Sailors Attempt To Jump Overboard as USS Lincoln Deployment Stretches Past Eight Months

Family members of sailors aboard United States Ship Abraham Lincoln are sounding the alarm over a mental health crisis unfolding at sea, as multiple sailors have attempted to go overboard during an unusually prolonged deployment to the Middle East.U.S.S. Lincoln, which departed San Diego on November 21, has now been at sea for more than eight months — including a record-breaking stretch without a port stop — after being redirected from a routine Pacific deployment to support American combat operations against Iran. The deployment was originally expected to end in May but has been extended with no publicly announced return date.Annabelle Loma, a San Diego resident, confirmed to the Navy Times that her husband attempted to jump overboard and is now on medical hold. She says he was repeatedly overextended before the incident.“He’s scared,” Ms. Loma told the 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 right. That’s not what he should be worrying about right now.”In a separate incident, a sailor on watch spotted a shipmate preparing to go overboard and intervened. According to Maria Rodriguez, whose husband was the responding sailor, he called out to the sailor before grabbing their arms and pulling him to safety — with three others rushing over 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,” Ms. Rodriguez told the Times.In another incident reported by Stars and Stripes, a woman told officials that she got a message from her husband saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow.”“My son is currently on that ship, and listening to him say that he and his shipmates constantly think about jumping off the ship just for relief is so hard to listen to,” one parent wrote to Stars and Stripes in July. “We are all tucked in at night in our beds at night, meanwhile our loved ones are out there fighting with no understanding as to what they’re defending.”U.S.S. Lincoln‘s roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines have endured food and water shortages, disrupted mail service, and long workdays with little time off, according to family members and sailors who spoke to Stars and Stripes on condition of anonymity due to fears of reprisal. Sailors have logged 250 consecutive days at sea and supported 40 days of continuous combat operations.More than 200 family members attended a meeting in San Diego last week with the acting secretary of the Navy, Hung Cao. During a subsequent virtual meeting, Vice Admiral Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces, acknowledged the burden on sailors and their families.“We hear you loud and clear [regarding] the impact this has on families, on service members, and on the long-term ability of us to stand and sustain our forces’ health,” Admiral Cahill said, according to recordings reviewed by MS NOW.For families at home, the uncertainty has become its own form of hardship. Manuel Guevara, whose son is aboard U.S.S. Lincoln, told the Times the situation weighs on him daily.“I don’t want to worry that the circumstances of this deployment will get the best of my son, and he doesn’t make it back home,” Mr. Guevara said. “That’s an unbearable burden on my heart.”The Navy said it is preparing the United States Ship Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group to relieve U.S.S. Lincoln but has not provided a timeline. In a statement, the Navy said Lincoln‘s leadership is “continuously conducting assessments to monitor and sustain the psychological readiness of every sailor.”Ms. Loma, meanwhile, is caring for the couple’s three young children alone.“I’m trying to keep a happy face for our three kids,” she told Navy Times. “They’re little, they miss their daddy, they just want to know mommy and daddy are okay. So I can’t just worry and break down, even though I want to — every single day.”

Sailors Attempt To Jump Overboard as USS Lincoln Deployment Stretches Past Eight Months

Sailors Attempt To Jump Overboard as USS Lincoln Deployment Stretches Past Eight Months

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