Eight USS Abraham Lincoln Sailors Attempted Suicide During Deployment in Iran War: Navy Secretary

Warning: This story contains mentions of suicide.

Eight crew members on the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier attempted suicide during their deployment, according to U.S. Navy leadership.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed the figure in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday, after she raised questions about the well-being of sailors aboard the ship in August.

“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote to Gillibrand. “This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier airwing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and all embarked aviation squadrons.”

Military.com reached out to the Navy for comment.

In mid-August, a series of reports claimed that sailors aboard the 5,000-member USS Abraham Lincoln, which had been in combat with Iran for more than five months, made multiple attempts to jump overboard. They were also experiencing other issues with their mental health, prompting concerns from family members and lawmakers.

Naval families detailed safety concerns, food shortages, water contamination, and disruption in the mail system on the ship, prompting statements of support for the mission from President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Cao’s Revelations

Cao’s letter represents the first time the administration has revealed the number of people who attempted suicide.

He wrote in his letter that no service members had killed themselves during the deployment.

The USS Abraham Lincoln had five chaplains, one embedded integrated prevention counselor, one psychologist, one clinical social worker, three behavioral health technicians, and one expeditionary facility dog on board to provide mental health resources to the crew, Cao added.

He also said there were “adequate food supplies” on the ship, but due to limited opportunities to resupply during the deployment, “the number of main entrée options served during regular meal hours was reduced from two to one for a short time.”

It’s unclear what a “short time” means in this context.

Navy Suicide Data

The number of suicide attempts is in line with Navy data in previous years.

In 2025, the most recent year for which the Pentagon has released suicide data, the Navy saw 356 suicide attempts among some 337,000 active-duty sailors, CNN reported.

An analysis of military data by USNI News found that suicide remains a leading cause of death in the Navy and the Marines, while veterans have higher rates of suicide than non-veterans.

After its lengthy deployment, the USS Abraham Lincoln docked in Pattaya, Thailand, for a temporary reprieve where sailors visited malls, bars and beaches. It was replaced by the USS George Washington.