Washington — Eight sailors who were part of the USS Abraham Lincoln’s attack group attempted to take their own lives during their long mission in support of the war against Iran, according to a Navy letter.
One of these sailors, assigned to the Lincoln’s air wing, “fell from the ship” in early August and was rescued by one of the carrier’s rescue helicopters, Hung Cao, the acting Secretary of the Navy, said in the letter. A second sailor tried to jump from the ship in March, but was stopped by fellow crew members, Cao wrote.
Read also: After nine months and a war with Iran, the USS Lincoln crew gets leave in Thailand
New information about the crew aboard the Lincoln and the other ships in the strike group was disclosed to Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), who pressed the Navy for information about the crew.
The letter about the Navy’s suicide attempts was previously released by CNN.
Gillibrand criticized President Donald Trump and the Pentagon on Wednesday (the 23rd) for minimizing the pressure on the crew. The Navy’s response proved that the conditions faced by sailors aboard the Lincoln were “grave and deteriorating,” she said in a statement.
More than 300 Days at Sea
The Lincoln, with a crew of about 5,000 sailors, spent more than 300 days at sea and recently set a Navy record for the longest time at sea without making a port call.
After stopping for a week earlier this month in Thailand, the ship, based in San Diego, arrived in Guam on Saturday. In total, the strike group numbers about 6,000 sailors.
Last month, Trump dismissed concerns about the harsh conditions reported aboard the ship. When asked if he was worried about the crew’s mental health and whether he thought the deployment had lasted too long, the president said: “No. No. No.”
He added: “Not even close to enough.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also downplayed the grim conditions aboard the Lincoln, saying the situation had been “distorted.”
Gillibrand said that Trump and Hegseth dismissed the sailors’ concerns “with open disrespect.”
“That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable,” she said.
Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter, retired, who served as Navy General Counsel from 2000 to 2002, described the eight suicide attempts as “a disturbingly high number, indicating a serious level of stress.”
Admiral Brad Cooper, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East, stood by in an August social media post that “the Lincoln currently has one of the lowest numbers of mental-health-related cases among the Navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers.”
“That does not mean that everything is perfect,” Cooper acknowledged. He said that a long stay at sea “is exceptionally challenging and hard, and each of us, including me, responds to stressors in different ways.”
This article was originally published in The New York Times.
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