Gillibrand: Trump, Hegseth earlier dismissed conditions reports as ‘fake news’
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao disclosed in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand on Tuesday that eight crew members assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during the ship’s deployment. The letter responded to questions from the New York Democrat, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, about the well-being of sailors following mounting concerns from service members’ families about deteriorating mental health and grim conditions during the carrier’s prolonged Middle East mission.
Cao’s letter identified the eight sailors as including members of the Lincoln’s crew, the carrier air wing, strike group and destroyer squadron staff, escorting destroyers, and all embarked aviation squadrons. He wrote that five chaplains and multiple mental health professionals were available on board to meet the “spiritual and emotional needs of the crew.”
Gillibrand criticized the Trump administration’s previous responses to reports about conditions aboard the carrier, calling the treatment of service members “completely unacceptable.” “What Trump and Secretary Hegseth dismissed as ‘fake news’ turned out to be serious and deteriorating conditions for our service members,” she said in a statement to the BBC on Wednesday. “Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” she added.
The disclosure marks a reversal in the Navy’s public posture. The service had previously acknowledged supply challenges on the carrier but denied that a mental health crisis was taking place on the Lincoln, which had some 5,000 crew aboard.
Cao’s letter also addressed concerns about shipboard habitability. While denying widespread reports of broken plumbing and shortages of fresh food, he acknowledged temporary “localized piping failures” and problems with the reverse osmosis desalination units, and said some meal options were reduced for a “short time.”
The carrier left California in November for the South China Sea and was sent to the Middle East ahead of US attacks on Iran in February. The deployment, originally set to end in May, was repeatedly extended. The carrier is now returning to the United States.
In August, the USS George Washington was sent to replace the Lincoln following a nine-month deployment. US sailors from the Lincoln stopped in Pattaya, Thailand, on their way home, visiting bars, malls and beach areas during their first time on land in 250 days before continuing on to the US.
Suicide remains a leading cause of death in the US Navy and Marines, according to an analysis of military data by USNI News, while the Veterans Administration has reported that veterans have higher rates of suicide than Americans who have not served in the military. A study of 956 sailors released in January 2025 found that troops aboard US Navy ships suffer the highest rates of “serious psychological distress” compared with other branches of the US military, citing “unique stressors, such as poor habitability, noise and demanding schedules that leave inadequate time for sleep and rest.”