Eight sailors in the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group attempted suicide during the ship’s extended deployment supporting the United States war with Iran, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter dated Tuesday, 22 September. The admission follows weeks of reports about crew stress, poor mental health and supply shortages aboard the carrier — reports that senior figures in Washington had publicly dismissed.
Where this reporting comes from: the letter was first reported by CNN. The account below is built primarily on the Associated Press wire story carried by the Orange County Register and the Charleston Gazette-Mail, both of which obtained a copy of the letter, with additional detail from The Epoch Times, Outlook India and CBS News. Where those outlets differ, this report says so.
The story reaches the Pacific for a plain reason: the Lincoln is a Pacific ship on a Pacific route home. AP reported it sailed from San Diego and is now bound back to California, having stopped at Laem Chabang in Thailand — meaning the carrier at the centre of the row is transiting the Indo-Pacific as the questions about it are being asked.
Key facts
- Cao wrote that there had been eight suicide attempts across the strike group since the deployment began, covering the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.
- There were no suicides on board during the deployment, Cao told Gillibrand. CBS News reported no sailor died by suicide, according to Outlook India.
- A sailor attempted to go overboard in March but was stopped by other sailors. In early August a sailor assigned to the air wing did go overboard, was recovered, treated and transferred off the ship for further care, Cao said.
- A defence official told CBS News that two of the attempts happened while the strike group was engaged in active fighting with Iran, Outlook India reported.
- The strike group has about 6,000 sailors, AP reported. The Navy recorded 356 suicide attempts service-wide in 2024, and there were more than 1,500 attempts among all active-duty personnel that year, according to the latest annual report cited by AP.
- Outlook India put the deployment at 286 days at sea; AP described a record-setting uninterrupted stretch of more than 260 days.
Why it matters
The significance of Cao’s letter is less the raw number than who had said the opposite. Pete Hegseth — referred to as secretary of war by The Epoch Times and as defense secretary by AP — had said conditions aboard the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented”, and US Central Command denied media reports of a spike in suicidal thoughts, as well as a separate claim that seven sailors had died in a fight on the carrier, The Epoch Times reported. The Navy’s own correspondence to a senator on the Armed Services Committee has now confirmed the core of what was being denied.
The war itself is not over. AP reported that the Navy is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz and that the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the conflict, which is nearly seven months old. Fiji News has covered other fallout from that war, including the UAE halting Iranian flights over sanctions.
What it means for the Pacific
For readers in Fiji and across the region, the Lincoln episode is a live test case in something Pacific governments have been actively negotiating: how much of a partner military’s capacity — and its people — can be sustained at distance, and on what terms. The Pacific has spent this year deepening exactly those relationships, from the Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting opened by Pio Tikoduadua to Australia’s Pacific defence training hub at Blackrock, where training standards and the welfare of deployed personnel are part of the same conversation.
The specifics translate. A deployment scheduled to end in May that instead ran past 280 days; a crew whose meal options were halved; a mental-health team of roughly a dozen people for a group of about 6,000 — these are the practical consequences of open-ended commitments, and they are the kind of consequence regional forces contributing to peacekeeping and joint operations weigh when they sign up to them.
What the Navy says about conditions
Cao said the Lincoln kept adequate food supplies, but because combat operations limited resupply opportunities, meal options were cut from two entrées to one for a short period while four nutritionally balanced meals were served daily. He acknowledged delays in scheduled resupply shipments, said the Navy prioritised delivery of hygiene products and set up a rotation to distribute them to squadrons, and acknowledged piping failures early in the deployment and temporary problems with desalination units, AP reported.
Earlier reporting had alleged mould in showers and shortages of food and soap, Outlook India said, along with food rationing and broken laundry and toilet facilities, according to The Epoch Times. Cao’s letter addresses the resupply and plumbing complaints; on the mould allegation specifically, neither the AP nor Epoch Times accounts record a direct rebuttal.
On mental health staffing, the two accounts differ in scope rather than substance. AP reported that the carrier deployed with a psychologist, a clinical social worker, a counsellor, three behavioural health technicians and a therapy dog. The Epoch Times listed a broader complement: five chaplains, three behavioural health technicians, a clinical social worker, a psychologist, an embedded integrated prevention counsellor and an expeditionary facility dog. Taken at the wider count, that is roughly a dozen people, clergy included, embedded with a strike group of about 6,000.
The political row
Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, said in a statement on 24 September that what Trump and Hegseth had dismissed as “fake news” turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for service members, and accused the administration of finding money for bombs, ballrooms and billionaires while failing troops, AP reported.
