Trump and Hegseth dismissed conditions as 'fake news' — now the Navy admits eight USS Lincoln sailors attempted suicide
From the Newshound archive · first published 24 September 2026.
The USS Abraham Lincoln docked in Thailand after a record Iran deployment during which eight sailors attempted suicide, the acting Navy secretary has confirmed in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand.US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at a D-Day ceremony. Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian told the UN General Assembly his country is ready for dialogue "but without the language of force," as peace talks remain…
Eight sailors in the USS Abraham Lincoln strike group made suicide attempts over the course of its record-breaking nine-month Middle East deployment, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed in a letter to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. A military official called eight attempts "incredibly high," pointing out that one or two per deployment is typical. Two of those attempts occurred while the strike group was conducting active combat operations against Iran.
The Lincoln went 286 days without putting into port — a modern US Navy record — after its deployment was stretched well beyond its original May return date.
Gillibrand said what Trump and Pete Hegseth had dismissed as 'fake news' proved to be 'serious and deteriorating conditions' for service members.
Sailors described broken toilets, hot water outages, food shortages and relentless combat alerts — yet the Navy maintains that the suicide rate was not 'unusually high.'
