USS Lincoln Carrier Returns to San Diego After 265-Day Deployment; Suicide Attempts and Food Shortages Highlight Human Cost of US-Iran War

After nearly nine months of continuous at-sea operations, the U.S. Navy's aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its strike group docked at the home port of San Diego, California, on Thursday, ending the ship's longest deployment on record — 265 days.

According to Agence France-Presse, family members who waited for hours on the pier were greeted with tearful reunions as the carrier came into port. More than 100 sailors met for the first time children born during their long deployment. Soldiers' family member Alba Solano told AFP that phone calls from the ship were nearly impossible during the nearly year-long deployment: "We mostly kept in touch by email, occasionally sending text messages. The phone almost never worked — he could hear us, but we couldn't hear him." It was not until the carrier docked in Thailand in early September that family members finally enjoyed a truly clear connection.

Beyond the reunions, the price was acknowledged in a letter the Trump administration sent to members of Congress last month: eight suicide attempts occurred among U.S. service members of the Lincoln carrier strike group during the deployment, with no fatalities. Acting Navy Secretary Hong Cao disclosed in the letter that a sailor attached to a carrier air wing who fell overboard in early August was quickly rescued, while another sailor who attempted to go overboard in March was stopped in time by shipmates.

The constraints on resupply during combat operations were likewise officially acknowledged. The letter stated that although food aboard the carrier was "sufficient," resupply options were limited under the operational tempo, with main course options at one point cut from two to one. AFP quoted Army veteran Patricia Harmon as saying: "I'm sure life on the ship was very tough, with no recreation at all. He was out there longer than we expected, but that's military life." Harmon's son serves aboard the carrier, and the first words he sent home before docking were just two: "Land!"

On a separate track, the official narrative moved forward. Defense Secretary Hegseth boarded the carrier a day before its return to port and announced the awarding of the Presidential Unit Citation to the strike group, declaring that the Lincoln strike group had completed "10,000 sorties, 23,000 combat flight hours, and nearly 4,000 combat sorties" — an achievement "no other carrier strike group has ever accomplished."

When the Lincoln departed California last November, it was originally slated for South China Sea duty, but was diverted to the Middle East before the U.S. and Israel launched military strikes on Iran in late February. The official operation name and the full timeline of escalation have not been fully disclosed by officials to date. Whether the Pentagon's count of eight suicide attempts fully covers the entire deployment period remains to be further verified by Congress, and no independent investigation has been released on the actual impact of the food and mental health crises on combat effectiveness.

While officials describe the deployment as "unprecedented," the eight suicide attempts, food shortages and the nearly nine months of near-total breakdown in contact with families acknowledged in Hong Cao's letter represent another side of the bill for this protracted war — one that falls on ordinary sailors.