Family presses Navy on sailor's suicide aboard USS Fort Lauderdale

Most Navy ships lack dedicated mental-health staff

Jaimie Bethea took hundreds of photographs during her 11 months on the USS Fort Lauderdale, images that NPR said show a keen eye and add up to a kind of visual diary of daily life while deployed at sea. But a month before the USS Fort Lauderdale returned to Norfolk, Virginia, in July, the 21-year-old Navy communications specialist died by suicide. The Fort Lauderdale was part of the Trump administration’s military operation around Venezuela — a mission that included the capture of Nicholas Maduro, ongoing attacks on boats in the region suspected of carrying drugs, and earthquake relief, according to NPR.

Bethea’s older sister, Arianna Calderon, said the deployment was repeatedly extended without notice. “It was constantly like getting texts like, ‘Guys, you’ll never f***ing believe it. We just got extended again,’” Calderon told NPR. “I think it happened four times. It’s just that uncertainty and promises unfulfilled.”

Bethea lost her mother three months before the ship deployed, Calderon said. The Navy gave her a month of shore duty, during which she watched her mother die of cancer in a South Carolina hospital. She sought help and the Navy put her on antidepressants. “Within a few months into her deployment, she was having nightmares about our mom. Definitely, I mean, I’m not a psychologist, but she was definitely experiencing symptoms of PTSD,” Calderon told NPR.

Tiana Cook, a high school friend who stayed in contact with Bethea throughout the deployment, told NPR that Bethea complained supplies were tight and could not get her medication consistently during the deployment to the Caribbean. “She would tell me a lot about days where she would just cry when she woke up all a lot, and she would take a lot of naps too from just being exhausted and sad,” Cook told NPR.

According to a string of texts reviewed by NPR, Bethea wrote that she had been having a panic attack that lasted hours and sought medical help aboard the ship. In another message, she told friends and family she was surprised how easy it was to walk away from the ship’s hospital. “The last text she sent was around 12:30 a.m., and she said, ‘I love you guys. I need you to know that,’” Cook told NPR. “That was it. That was the last I heard from her.”

Bethea was found early in the morning of June 20. After her death, Cook said, a friend aboard the ship told her and the family that Bethea had attempted suicide three months into the deployment. “There just needed to be some sort of intervention. They should have removed her from the ship,” Calderon told NPR.

The USS Fort Lauderdale is part of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group, which includes 4,500 sailors and Marines overall. The ship has a crew of 350 and, like most Navy vessels, does not carry dedicated mental-health staff. The Fort Lauderdale relies on a doctor and Navy corpsmen for all medical care. Chaplains aboard the ship receive some training, including in the Navy’s suicide-prevention protocol.

A 2023 Defense Department Inspector General report cited a severe shortage of mental-health professionals throughout the Navy, including aboard ships. After a cluster of suicides aboard the carrier USS George Washington in 2022, the Navy pledged to deploy more mental-health counselors and practitioners, at least aboard larger ships.

After questions emerged about mental-health conditions aboard the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln during its extended deployment in the Middle East, Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao announced a new Suicide Prevention Task Force to take yet another look at Navy practices. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle has also emphasized the need for access to mental-health care while conceding that deployment lengths are expected to remain long as the conflict with Iran continues.

Before the destroyer USS Stout left Norfolk this week, Capt. Bryan Carmichael, commodore of Naval Surface Group Mid-Atlantic, told sailors aboard to expect extended deployments. “We’re telling them the same thing,” Carmichael said. “Be ready to deploy as long as we need you. What we found is we open up the lines of communication, so to decrease the amount of anxiety that may be associated with it. The sailors understand that the deployments could last up to a year based on some of the recent ones, but they know it could be shorter also.”

The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln recently began its journey back to San Diego after over eight months at sea during the war with Iran, all without a port visit, NPR reported. The Navy confirmed one person aboard the Lincoln jumped overboard and was rescued. NPR reported that it has not confirmed media reports that other sailors aboard the Lincoln attempted suicide. The Navy has acknowledged suicide attempts among sailors as deployments have stretched toward a year. The service has not responded to NPR’s list of questions about Bethea’s death.

“Nothing matters to me more than my sister,” Calderon told NPR. “Nothing ever has. I lost my world, genuinely. I lost everything, and all I care about now is getting some semblance of justice.” If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.