It revealed 11 suicide attempts among the crew of an American aircraft carrier during a deployment against Iran

Acting Navy Secretary Hong Cao revealed this number, which was kept secret and had not been previously announced, and includes crew members from several ships sailing together, including the aircraft carrier, in written responses to questions posed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand about the morale and psychological health of the crew of the “Abraham Lincoln,” according to what was reported by CNN.

In his speech, Cao stressed that there were no actual suicides among service members during the deployment period.

The rate of suicide attempts among sailors in the "Lincoln" group was roughly in line with the rate recorded across the entire active-duty Navy during 2024, the most recent year in which the Pentagon released data on suicide attempts.

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That year, the Navy experienced 356 suicide attempts among an estimated 337,000 sailors on active duty.

He added: "This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the carrier's air wing, the strike group command staff, the destroyer squadron, the destroyer escort crews, and all aviation squadrons on board the ships."

It is noteworthy that between 6,000 and 7,000 Navy sailors participated in the deployment of the "Lincoln" strike group on board about 6 ships, as the aircraft carrier remained far from ports for more than 6 miles while it was carrying out intense combat operations against Iran.

The US Navy did not respond before the publication of this report to CNN’s request for comment regarding the aforementioned letter.

The newspaper "Military Time" had previously reported that a number of crew members aboard the aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln", which was deployed as part of a US-Israeli operation against Iran, had attempted suicide due to excessive work pressure, exhaustion, and instability of these sailors.

MS Now TV also reported that the carrier's long deployment period led to equipment problems, including malfunctions in aircraft take-off and recovery systems.