Eight US Navy sailors in USS Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted suicide during Iran war deployment

8 sailors in USS Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted suicide: NavyEight US Navy personnel assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during its lengthy deployment, including a period in which the group conducted combat operations against Iran, Acting US Navy Secretary Hung Cao told Congress.Cao disclosed the number in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York on Tuesday, responding to questions from the Democrat about the morale and mental health of sailors serving aboard the carrier and other ships in the strike group.No service member died by suicide during the deployment, according to Cao's letter. The carrier strike group, which has been deployed since November, is now returning to the United States after an extended period at sea.Cao said the eight suicide attempts involved personnel across the wider Abraham Lincoln strike group rather than only sailors serving aboard the carrier.“Since the beginning of Lincoln’s deployment, there have been a total of eight suicide attempts across the strike group,” Cao wrote to Gillibrand in the letter dated Tuesday.“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.”The carrier strike group included between 6,000 and 7,000 sailors deployed across roughly half a dozen ships.

The USS Abraham Lincoln itself remained out of port for more than six months while conducting a high tempo of combat operations against Iran.The number of attempts was roughly consistent with the rate recorded across the active-duty Navy in 2024, according to the data cited in the material. The Navy recorded 356 suicide attempts that year among an estimated 337,000 active-duty sailors.One US military official, speaking to CNN, described eight attempts as unusually high compared with recent carrier strike group deployments.“Eight attempted suicides is incredibly high,” the official said, adding that recent carrier strike group deployments had recorded one or two attempts per year.

First reported by The Times of India.