ALBAWABA - More than a few sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier have gone overboard as their deployment drags on with no end in sight.
One sailor’s wife, Annabelle Loma, said communication with her husband has been hard as his deployment is overextended again and again leading him to jump overboard,
“He’s scared,” Loma said. “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.”
Loma said she received a call from the navy after the incident but hasn’t heard from anyone there since then.
In another incident, one sailor saw a crewmate preparing to jump overboard and held him back in the nick of time,
“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,” the sailor’s wife after her husband told her about the incident.
The USS Lincoln has been deployed in the region since 12 November 2025, counting more than eight months and almost 300 days supporting missions against Iran; the deployment was thought by the sailor to end in May 2026 but has kept overextending since.
In response to this, a meeting was held between acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and the families of the sailors onboard where the families expressed their concerns regarding the mental health and well-being of their family members on deployment with more than 200 families attending the meeting.
Vice Admiral Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces, acknowledged the families’ concerns, saying:
“We hear you loud and clear [regarding] the impact this has on families, on service members and the long-term ability of us to stand, sustain our forces’ health,”
The U.S. Navy did not provide a tally of those who attempted to go overboard or engaged in self-harm aboard the Lincoln during the current deployment – only saying that the USS Theodore Roosevelt is set to relieve the Lincoln but did not mention when this would happen, citing operational security.
