Sailors Have Tried to Go Overboard From the USS Abraham Lincoln During Its Record Stretch at Sea, Families Say

Photo: Petty Officer 1st Class Jerome D. Johnson / U.S. Navy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, 2024

Update — August 15, 2026: U.S. Central Command confirmed in an August 13 statement that one sailor fell overboard on August 3 and was quickly and safely recovered, while continuing to dispute reports of an increase in suicidal thinking or suicide attempts aboard the ship. The article previously reflected that the Navy had not confirmed any of the specific overboard incidents families described, which has since changed.

Family members of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln say multiple crew members have tried to jump overboard during a deployment that has now stretched to more than eight months with no end date in sight.

Key facts

Ship: USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier homeported in San Diego, carrying about 5,000 sailors and Marines.
Deployment: Left San Diego on November 21, 2025, originally expected to last six to seven months; still at sea more than eight months later.
Record: Passed the modern Navy record of 206 consecutive days underway (set in 2020) in early July; some counts put the total past 260 days by mid-August.
Location: Operating in the northern Arabian Sea alongside the USS George H.W. Bush as part of U.S. posture toward Iran.
Incidents: Newsweek reports at least two overboard-attempt incidents; family members describe at least three. The Navy has not given an exact number and says it has not identified an increase in reported suicidal thinking or suicide attempts aboard the ship.
Return date: None officially announced for the Lincoln itself; on August 13, AP and Reuters reported that the USS George Washington — not the Theodore Roosevelt — is now underway to relieve it, after the Navy confirmed the George Washington strike group departed Vietnam on August 12 and was transiting the Strait of Malacca toward the Indian Ocean.
Unverified claim: Iranian state media reported this week that a deadly brawl broke out aboard the ship; no U.S. Navy or Central Command statement and no independent Western news organization has confirmed any such incident or any deaths aboard the Lincoln.

Sailors’ families describe attempts to go overboard

Military Times first reported the accounts on August 11, based on interviews with families. One sailor is now on medical hold after an attempt, and in a separate incident a shipmate physically pulled a sailor back aboard before they went over the side, according to those family accounts, which were echoed in reporting by Newsweek, Stars and Stripes and the Times of Israel.

CENTCOM has since confirmed one specific incident in an August 13 statement — “the one Sailor who fell overboard Aug. 3 was quickly and safely recovered,” the command said — while still declining to give reporters an exact number of similar incidents; what it disputes is that there has been an increase in reported suicidal thinking or suicide attempts aboard the ship.

A Navy spokesperson said: “Based on information available to the command, we have not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship,” and added that chaplains, doctors and mental-health staff remain available to the crew.

A record-breaking deployment

The Lincoln left San Diego on November 21, 2025, on a deployment originally expected to run six to seven months. Instead, it was redirected to the Middle East. On February 28, 2026, a joint U.S.-Israeli strike killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, and the Lincoln has stayed in the region through the months of U.S. military operations against Iran that followed. As of mid-August the carrier was operating in the northern Arabian Sea alongside the USS George H.W. Bush, part of a U.S. naval posture around Iran that reporting has described as including enforcement of a blockade of Iranian ports.

In early July, the Lincoln broke the modern Navy record for consecutive days underway without a port call — 206 days, set by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2020 during COVID-19-era protocols — according to the naval-news outlet The War Zone, which had the Lincoln past 210 consecutive days by July 9. Outlets differ on the current total because some count every day since the Lincoln left San Diego — including a brief port call at Guam in mid-December, according to The War Zone — while others count only the unbroken run of days at sea since then. That Guam stop lasted about a day, and much of the crew likely never went ashore. By either count the carrier is well past that 2020 record; Forbes and other outlets put the total at more than 260 days by mid-August. There is no announced return date. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao has told families the Navy is preparing the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group to eventually relieve the Lincoln, but he declined to say when, citing operational security.

Conditions described aboard the ship

Families describe deteriorating conditions on board: moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry facilities down for weeks, shortages of basic hygiene supplies, food rationing and long mail delays. The Navy disputes parts of that account, saying the ship has “continuous access to clean water, functional AC, and healthy meal options.” Vice Adm. Douglas Verissimo, commander of Naval Air Forces, has attributed the supply shortages to logistics that got stranded once resupply through Bahrain became unavailable amid the military operations against Iran: “All of the gear that was there when the shooting started got stuck there,” he said.

Navy leadership meets with families

Navy leadership has been meeting directly with families. In early August, roughly 200 relatives met in San Diego with Cao and other senior officers, with a parallel online session for those who couldn’t attend in person. Vice Adm. Joseph Cahill, commander of Naval Surface Forces, told the group: “We hear you loud and clear” about the toll the deployment is taking on families, service members and the Navy’s ability to sustain its forces long-term.

Political reaction

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth struck a different tone. Asked about the reports of a mental-health crisis aboard the ship, he dismissed them as “more fake news,” according to Forbes.

Congress is now pressing the Pentagon for answers. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Hegseth and Cao on August 12, citing “widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns” and asking how the Navy intends to sustain its Middle East carrier presence over the next one to two years. Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) has called for a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the Lincoln, though no visit has been confirmed. Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) have also pressed the Navy for answers.

Unverified claims from Iranian state media

Separately, Iranian state-linked media — Tasnim News Agency, with the claim carried further by Mehr News Agency and Press TV — reported this week that a knife fight broke out aboard the Lincoln and killed seven sailors. No U.S. Navy or Central Command statement, and no independent Western news organization, has confirmed any such incident or any deaths aboard the ship. It is not the first disputed Iranian claim about this carrier: in early March, Iran said it had struck the Lincoln with a missile or drone, and U.S. Central Command said the ship was not hit and continued normal flight operations. The brawl claim should be read the same way — as an unverified assertion from the state media of a country currently in an armed conflict with the ship’s own government, not as an established fact.