US Navy charges 19-year-old sailor with 'malingering' after he jumped overboard in suicide attempt on record deployment
The US Navy is prosecuting a 19-year-old sailor over his 3 August jump from the USS Abraham Lincoln, which his wife describes as a suicide attempt. The charges — 'malingering' and absence without leave — constitute a military claim that he fabricated a suicidal crisis to avoid his duties. The Lincoln's deployment stretched to 266 days, 200 of them in a combat zone, breaking the record for the longest continuous period at sea without docking during Trump's standoff with Iran.
Every request he made for paternity leave was refused, and when he tried to access mental health support through his chain of command he was turned away.
After his rescue from the water he spent five days at Naval Medical Center San Diego without seeing a psychiatrist or therapist before being returned directly to duty.
His wife, also 19 and mother to a toddler and an infant, told reporters: 'Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor.'