Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Brad Schneider are calling for public congressional hearings after the Navy confirmed eight suicide attempts across the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group during its most recent deployment. The number covers a wider group of personnel than the aircraft carrier's crew alone, and the Navy's letter does not establish what caused the attempts.
The lawmakers' call for hearings follows a Sept. 22 response to Gillibrand from Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao. The new request is a development beyond Gillibrand's earlier statement about the Navy's count; neither lawmaker announced that a hearing had been scheduled.
Cao wrote that the eight attempts since the beginning of the Lincoln's deployment included sailors from the carrier, the air wing, strike-group and destroyer-squadron staffs, escorting destroyers and embarked aviation squadrons. The letter described one sailor who attempted to go overboard in March, was stopped by shipmates, received immediate medical care and later returned to homeport.
The response described in the lawmakers' release did not give comparable status information for the other attempts. It did not say whether eight distinct sailors were involved or make a finding about the cause of the attempts.
Gillibrand, a New York Democrat who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and 14 other lawmakers wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in August seeking greater transparency following reports and family concerns about conditions aboard the Lincoln. Gillibrand had also previously demanded hearings over those reports.
Gillibrand said the Navy's confirmation heightened the need for hearings, accountability and a plan to protect service members. She criticized the administration for earlier dismissing concerns about sailors' conditions. Those statements are the senator's assessment; the Navy response quoted in her release confirms the attempt count but does not resolve the dispute over shipboard conditions.
Schneider, an Illinois Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee whose district includes Naval Station Great Lakes, joined the request for open hearings. He said lawmakers need answers about the health and well-being of the sailors and the conditions they faced during deployment.
The lawmakers did not identify a hearing date or announce a formal investigation in the release.
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