly confrontation aboard the Abraham Lincoln, in which seven sailors were reportedly killed and several others were wounded.