USS Lincoln Suicide Attempts Confirmed
The Navy says eight sailors attempted suicide during the carrier group's long deployment.
What happened
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand that eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its extended deployment. The strike group’s tour ran far beyond its original plan, including about 286 straight days at sea before a port call. Officials said combat operations against Iran drove the extension, while families described food shortages, plumbing failures, and mounting mental-health fears. The Navy said combat-zone resupply limits briefly reduced entrée choices, but crews still received enough food. Gillibrand condemned the administration, while Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dismissed earlier accounts as exaggerated. Cao said no one died. The Navy says more counselors were sent.
From the left
Left-leaning coverage framed the attempts as proof of a severe morale and mental-health crisis tied to an unusually punishing deployment. The New Republic cast Trump and Hegseth as dismissing sailors’ suffering and poor shipboard conditions. It also used the crisis to condemn Trump’s Iran war as horrific, wasteful, and unpopular among those sent to fight it.
From the right
Only one right-leaning outlet we track covered this: New York Post, under the headline “Eight sailors in USS Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted suicide during record deployment…”.
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Acting Navy secretary confirms 8 suicide attempts across USS Lincoln strike group
8 USS Abraham Lincoln strike group sailors attempted suicide: Cao