RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The U.S. Navy is no stranger to the conversation around the mental health of its sailors. For years, former U.S. Navy officials say, the military has tried to address—and prevent—its sailors and Marines dying at their own hands.
But the issue is coming up once again, after family members told the Navy Times at least two American sailors had attempted to jump overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln , the aircraft carrier currently deployed in the Middle East for the U.S.'s war with Iran.
An unnamed U.S. official told CNN a sailor went overboard from the carrier in July, before being quickly rescued.
Relatives and, increasingly, U.S. lawmakers, say the roughly 5,000 U.S. personnel aboard the carrier are overworked, lacking access to basic hygiene supplies and adequate nutrition.
Complaints about conditions on the carrier first surfaced in April, but the Navy denied them at the time and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth dismissed them as "fake news."
"Based on information available to the command, we have not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship," a Navy spokesperson told Newsweek on Wednesday. "We take every service member’s well-being seriously and have religious, medical and mental health professionals available to assess and address concerns as they arise."
Most carrier deployments are between six and seven months, although they can be drawn out under certain circumstances. There will typically be port calls throughout this period to refuel and allow crew members to rest.
But the Lincoln has been deployed for just under nine months, with a brief port call in Guam in December after being sent from San Diego to the Pacific and rerouted to the Middle East.
It was expected to return home in May, but its deployment has been repeatedly extended. It's not clear when the Lincoln and its crew will finally arrive back at home port.
Drawing out already months-long deployments without clear, compelling reasons can demotivate or frustrate those onboard, cramped into contained quarters, a former U.S. Navy commander told Newsweek . They spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the subject matter.
Roughly every four to five months into a deployment, sailors can become "anxious" or wound up, and will need to make a long port call or other distraction, they added.
Medical and academic probes indicate sailors out at sea for long periods of time suffered high levels of stress and often went without adequate health care or assistance to cope. One study published last year judged that help on board ships was "urgently needed" to prevent military suicides.
"Extended Navy deployments can certainly result in an increase in mental health challenges, as is the case for so many personnel deployed to combat zones from all the military services, and that is recognized today," said retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Robert Murrett, who is now a professor of practice of public administration and international affairs at Syracuse University.
The Pentagon's inspector general launched a probe in early 2024 into Navy treatment and how well the service tried to prevent suicide after rates had climbed for several years.
The Pentagon said in March this year, when it released its 2024 suicide figures, that overall suicide rates across active and reserve personnel in the U.S. military had decreased, but suicides among active-duty troops and sailors had increased between 2011 and 2024. This trend matches the U.S. general population, the Pentagon said.
Most of the active-duty service members who died by suicide in 2024 were males under 30 years old. The majority died from gunshot wounds.
In 2024, 1,515 suicide attempts were reported among active-duty personnel, including 268 in the Marine Corps and 356 in the Navy.
The Navy said 71 active-duty sailors had died by suicide in 2022, up from 65 in 2020 and 59 in 2021.
A spate of suicides rocked the USS George Washington while the carrier sat in a Virginia shipyard for an extended period of maintenance.
Three sailors assigned to the carrier died within just days of one another in April 2022, spurring on an investigation into whether the deaths were caused by certain factors and were somehow connected.
Separately, four sailors with the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center in Norfolk, Virginia, died by suicide within less than a month at the end of 2022. Investigators determined their deaths were not related.
Then-Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and Admiral Mike Gilday, who was serving as the chief of naval operations, said in a May, 2023 memo the Navy's top leadership had "let our standards slip—and in doing so we let our people down."
The Navy leaders pledged to prioritize sailors' well-being "not just through words but through identifiable actions," including assigning someone to oversee changes to Newport News shipyard, where the sailors were stationed.
More than 200 family members of the sailors currently aboard the Lincoln met last week with Hung Cao, the acting secretary of the Navy, according to the specialist media outlet Stars and Stripes .
A second meeting, which took place virtually, between top Navy officials and loved ones of the sailors and Marines on the Lincoln also discussed concerns over mental health and safety, according to recordings seen by MS Now.
Cao said the Lincoln would be relieved by the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier group but did not specify when, the outlet reported.
Annabelle Loma said her husband was "burnt out" and had attempted to jump overboard from the Lincoln during the current deployment. He is "scared" he may be dishonorably discharged from the U.S. military, she told the Navy Times .
Maria Rodriguez told the outlet that in a separate incident, her husband, who is also on the aircr...
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