In a sharp rebuttal to recent claims, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth dismissed reports suggesting that dissatisfaction among crew members of the USS Abraham Lincoln has driven some to the extreme measure of leaping into the sea.
This denial follows an admission by military authorities that a sailor was indeed retrieved from the ocean earlier this month, an event described by CNN as a ‘mental health incident,’ not indicative of a widespread crisis.
Aboard the Lincoln, approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines have been stationed since November 21. Remarkably, the vessel has been at sea for over 240 days without docking at a single port.
Although initially slated to return in May, the ship’s deployment was unexpectedly extended with no definite end date due to rising tensions with Iran.
Extended time away from home has reportedly taken a toll on the crew, with several sailors’ families expressing concerns that exhaustion is pushing some to contemplate drastic actions, such as jumping from the vessel.
But speaking with Newsmax on Thursday, Hegseth said the reports have been ‘completely misrepresented.’
‘Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment,’ he insisted.
US Central Command also called reports suggesting a spike in suicidal ideations ‘false,’ saying: ‘No service members aboard the aircraft carrier have died and the one Sailor who fell overboard [on] August 3 was quickly and safely recovered.’
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied reports on Thursday that sailors onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier are so unhappy with the conditions at sea that they are jumping overboard
Sailors onboard the aircraft carrier have been deployed for more than eight months with no indication of when they might return
‘The Sailors and Marines of the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group remain resilient and resolved after more than 260 days at sea, 10,000 aircraft flights and 1.5 million pounds of ordnance expended,’ CENTCOM posted on X.
‘The rampant misreporting on Abraham Lincoln’s historic deployment is a disservice to our men and women in uniform and their loved ones.’
The sailor who fell overboard had been wearing a life vest and officials have ruled the incident was a mental health episode, CNN reports.
In his own remarks, Hegseth noted that ‘some deployments are longer than others’ as he claimed he has ‘more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody.
‘What they do in those high seas and those austere conditions with less port calls, it’s incredible,’ Hegseth said.
He did not directly address the reports detailing supply shortages, water contamination and sailors’ deteriorating mental health, nor did he say when the vessel would return stateside.
The Wall Street Journal has since reported that officials are preparing to replace the Lincoln with the USS George Washington as part of a scheduled deployment in the region.
Hegseth said he simply said he wants the service members ‘home as soon as everybody else’ does.
‘My commanders know that, our service secretaries know that, [President Trump] expects that,’ Hegseth told reporters.
There have been concerns that the ship was running out of food supplies amid pictures showing the meager portions sailors were receiving for their meals
His comments follow concern from sailors’ families who have complained about mildew in the showers and a lack of clean water as well as food shortages and generally low morale.
Naval officials have said the plumbing issues have resolved, and Hegseth has previously dismissed claims that food supplies were running low as ‘fake news.’
Meanwhile, care packages that families have been sending to the troops have reportedly not made it to the Middle East under an indefinite suspension of mail deliveries to military ZIP codes.
Amid these alleged conditions, the wife of the sailor who jumped off the aircraft carrier told MS Now she was kept in the dark about what happened.
She said her husband was in the water for an hour before he was rescued from what she described as a suicide attempt.
‘I think that it was handled very poorly because they didn’t inform me and they didn’t want me to know, and they’re just trying to cover this up,’ she said.
She shared her last text with her husband on July 21 in which he said life on the ship was getting to him.
‘I’m really trying to not feel negative or hopeless but between the wifi and not knowing when I will come home and not knowing what is happening back at home, it’s really getting me,’ he wrote in the message, noting that he had been due to leave on July 15 but the plan was canceled.
‘I don’t think I can do another deployment after this and i don’t even know if i can finish this deployment,’ the sailor added.
His wife said he went to the chain of command and the medical team onboard the ship to express his concerns about his mental health, telling them he was not doing well.
The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is pictured in April carrying out blockade operations in the Arabian Sea
She also said her husband expressed his concern that his prescription contact lenses had expired and that he was having trouble seeing and doing his job properly, working on the helicopters on the carrier’s flight deck.
‘Every single time he would make a mistake, they would yell at him and he would get into a lot of trouble,’ she claimed. ‘He would explain to them that he can’t see because his prescription was expired, but they still allowed him to work.
