Multiple incidents involving sailors attempting or threatening to go overboard have been reported aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln during its prolonged deployment in West Asia, according to military publications Navy Times and Stars and Stripes.
The roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard the carrier have endured more than eight months of deployment, including 250 consecutive days at sea.
Families anxious about sailors’ mental health
The sailors’ families, who gathered at an emotional town hall meeting in San Diego on Saturday, said they were worried about their loved ones who have been at sea for an almost indefinite period now.
One of the spouses at the meeting, where around 200 families gathered, said her husband texted her that “he hopes he doesn’t wake up the next day”.
The anxieties the families were facing were expressed directly to Navy leadership, represented by the acting Navy secretary, Hung Cao, and other top officials, at the town hall.
Navy Times reported that Annabelle Loma told the publication her husband had attempted to jump overboard after his deployment was repeatedly extended. He is now on medical hold, according to the report.
“He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonourable discharge, and just because he was burnt out, his 13-year career is ruined, just like that,” the outlet quoted her as saying.
In a separate incident, Maria Rodriguez told Navy Times that her husband, while on watch, intervened after seeing a fellow sailor preparing to go overboard.
How bad are the living conditions onboard USS Abraham Lincoln
A Democratic Congress member from California, Mike Levin, raised concerns about the conditions onboard the warship. California Democratic Rep Mike Levin said families had described conditions including moldy showers, broken toilets, prolonged laundry outages, hot-water shortages and shortages of basic toiletries.
Slamming the Donald Trump administration, he said: “When families first raised the alarm back in April, Pete Hegseth called it fake news. These men and women signed up to serve their country. The least their country owes them is hot water, a working toilet, and a real meal. Hegseth cannot even manage that, and he has the nerve to look their families in the eye and call them liars.”
A Democratic Congress member from California, Mike Levin, raised concerns about the conditions onboard the warship. (Photo: Screenshot/Facebook@Mike Levin)
Earlier reports about poor conditions aboard the carrier drew criticism from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, who dismissed the accounts as “more fake news”, The Guardian reported.
Jason Crow, another Democratic member of Congress from Colorado, has also warned that the strain on sailors and their families on the ship is “building week by week”.
How their stay on ship got extended
The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on November 21 for what was initially planned as a Pacific deployment. It was later redirected to the Gulf as the US-Israel war with Iran broke out.
According to MS Now, the 5,000-plus crew since then had been on land for only two days — in Guam in December and Oman in July. Their deployment at sea was scheduled to end in May but got extended multiple times due to the ongoing war.
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World · US Military · Explainer
Inside the USS Abraham Lincoln's 250-day deployment
A routine Pacific mission became one of the longest continuous carrier deployments in modern US Navy history — and the crew still has no date to come home.
.
.
.
.
.San Diego
Guam.
.Middle East
Oman.
...
The route: San Diego → Guam → Middle East → Oman. Schematic, not to scale.
The deployment, milestone by milestone
Nov 212025
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Leaves San Diego
Dec2025
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One-day Guam stop
May2026
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Original return date
Jul2026
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Brief Oman stop
Aug2026
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250 days deployed
Today
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No return date set
What changed?
.Pacific deployment → redirected to the Middle East
.Iran conflict → mission extended
.May return date → multiple extensions
.Homecoming → no public date
The human scale
~5,000
sailors & Marines aboard
2
brief port stops in 250 days
By August the ship had spent about 208 days at sea between port calls — a modern US carrier record for continuous time underway.
Sources: Stars and Stripes · Navy Times · Military Times · Times of San Diego · Forbes. “250 days” = time since departure; the record is for continuous days at sea. A developing story.
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What the US Navy said
The Navy said it was aware that extended deployments place significant strain on service members and their families but said it had not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the carrier. It said sailors had access to counsellors, chaplains and medical professionals and that leadership was continuously assessing their psychological readiness.
The service also disputed some of the reports about current conditions, saying the ship had continuous access to clean water and functioning air conditioning, with two protein options per meal, and that logistical supplies were improving.
The USS Abraham Lincoln left San Diego on November 21 last year and was headed towards the Pacific until it was redirected to the Gulf as the US-Israel war with Iran broke out. 
A Democratic Congress member from California, Mike Levin, raised concerns about the conditions onboard the warship. (Photo: Screenshot/Facebook@Mike Levin)
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