Eight sailors who were part of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln strike group attempted to take their lives during its long deployment in support of the war against Iran, according to a letter from the Navy.
One of those sailors assigned to the Lincoln’s air wing “went overboard from the ship” in early August and was recovered by one of the carrier’s rescue helicopters, Hung Cao, the acting Navy secretary, said in the letter. A second sailor attempted to go overboard in March but was stopped by shipmates, Mr. Cao wrote.
The new information about the crew aboard the Lincoln and the other ships in the strike group was released to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, who pressed the Navy for information about the crew.
Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East, insisted in a statement posted on social media in August that “the Lincoln currently has among the lowest number of cases related to mental health” among the Navy’s 11 active aircraft carriers.