Eight U.S. Navy sailors on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group attempted suicide during an extended deployment, according to acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao.
In a Sept. 22 letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Cao confirmed that there had been eight suicide attempts since the Lincoln deployed in November 2025. The aircraft carrier was relieved in the Middle East last month by the USS George Washington following reports of sailors facing deteriorating conditions and mental health challenges.
The Lincoln had been operating in the waters of the Middle East since January and supported U.S. forces throughout the war with Iran after the launch of Operation Epic Fury in February. After 286 days at sea, the Lincoln arrived in Thailand for a port call on Sept. 2 before heading back to the United States.
Cao told Gillibrand that no suicides had taken place on the Lincoln or the ships included in its strike group.
“Since the beginning of LINCOLN’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group—this number includes the LINCOLN crew and Sailors from the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons,” Cao wrote in Tuesday’s letter.
Gillibrand’s office claimed that the Navy secretary’s admission came after President Donald Trump and other administration officials dismissed complaints regarding the conditions on the Lincoln.
Following allegations of growing suicide risks, food rationing, and broken laundry and toilet facilities aboard the Lincoln in August, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the conditions had been “completely misrepresented.”
U.S. Central Command also denied reports from media outlets, saying reports suggesting a spike in suicidal thoughts and a report alleging that seven sailors had died in a fight on the aircraft carrier were false.
Gillibrand accused the Trump administration of failing to take care of service members.
“What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” Gillibrand said in a statement on Sept. 24.
“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect.”
Cao’s letter to Gillibrand came in response to a letter that Gillibrand and a group of 14 other lawmakers sent to Hegseth last month demanding answers on the conditions of the Lincoln.
The sailors assigned to the Lincoln strike group “demonstrated exceptional resolve under demanding conditions,” Cao said.
“Operational decisions to extend deployments are never made lightly; they are driven by dynamic global security environments and absolute necessity of protecting U.S. national security interests and our personnel and our allies abroad,” he wrote.
Cao told Gillibrand that the Lincoln was deployed with five chaplains, three behavioral health technicians, one clinical social worker, one psychologist, one embedded integrated prevention counselor, and one expeditionary facility dog.
The acting Navy secretary also noted that a sailor assigned to the air wing went overboard in early August but was quickly recovered, received medical treatment, and was transferred off ship for additional care. In addition, another sailor had previously attempted to go overboard in March but was stopped by other sailors, Cao said.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticized the Trump administration for not reporting the number of suicide attempts sooner.
“There has been no administration that is less transparent,” he told reporters on Sept. 24.
Warner said that while U.S. sailors will “do their job,” they typically expect a six-month deployment.
The Epoch Times reached out to the Pentagon and the Navy for comment and did not receive a response before publication time.
Nathan Worcester contributed to this report.
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