Navy Reports 8 Suicide Attempts on USS Lincoln During 286-Day Deployment

Eight members of the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted suicide during the carrier's extended deployment, according to a letter from acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao obtained by NBC News. No deaths from suicide have been attributed to the deployment, the letter states.

The figures, delivered to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., on a Tuesday in late September, mark the first official tally of the toll on a strike group that spent months at sea without a port call while supporting U.S. operations against Iran.

How many sailors attempted suicide aboard the USS Lincoln?

Cao's letter counts eight attempted suicides across the entire strike group, not just the carrier itself, according to NBC News. The tally includes crewmembers and sailors from the carrier air wing, the strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons. About 7,500 service members, primarily sailors, make up the strike group, per the letter. Of the eight attempts, two involved sailors going overboard; the letter did not detail the circumstances of the remaining six, NBC News reported.

How long was the USS Lincoln deployed without a port call?

The carrier went 286 days at sea without a port call while supporting the U.S. war with Iran, according to NBC News's reporting on the letter. A photo included in NBC's coverage shows the Lincoln in the Arabian Sea in May, during the stretch the ship spent supporting Central Command operations. The outlet's summary describes the deployment as lasting "nearly 300 days" without the crew setting foot on land — a length service members aboard the carrier had called extraordinarily tough, NBC News reported.

What happened when sailors jumped overboard?

Two of the eight suicide attempts involved sailors jumping overboard while the Lincoln was operating in the Middle East, a Navy official told NBC News. That count has not changed since it was previously reported, the official said. The letter did not provide additional detail on the six other attempts within the strike group.

What did Navy Secretary Hung Cao tell Sen. Gillibrand?

Cao's letter responded to a series of questions Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had posed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about conditions and medical resources aboard the Lincoln. The letter addressed Gillibrand's concerns about supply shortages and the mental-health strain of the extended deployment, according to NBC News. A Navy official said the letter reached Gillibrand's office on Tuesday.

What is Gillibrand saying about conditions aboard the ship?

Gillibrand called the conditions on the Lincoln "serious and deteriorating," according to a statement cited by NBC News.

"Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect," Gillibrand said.

Her statement referenced remarks by President Donald Trump, who had previously said the deployment was "not nearly long enough," according to NBC News.

The numbers behind the deployment

Three figures anchor the Navy's account, all drawn from Cao's letter and NBC News's Sept. 23, 2026 report. Eight is the total number of suicide attempts across the strike group since the deployment began. Two of those eight involved sailors jumping overboard in the Middle East. And 286 is the number of days the Lincoln went without a port call while supporting the Iran operation — a stretch NBC News describes as nearly 300 days at sea. Roughly 7,500 service members are assigned to the strike group as a whole, the letter states, meaning the reported attempts touch a fraction of a large, dispersed population spread across the carrier, its air wing, escorting destroyers and aviation squadrons.

What the letter does not specify is as notable as what it does: the timing, means or outcomes of the six suicide attempts beyond the two overboard incidents remain undisclosed in the version of the letter NBC News reviewed. That gap leaves open questions about whether the six additional cases occurred earlier or later in the 286-day stretch, and whether they involved carrier crew, air wing personnel or escort-ship sailors — distinctions Gillibrand's original questions to Hegseth had sought to clarify.

The dispute over how the deployment's length reflects on military readiness and welfare remains open. Gillibrand's office frames the 286-day stretch as evidence of deteriorating conditions; the White House has framed the same deployment length as insufficient given operational demands, according to the remarks NBC News attributed to Trump. Neither the Navy's letter nor NBC News's report reconciles those two characterizations, leaving the raw numbers — eight attempts, 286 days, 7,500 in the strike group — as the clearest points of agreement.

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