Eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a grueling nine-month deployment to the Middle East — and Washington's first instinct was to call the news coverage fake. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed the number in a letter Tuesday to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who had demanded answers about deteriorating conditions aboard the fleet. The disclosure came after months of reports about sailors trying to jump overboard, mold in the showers, and food and soap running short. These are the men Washington sends to police the world — and forgets when they come home broken.
The Lincoln left California last November, originally bound for the South China Sea, before being rerouted to the Persian Gulf ahead of U.S. attacks on Iran in February. The crew expected to come home in May. The deployment stretched to 286 days. In March, shipmates stopped one sailor from going overboard. In August, another sailor went over the side — rescued, treated, and transferred off the ship. By then, military newspapers were reporting on collapsing morale and multiple overboard attempts. Families were raising alarms. The Pentagon's response was a press release and a shrug.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters in August that news outlets had "completely misrepresented" the situation. "We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment," he said. The sailors' experience told a different story. Cao's letter acknowledged "certain delays in replenishing crew supplies" and confirmed that entrée options were cut from two to one — a measure he said was "implemented to optimize endurance and ensure sustained time on station." The BBC reported that Cao denied widespread plumbing failures but conceded "localized piping failures" and problems with the ship's reverse osmosis desalination units. The Guardian documented allegations of mold in showers and dwindling supplies of basic necessities like soap.
Gillibrand fired back Wednesday: "What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as 'fake news' turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members." She added: "That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms, and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable."
A Navy official told the Guardian that "the Navy and the Navy secretary are very committed to sailor health, wellbeing and morale." Cao's letter noted that five chaplains and multiple mental health professionals were available on board. The Navy denied a mental health crisis was taking place among the roughly 5,000 crew. The numbers say otherwise. A 2025 study of 956 sailors found that troops aboard Navy ships suffer the highest rates of "serious psychological distress" of any military branch. Suicide remains a leading cause of death in the Navy and Marines, and veterans kill themselves at higher rates than Americans who never served, according to the Veterans Administration.
The Lincoln crew finally disembarked September 1 in a Thai resort city — their first time on land in months — before continuing home. The USS George Washington replaced them in August after the nine-month ordeal.
Every deployment is a choice. Every extension is a choice. Eight suicide attempts on one carrier group is not a press problem — it is a cost of empire that the people paying it never got to debate.
