A 19-year-old sailor who jumped from the USS Abraham Lincoln earlier this month in what his wife describes as a suicide attempt is now facing formal Navy discipline that could cost him half his pay, according to charging documents and an account from his wife reported by MS NOW. The case has emerged just as the aircraft carrier completes a grueling, record-length deployment that has already drawn congressional demands for an investigation into conditions aboard the ship.
The sailor’s wife, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive disciplinary proceedings, said her husband is facing non-judicial punishment under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Charging documents reviewed by MS NOW show he has been accused of violating Article 83, covering “malingering,” defined as intentionally faking an illness or injuring oneself to avoid duty, and Article 86, covering unauthorized absence from a required place of duty.
“I think they’re insane for doing this to people who need mental help,” the wife told MS NOW. “Instead of giving them help, this is just another huge stressor.”
The sailor and his wife are both 19 and share a 3½-year-old son. They welcomed a daughter in February while he was deployed. His wife said he had repeatedly requested paternity leave and been denied each time.
According to his wife, the sailor jumped overboard on Aug. 3 and was medically evacuated before returning to San Diego on Aug. 13, where he spent five days at Naval Medical Center San Diego, known as Balboa. U.S. officials cited by CNN said the sailor, assigned to the carrier’s air wing, went overboard in turbulent seas and was recovered roughly an hour later by an air-wing search-and-rescue helicopter. He was wearing a life vest at the time and was described by an official as having experienced a mental health crisis.
During his stay at Balboa, his wife said, medical staff monitored his vital signs but he did not see a psychiatrist or therapist. He was told to report back to work immediately after his release, and his first therapy appointment did not come until Aug. 26, nearly two weeks after he returned to San Diego.
The sailor is now expected to appear before a commanding officer at what is known as a “captain’s mast,” a form of non-judicial punishment commanders use to address alleged misconduct without proceeding to a formal court-martial. According to the charging documents, he could lose as much as half of his regular pay.
Before he jumped, his wife said, he had gone to his chain of command and the ship’s medical team on multiple occasions to raise concerns about his mental health and was brushed off. In a text message sent to his wife on July 21, 13 days before the incident, he wrote: “i think the boat is finally getting to me.” He told her he was trying not to feel hopeless after learning the deployment had been extended again, adding, “i dont think i can do another deployment after this and i dont even know if i can finish this deployment.”
His wife has also said she was not contacted by Navy officials about the incident until four days after her husband went overboard, learning of it instead through a message from one of his friends on the ship. After she contacted the ship’s ombudsman for more information, she said she received an email days later from the command master chief of the squadron stating that her husband was “safe and sound onboard and will be returning to San Diego soon to receive support from Balboa.”
Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., a member of the House Armed Services Committee who represents the Lincoln’s home port of San Diego, told MS NOW she remains concerned for the well-being of sailors and Marines deployed aboard ships like the Lincoln given the volume of recent reports. “No one should be punished for getting the mental health care they need,” Jacobs said. “I will continue to call on the Navy to provide our Sailors with the necessary support they deserve and will continue doing oversight to ensure that is the case.”
Military lawyers say the case highlights a longstanding tension in Pentagon policy. Cody Harnish, a former Army judge advocate general who now represents service members, said the manual for courts-martial instructs that bona fide suicide attempts should not be charged, but that pursuing charges remains at the discretion of the commanding officer. “We tell service members to reach out for help, and then we keep a criminal statute on the books for the ones who didn’t get it in time. That’s a policy choice,” Harnish said.
A Navy official, asked about the decision to pursue non-judicial punishment in cases involving suicide attempts, said the service was “fully committed to the health and wellbeing of every Sailor” and strives “to foster environments that support mental health by removing barriers to seeking help, increasing awareness of resources, and taking appropriate action when someone is in need.” The official added that mental health resources are available to sailors around the clock and that “asking for help is a sign of strength.”
The case surfaced amid a broader pattern of reported distress aboard the Lincoln during its nine-month deployment. The Military Times has reported that multiple sailors attempted to go overboard over the course of the deployment, and Stars and Stripes reported that watch standers intervened on at least one occasion to stop another crew member from jumping. A Navy spokesperson told Newsweek in mid-August that the service had “not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship,” while separately acknowledging that one sailor had gone overboard and was recovered.
The Lincoln departed San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, on a deployment originally planned to run roughly seven months. Instead, it stretched to more than 270 days at sea, with the ship not making a port call since December, as the carrier was diverted to support Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign against Iran that began Feb. 28. More than 5,000 sailors and Marines were aboard.
Families of crew members told MS NOW that service members had described emotional strain and other mental health problems over the course of the extended deployment, alongside separate reports of deteriorating food quality, moldy showers and shortages of basic supplies such as soap and razors. Four members of San Diego’s congressional delegation asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to investigate conditions aboard the carrier; Hegseth has pushed back on suggestions the ship lacked necessary resources and has praised the crew’s service.
President Donald Trump addressed the mounting concerns directly in mid-August. Asked about the Lincoln’s crew on Aug. 14, he said service members had been deployed “not nearly long enough” and denied that family members were broadly concerned. Days later, on Aug. 17, he described reporting on food shortages aboard the ship as a “CNN fake report.”
The Lincoln began its journey home on Aug. 20 after the USS George Washington arrived in the Middle East to relieve it as part of what Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao described as a planned rotation. Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that he personally visited the crew to deliver the news, telling them, “You have delivered a performance for the ages, and now you are going home.” The carrier’s return trip was expected to take three to four weeks.
The Pentagon’s most recent annual report on military suicide, released earlier this year, found that 471 service members across all branches died by suicide in 2024, down from 531 in 2023. The sailor’s case is expected to move forward through the non-judicial punishment process even as the Lincoln completes its journey back to its home port.