Eight sailors attempted suicide during USS Abraham Lincoln deployment: US Navy

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao disclosed that eight sailors assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during a prolonged deployment in the Middle East, according to a letter sent to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand following concerns from families about the crew's well-being.

The eight sailors included members of the Lincoln crew, the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers and embarked aviation squadrons, reports the BBC.

The carrier departed California in November and travelled to the South China Sea before being redirected to the Middle East in February. The deployment, initially scheduled to end in May, was repeatedly extended to 250 days, or about nine months, before the USS George Washington relieved the carrier in August.

The Abraham Lincoln carried about 5,000 crew members.

Families reported deteriorating mental health among sailors, as well as grim living conditions, broken plumbing and shortages of fresh food.

Navy leadership denied that a mental health crisis occurred and said the ship had five chaplains and multiple mental health professionals available to the crew.

Cao acknowledged localized piping failures, problems with desalination units and short-term reductions in meal choices.

Gillibrand condemned the treatment of service members as "completely unacceptable" and criticised the dismissal of early reports about conditions aboard the carrier.

Military data and a study of 956 sailors have highlighted that Navy ship crews experience the highest rates of serious psychological distress among military branches. The study identified severe habitability problems, noise and sleep-depriving schedules as factors contributing to the stress experienced by sailors.