ABOARD THE USS LINCOLN IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN — After spending more than 300 days at sea, service members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln will finally return home this week.
The beleaguered aircraft carrier, which has about 7,500 personnel, is expected to dock in San Diego on Thursday, amid heavy criticism of its extended deployment to the Middle East.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth admitted to crew members Wednesday that he was “the only thing standing between you and home” and that he had been the one “who signed this order book twice” to extend the ship’s deployment.
On Wednesday, the day before docking, the atmosphere seemed much more jovial on board the ship; the sailors chatted and laughed, some ran a 5 km around a deck now free of planes. A band was playing in the setting sun.
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Navy reports eight suicide attempts on USS Lincoln
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The Lincoln left San Diego in November and was originally scheduled to return before the summer months. Its deployment was extended after the start of the war in Iran in February. The ship remained at sea non-stop for 286 days until early September, when it docked in Thailand for a few days. At this point, family members of those on board had expressed concerns about dwindling food supplies and declining morale.
At least eight service members attempted suicide during the many months at sea, according to a letter sent last month to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., by a senior Navy official. The letter, obtained by NBC News, raised concerns about the mental health impact such a long deployment can have on service members. No deaths on board the ship have been attributed to suicide.
Some family members of those aboard the ship said the prolonged time at sea was “taking a toll” on the sailors’ mental health, and one described it as a “scene from the TV show ‘American Horror Story’.”
“Where he had been very positive, he started to get very dark,” one woman told NBC News of her son’s time at sea. Another parent said she and her daughter, who serves aboard the ship, have grown increasingly frustrated as the Trump administration continues to push back the ship’s arrival date.
A sailor assigned to the Lincoln Air Wing fell overboard in early August and was quickly rescued and treated, according to U.S. officials. That sailor was transferred off the ship for additional medical treatment, the official told NBC News.
Navy officials initially said leaders had not observed an increase in suicidal ideation or attempts aboard the ship.
According to the letter, suicide attempts took place among crew members and sailors of the aircraft carrier’s air wing, personnel of the strike group and destroyer squadron, destroyer escorts and all embarked aviation squadrons.
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