The wife of a USS Abraham Lincoln sailor who jumped overboard has shared the text message he sent her days before the incident, revealing a young father in crisis during an unexpectedly prolonged deployment.
The 19-year-old aircraft mechanic, a father of two, went into the water off Iran’s southern coast on August 3, the 255th day of the carrier’s deployment. The Lincoln had departed San Diego on November 21, and was already well past its scheduled rotation when the sailor made his leap. He spent 45 minutes in the water before rescue crews pulled him to safety.
In a July 21 exchange with his wife, the sailor wrote: “I think the boat is finally getting to me and I really don’t think I can keep up my peace act anymore, you are right about it all not being okay, we were supposed to leave 5th fleet on July 15th but then something had to come up and my last hope of being home soon was gone, I’m really trying to not feel negative or hopeless but between the WIFI and not knowing when I will come home and not knowing what is happening back at home, it’s really getting me, I don’t think i can do another deployment after this and I don’t even know if I can finish this deployment.”
The wife told MS Now that her husband returned to San Diego in August and has since had one mental health appointment. He was prescribed an antidepressant and an anti-anxiety medication. She added that he has also been experiencing severe back pain since the overboard incident and is scheduled to see Navy doctors next month.
“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 in the MS Now interview.
The family’s relief at his return has been complicated by what his wife describes as a punitive response from Navy leadership. She claimed that although her husband’s command master chief had promised the Navy would stand with the family, the service instead pressed charges against the sailor.
A Navy official pushed back on the framing of the charges as punishment for the suicide attempt itself. “Sailors are accountable under the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice], but suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts are not, themselves, punishable misconduct,” the official said in a statement to MS Now. “They require a safety-first response, clinical care, and command support. Any separate allegation of misconduct is considered on its own facts with appropriate legal consultation.”
The Lincoln remains at sea and is expected to reach San Diego in approximately two weeks, capping a deployment that has stretched far beyond original projections and has now drawn scrutiny over crew welfare during extended rotations.