‘I think that also had a big toll on him, because he could have injured a lot of people and he could have injured himself, because that’s what they kept yelling at him every time he made a mistake.’
Her husband is now en route back to San Diego after being medically released. It will be the first time meeting his seven-month-old baby girl as he reunites with his three-and-a-half-year-old son.
‘I just really don’t know what to say about all this because it’s so, because it’s so, it doesn’t feel real to me,’ she told MS Now.
Annabelle Loma has also told how her husband was left overextended before he tried to jump overboard.
Her husband is now left on a medical hold, and Loma said she has not heard from anyone in the Navy about his condition for weeks.
Sailors’ wives have detailed how some tried to jump overboard from the ship
‘He’s scared,’ Loma told the Military Times. ‘He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge and just because he was burnt out, his 13-year career is ruined, just like that.
‘That’s not fair. That’s not what he should be worried about.’
In a separate incident, a sailor on watch saw a shipmate preparing to go overboard and intervened, Maria Rodriguez, the sailor’s wife, told the outlet.
She described how her husband called out to the sailor before reaching down and grabbing the sailor’s arms, pulling him back onto deck.
The sailor had not yet gone overboard when her husband rushed to his aid, Rodriguez said, noting that three other sailors heard the commotion and came running to help.
‘He said he hadn’t felt adrenaline like that in his life and he was just so thankful he was able to get to [the sailor] in time, to stop them from going overboard,’ she noted.
Rodriguez said she does not know what happened to the sailor in the aftermath.
Sailors have also described an incident in which watch standers stopped a crew member from going overboard a few months ago amid a struggle with exhaustion and declining morale, according to Stars and Stripes.
More than 200 family members met with acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao (left) last Thursday to discuss their concerns about their loved ones’ mental health
As concern mounted for their loved ones, more than 200 concerned family members met with acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao in an emotional town hall meeting last Thursday.
At one point during the meeting, a spouse tearfully told officials she received a message that same day from her husband saying ‘he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow,’ Stars and Stripes reports.
A mother also described how her daughter feels like she is never going to be able to come home and believes she is going to die on the ship, according to MS Now.
Officials did not respond directly to those claims or similar statements family members made.
Instead, Vice Admiral Joseph Cahill, commander of the Naval Surface Forces, simply acknowledged the strain on sailors and their families the extended deployment causes.
Senator Richard Blumenthal has called for the Navy to account for the conditions aboard the aircraft carrier
‘We hear you loud and clear [regarding] the impact this has on families, on service members and the long-term ability of us to stand, sustain our force’s health,’ he said.
He then stressed that sailors had access to mental health professionals, chaplains and doctors, and noted they were also sending more mental health professionals to the ship.
Navy officials added that the USS Lincoln’s leadership is continuously assessing sailor’s psychological readiness.
‘Leadership is continuously conducting assessments to monitor and sustain the psychological readiness of every sailor,’ the Navy told Stars and Stripes.
Still, Congressional Democrats demanded answers Wednesday about the conditions onboard the aircraft carrier.
In a letter to Hegseth, Senator Richard Blumenthal called for the Navy to account for conditions aboard the aircraft carrier, which ‘has been deployed more than 250 days’ without coming ashore ‘in over 200 days, setting a record for consecutive days at sea.’
Blumenthal voiced concern for such extended deployments, noting ‘widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns’ and other problems aboard the Lincoln.
‘The men and women aboard the Lincoln have answered the call to serve their country,’ the senator from Connecticut wrote.
Hegseth said the reports of a mental health crisis aboard the ship have been ‘completely misrepresented’
‘The Department owes them adequate supplies, maintenance and support during this deployment.’
Senator Ruben Gallego also called for ‘an official oversight visit with the bipartisan Senate Delegation to the USS Lincoln to investigate the reported alarming conditions,’ in a post on X.
In the meantime, US military officials have sent the USS George Washington from Vietnam to the Middle East to reportedly replace the Lincoln as one of the two aircraft carriers now stationed in the region.
‘President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are committed to ensuring that the brave American patriots serving our country in uniform are equipped with the resources necessary to counter any threat to the United States,’ White House Spokeswoman Olivia Wales told News Nation.
