DAVID FOLKENFLIK, HOST:
The USS Abraham Lincoln is now on its way home from the Middle East. The roughly 5,000 sailors and Marines aboard that ship have spent nine months at sea, which has included supporting the U.S. war against Iran. There have been reports of deteriorating conditions, including accounts from families who describe attempts by service members to jump overboard. The Navy has not confirmed those specific reports and has denied any increase in attempted suicides on board, and NPR has not independently verified them. NPR's Katia Riddle reports on the mental health challenges of prolonged confinement and isolation.
KATIA RIDDLE, BYLINE: The USS Abraham Lincoln is like a small city. That's according to Armen Kurdian, a retired U.S. Navy captain. He served aboard the aircraft carrier in 2005. The work there, he says, is hard.
ARMEN KURDIAN: The plane captains are out there on the flight deck. You know, these 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds lugging these hundred-pound chains on their backs in 120-degree weather. It takes a toll on your body.
RIDDLE: He describes dehydration and exhaustion.
KURDIAN: The pilots having to land and take off on the carrier sometimes at night and sometimes at night in bad weather. And then just being mentally prepared to go fly because lives are at stake.
RIDDLE: In the off hours, he describes little to no privacy with people sleeping in crowded quarters. While difficult, these conditions can be bearable, he says. But experts say add uncertainty to this equation and it can push people to their mental brink. Jack Stuster is a retired behavioral scientist who spent decades studying human performance.
JACK STUSTER: In conditions of isolation and confinement, one of the worst things that you can do to the person is to tell them they're going to come home or let them expect that they're coming home at a certain time, and then you say no, it's going to be delayed.
RIDDLE: The USS Abraham Lincoln's deployment was originally scheduled to end in May. In addition to the Navy, Stuster worked with NASA and scientists working in small groups in places like Greenland, where return flights home were often canceled at the very last moment.
STUSTER: People have described to me going out there for the third time, grown-up, fully adult people with their duffel bags, having dragged it out to the flight line on the third time, only to be told that it wasn't going to happen. They break down in tears.
RIDDLE: Then there's the issue of duration. A three-month deployment is ideal, he says, or even six. At nine, where this crew is, he says things start to become untenable. Dr. Phillip Hunt was for years a Navy physician. He deployed on several submarine missions. His background is in emergency medicine, but Hunt says in the Navy, much of what he did was mental health.
PHILLIP HUNT: I was kind of the father, confessor, psychologist, what have you.
RIDDLE: With a crew of 5,000 people on a ship, Hunt says it's inevitable that some people will struggle with mental health, even in the best of deployment conditions.
HUNT: You have guys getting anxious, you have guys getting depressed.
RIDDLE: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says reports of poor conditions aboard the Lincoln are overstated. President Trump said recently the deployment was, quote, "not nearly long enough." Hunt says a lack of certainty or reassurance from leadership at the highest levels can trickle down to impact everyone's mental well-being.
HUNT: I just - I feel so, so badly for that crew. It's just - it's tragic.
RIDDLE: Just thinking about these sailors and Marines, says Dr. Phillip Hunt, almost brings him to tears.
Katia Riddle, NPR News.
FOLKENFLIK: If you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health, please call or text the number 988 to connect with a counselor at the Suicide Crisis Lifeline.
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