Cao Confirms Eight Suicide Attempts During Lincoln CSG's Long Deployment
During the record-setting at-sea deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln to the Mideast, eight sailors attached to the carrier and other vessels in her strike group attempted to commit suicide, the U.S. Navy's top official confirmed in a letter to a Democratic senator this week. The account appears to contradict previous official assessments of the morale situation with Lincoln, and align more closely with familymember reports of concerning conditions.
"Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group," Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao wrote in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). He noted that there had been no fatalities.
Cao's candid assessment followed shortly after he made a public appeal to all Sailors and Marines to "defeat this enemy within called suicide." On September 20, he instructed leaders of all ranks to be sure to know - at a personal level - all of the people in their command, and to be prepared to step in to ask questions if someone seems distraught.
His confirmation of a string of suicide attempts in the strike group aligns with familymembers' compliants. In early August, familymembers of USS Abraham Lincoln crewmembers began passing accounts of the conditions on board to the media, including multiple accounts of suicide attempts - some of which were narrowly averted.
At the time, the news prompted a degree of pushback from top military leadership. After visiting the ship in mid-August, CENTCOM Commander Adm. Brad Cooper said that Lincoln "currently has among the lowest number of cases related to mental health." He also praised Lincoln's senior officers for "stepping up and making mental health and crew resilience a leadership priority." Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the problems aboard Lincoln were "completely misrepresented" by the press. President Donald Trump, when asked about Lincoln's long stint at sea, told reporters that it was "not nearly long enough."
Cao also confirmed - as previously reported - that one crewmember on Lincoln attempted to jump over the side in March and had been stopped by other sailors. Another crewmember did jump over the side in early August, but was recovered by helicopter and transferred off for treatment, he said.
He also confirmed that the rate of physical illnesses, injuries and mishaps affecting the Lincoln CSG's 7,000-strong crew complement was within normal limits for a carrier deployment.
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The carrier is now under way back to the United States after brief R&R stops in Thailand and Guam. By the time Lincoln returns, her overall deployment will be among the longest in post-Vietnam Navy history.
Though Lincoln has departed the Mideast, the underlying conditions affecting her crew - a prolonged overseas conflict, compromised supply chains for essential goods, and no clear timeline for an end date - remain in place for others. A massive U.S. Navy task force remains deployed on extra-long rotations in the Mideast, including 15 ships within the weapons engagement zone, according to USNI. Two destroyers, USS Spruance and USS McFaul, have been deployed in the region for more than 10 months.
