Agonizing text message sailor sent wife before jumping from USS Abraham Lincoln while on lengthy deployment
A 19-year-old Navy sailor who plunged 67 feet from the USS Abraham Lincoln in an apparent suicide attempt reportedly sent his wife an agonizing message warning that the grueling deployment was finally breaking him.
The young aircraft mechanic, a married father of two, sprinted across the flight deck and hurled himself into the sea off Iran’s southern coast on August 3 – the 255th day of an extraordinarily long deployment.
Weeks earlier, after months of punishing shifts, separation from his wife and children and deteriorating mental health, he texted her: ‘the boat is finally getting to me.’
The sailor survived 45 minutes in the water before rescuers reached him – only to later face Navy disciplinary proceedings over the desperate act.
His wife says her husband had repeatedly told her he was depressed, exhausted and experiencing suicidal thoughts before he jumped, and has blasted the Navy for punishing him when she believed he desperately needed help.
The disturbing case has now taken on even greater significance after Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao revealed that eight sailors across the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group attempted suicide during the Iran war deployment. The ship has now been at sea for more than 300 days.
The information emerges amid growing scrutiny of conditions surrounding the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, after Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao revealed last week that there had been eight suicide attempts across the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group during the Iran war deployment. No sailors died by suicide.
The sailor’s identity has not been publicly disclosed. He and his wife are both just 19 and have a seven-month-old daughter and three-year-old son.
The young aircraft mechanic, a married father of two, sprinted across the flight deck and hurled himself into the sea off Iran’s southern coast on August 3
Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao (pictured left), who has been nominated for the full time position by Donald Trump, confirmed the attempts in a letter written Tuesday
For months, according to MS NOW, his messages home had become increasingly troubling as the deployment dragged on with seemingly no end in sight.
He complained about exhausting shifts with few breaks and the crushing frustration of being unable to speak regularly with his young family.
On August 3, he was still wearing his boots and standard-issue ‘float coat’ – mandatory safety equipment for sailors working on the flight deck, when he ran toward the edge of the carrier and jumped 67 feet to the sea below.
An officer-of-the-deck memorandum said waves were around five feet high and estimated that given the water temperature, survival time was just 15 minutes.
The sailor remained in the sea for three times as long before a helicopter rescue crew finally reached him.
His wife said she learned what had happened not from Navy officials, but from one of her husband’s squadron mates.
She claims nearly five days passed before the Navy formally notified her.
Instead of simply receiving treatment, the sailor initially faced accusations of malingering – intentionally faking illness or injuring oneself to escape military duty and being absent without leave, according to charging documents reviewed by MS NOW.
Crew members are stocking up the aircraft carrier with supplies ahead of the deployment
The Lincoln has spent more than 250 consecutive days at sea, with conditions worsening after the Iran war diverted the carrier to the Middle East
‘I think they’re insane for doing this to people who need mental help,’ his wife said last month. ‘Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor.’
The malingering allegation was eventually dropped and replaced with an Article 87 charge of ‘jumping from a vessel,’ while the absence-without-leave allegation remained.
At a September 10 captain’s mast, a nonjudicial disciplinary proceeding rather than a criminal trial or court-martial, his commanding officer found him guilty of jumping from the vessel but not of being absent without leave, according to his wife. He also received an oral reprimand.
The sailor is now expected to face a separation board that will determine whether he leaves the Navy and how his discharge is characterized.
His wife says he does not intend to fight his separation.
The Navy memorandum raised questions about what happened when he jumped.
The officer wrote that his motives remained ‘undetermined’ and that some of the circumstances ‘appear suspect,’ noting that he jumped during daylight while wearing a float coat and ‘almost immediately waved for help’ after hitting the water.
But the same officer also acknowledged the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the incident.
Sailors have complained about the meager portions they were receiving onboard the ship
‘This has been a difficult deployment and it is unsurprising that we might have a jumper,’ the officer wrote, according to MS NOW.
The sailor’s wife strongly disputed any suggestion that her husband had staged the incident.
She said wearing a float coat was mandatory on the flight deck and argued he feared that removing it before running toward the edge would alert others and allow them to stop him.
She also insisted he wasn’t waving. He was struggling in the water, she said.
‘This is more so just assumptions and people’s opinions, I would say – biased opinions,’ she said of the memo.
Since returning to San Diego, the 19-year-old has been prescribed antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication and has been dealing with severe back pain following his fall.
She said simply getting appointments has proved difficult.
‘I think that he has changed as a person, but I also do think he’s been doing a lot better since being off the boat,’ she said.
The Navy said it could not discuss an individual sailor’s personnel or medical records, but stressed that suicidal behavior itself is not punishable.
‘Sailors are accountable under the UCMJ, but suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts are not, themselves, punishable misconduct,’ an official said. ‘They require a safety-first response, clinical care, and command support.’
Pete Hegseth has waved off concerns about the USS Lincoln’s living conditions for troops as a complete mischaracterization
The sailor’s wife says the family have not received any help since the incident.
‘So where is the support?’ she asked. ‘Where is the Navy being there for us? Because that has not happened at all.’
She now hopes her husband’s ordeal forces a broader reckoning over how sailors in crisis are treated.
‘Crappy deployments and being treated very inhumanely is not normal,’ she said.
‘No one should be treated like that, especially our service members who are supposed to be protecting our country. … That should never ever be normalized.’
The incident occurred against the backdrop of a deployment that has attracted intense scrutiny over the physical and psychological strain on sailors.
The Lincoln strike group carried roughly 6,000 personnel and spent months supporting combat operations connected to the Iran war.
Cao confirmed last week that eight suicide attempts had been recorded across the carrier, its air wing and accompanying ships during the deployment.
Another sailor attempted to go overboard in March but was stopped by shipmates and later medically evacuated, Cao said.
Families had raised concerns about food and supply shortages, fatigue and deteriorating morale as the deployment stretched on.
The carrier also went for a record-setting stretch without a port call.
Sailors and their relatives described 12-hour shifts, broken plumbing, moldy showers and periods when food portions were reduced as resupply became more difficult.
Despite those concerns, experts cautioned that the eight attempts alone cannot establish that the strike group’s suicide-attempt rate was unusually high.
The Navy recorded 356 attempts across approximately 337,000 active-duty sailors in 2024, and a former VA mental-health official said more information would be needed to judge what the Lincoln figures signify.
