Reports of suicide attempts deepen concerns over USS Abraham Lincoln’s prolonged deployment

Reports that sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln attempted to jump overboard have intensified concerns over the mental health and living conditions of the carrier’s roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines, as its deployment has stretched into a ninth month amid the US’s ongoing violations targeting Iran.

On Tuesday, The Navy Times and Stars and Stripes reported multiple thwarted incidents involving sailors attempting to jump from the carrier. The crew has spent 250 consecutive days without making land, according to the reports, described as a record for a US aircraft carrier in modern times.

Eight months at sea: Families raise alarm over mounting mental toll aboard US carrier

Families of USS Abraham Lincoln sailors warn an eight-month US war against Iran deployment is worsening exhaustion, mental health problems, poor living conditions and safety concerns among the carrier’s crew.

Families confront Navy leadership

About 200 relatives of Lincoln personnel attended a town hall meeting with Navy officials in San Diego last Thursday, where concerns over the prolonged deployment and sailors’ wellbeing were raised directly with acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao and other officials.

One spouse said her husband had texted her that day saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.”

Another woman told Cao that the Navy had “broken trust between us and the leadership,” Stars and Stripes reported.

The Navy Times quoted Annabelle Loma as saying her husband had attempted to jump overboard after his deployment was repeatedly extended.

“He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that,” she said.

The publication also quoted another sailor’s wife, who said her husband had prevented a fellow crewmember from jumping by grabbing the person and bringing them back onto the deck.

Lawmakers criticize conditions

Democratic Congressman Mike Levin of California described conditions aboard the carrier as “moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry down for weeks, long stretches with no hot water, a meal that came down to half a cup of rice and two tortillas. No soap, deodorant, or toothpaste.”

Congressman Jason Crow, a former Army Ranger, said the strain on personnel and their families was “building week by week.”

The Lincoln left San Diego on November 21 and was originally intended for the Pacific before being redirected to West Asia after the United States and the Israeli regime began their latest bout of wholesale unprovoked aggression against Iran.

Its deployment, initially scheduled to end in May, has since been extended.

Hegseth in denial

Earlier complaints about food, water, mold, and broken laundry facilities were dismissed by Secretary of War Pete Hegseth as “more fake news.”

Levin responded, “The least their country owes them (the personnel) is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars.”

Deadly clash aboard US carrier Abraham Lincoln leaves seven dead, several injured: Report

Seven sailors were killed and several others wounded in a deadly confrontation among crew members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

The reports came amid a separate account of a deadly confrontation aboard the Abraham Lincoln in which seven sailors were reportedly killed and several others wounded.

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