Navy says 8 USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group sailors attempted suicide

Sept. 24 (UPI) — The U.S. Navy said that eight crew serving in the record-long deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln Strike Group attempted suicide.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao wrote that a rescue helicopter from the Abraham Lincoln pulled a service member serving in the carrier’s air wing from the sea in early August after the sailor “went overboard” and that in March crew members stopped another sailor who was attempting to do the same thing.

Tuesday’s letter detailing the incidents on the Abraham Lincoln and other ships in the strike group, which spent months in the Middle East as part of the U.S. conflict with Iran, was in response to pressure from Senate Armed Forces Committee member Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.

No one had succeeded in taking their own life among the approximately 6,000 sailors serving on the Abraham Lincoln, its air wing and the destroyers guarding it.

Gillibrand rebuked President Donald Trump and the Pentagon on Wednesday for downplaying the impact the more than 250-day at-sea deployment had on the approximately 5,000 sailors on the Abraham Lincoln, saying the information provided by the Navy showed that conditions on the ship were “serious and deteriorating.”

Gillibrand accused Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth of openly disrespecting sailors’ grievances after Trump said he was not concerned about the mental health of the crew and that the deployment actually should’ve been even longer while Hegseth said the reality had been “misrepresented.”

“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” she said.

“That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms and billionaires, but cannot take care of our armed services members, is completely unacceptable,” added Gillibrand.

The Navy’s former top lawyer, Rear Admiral Donald Guter, said the attempted suicides was a “disturbingly high number indicating a serious stress level.”

The Abraham Lincoln’s record long deployment, which began in November, faced reports of food and supply shortages, as well as problems with the plumbing, while crew members’ loved ones flagged up issues regarding a slide in the mental health of those on board.

The Defense Department has pushed back, pointing out that the number of suicide attempts has not risen and that counselors, chaplains and other support is available to service members.

However, Cao separately acknowledged there was an underlying problem, saying in a video post online at the weekend, “We must confront the rising tide of suicide head-on.”