Senator Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, criticised the delay in reporting the numbers, telling reporters on 24 September that there had been no less transparent administration, The Epoch Times reported. Warner added that sailors normally expect a six-month deployment — roughly half what the Lincoln’s crew served.
Cao defended the crew and the decision, writing that sailors showed exceptional resolve under demanding conditions and that decisions to extend deployments are never made lightly, The Epoch Times reported.
Background: a record stretch at sea
The Lincoln left its homeport in San Diego in November, arrived in the Middle East in January and spent a record-setting uninterrupted period at sea of more than 260 days, AP reported. The Epoch Times said the ship supported US forces through the war with Iran after the launch of Operation Epic Fury in February. Outlook India put the deployment at 286 days at sea and said it had originally been scheduled to end in May before being extended amid the war.
On the Thailand port call, this report uses 2 September as the arrival date at Laem Chabang. Outlook India gave 1 September for the crew disembarking, but the 2 September date is carried both by The Epoch Times and by an AP photo caption — two independent records against one, and a photo caption is a contemporaneous document rather than a retold detail. Readers should treat 1 September as the less-supported figure.
Dr Harold Kudler, a former national lead for mental health services at the US Department of Veterans Affairs and a retired VA psychiatrist, told AP the attempt figures were not the best measure of conditions without more detail, but that “something happened to get those families upset”. He said the Navy should examine what lessons can be learned so future long deployments are easier on service members and families.
What is still unanswered
On the published record, several questions remain open, and they are worth naming because the Navy’s letter does not close them:
- When the attempts occurred. Only three data points are public — one in March, one in early August, and a defence official’s statement to CBS News that two happened during active fighting with Iran. The remaining timing is not disclosed.
- The return date. Capt. Keeler declined to give one, AP reported, and said further supply stops were possible.
- Whether the extension will be reviewed. Cao wrote that extension decisions are never made lightly, but neither AP nor The Epoch Times reported any commitment to a formal review or an independent inquiry.
- The Pentagon’s own response. The Epoch Times said it contacted the Pentagon and the Navy for comment and had received no response before publication.
Editor’s note: this story discusses suicide. AP notes that the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the United States is available by calling or texting 988, with an online chat at 988lifeline.org. In Fiji, Lifeline Fiji operates a national crisis helpline on 132454.
Sources: Associated Press, via the Orange County Register and the Charleston Gazette-Mail; The Epoch Times; Outlook India; CBS News; CNN, which first reported the letter. Fiji News has not independently verified the contents of Cao’s letter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do eight suicide attempts compare with Navy-wide figures?
The strike group has about 6,000 sailors, according to AP, and Cao’s letter counts eight attempts across the whole group over a single deployment. AP, citing the latest annual report, said the Navy recorded 356 suicide attempts service-wide in 2024 and that there were more than 1,500 attempts among all active-duty personnel that year. The two sets of figures cover different periods and counting bases — one deployment against one calendar year — so they are not a like-for-like rate. They do, however, show that a single strike group accounted for eight attempts in the span of roughly nine months. Neither the Navy nor AP published a per-month breakdown.
Who is covering the Middle East now that the Lincoln has left?
The Lincoln was relieved in the Middle East last month by the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, The Epoch Times reported. The Navy has not publicly said how long the George Washington is expected to stay on station, and AP reported that the Trump administration has offered no clarity on how it intends to wind down the conflict, which is nearly seven months old. AP also reported the Navy is enforcing a blockade on Iranian ports in the Strait of Hormuz.
When is the Lincoln due back in the United States?
No date has been made public. AP reported that the carrier’s commanding officer, Capt. Dan Keeler, said in Thailand that the ship was heading home to California soon but might make further supply stops, and that he declined to give the exact date the strike group was expected back. That homeward leg runs across the Pacific.
What did President Donald Trump say about the length of the deployment?
Trump downplayed reports about conditions aboard the Lincoln, according to AP. Last month he called the nearly nine months at sea a “good period of time”, adding that over the years the US had kept crews out much longer, AP reported.
How many lawmakers pressed the Pentagon for answers?
The Epoch Times reported that Cao’s letter responded to a letter sent last month to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and 14 other lawmakers demanding answers on conditions aboard the Lincoln. Gillibrand sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Why does a US Navy story matter to readers in Fiji and the Pacific?
Two reasons drawn from the reporting itself. First, the ship is a Pacific one: AP reported the Lincoln sailed from its homeport in San Diego and is now heading home to California, with a port call at Laem Chabang in Thailand on the way, so its return route runs through the Indo-Pacific. Second, the questions raised by the letter — how long crews can be held at sea, and what mental-health support travels with them — bear directly on the same partner militaries Pacific governments are deepening ties with, a theme Fiji News has followed through the Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting and Australia’s Blackrock training hub.
