Date: Friday, 14 August 2026
https://ericzuesse.substack.com/p/us-military-suicides-now-soaring
https://theduran.com/u-s-military-suicides-now-soaring-under-trump/
U.S. Military Suicides Now Soaring Under Trump
13 August 2026, posted by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkqBvTLu_bU
“US SAILORS NIGHTMARE: USS Abraham Lincoln Over 250 days at Sea, Never Touching Land”
13 August 2026, Daniel Davis / Deep Dive
00:00
LARRY C. JOHNSON: I think I owe all of this to, you know, one of my former students who killed himself about 2 months ago now. Who was, he was a navy corpsman. Worked his entire tour with Marines. The Marines trained him as a sniper. And he killed himself. And it's just I mean it was such a you know, he's about he's the age of my son.
00:28
And just a tremendous individual. And I and I wrote about that. Well, that resonated with a number of military people. Others who have served, others who are struggling with the same kind of issues that Jamie did. And they reached out to me. And so I've been I've been getting information. And then the angry mama bears.
00:53
So this one lady whose son is a sailor on was the sailor on the Tripoli. She reached out initially and just furious that said, "Look, my son went on this tour, he lost 30 lb. He and she sent me the pictures of before and after. Kid was not a fat body at all. I mean he was, he was in good physical condition. He didn't have 30 lb to lose.
01:20
And he lost that because of the poor food and the lousy conditions on board the Tripoli. But it turns out it's not just the Tripoli. And you know, when you and I were together last weekend a week ago in Chattanooga. And you know, we were on the side and signing the cards. This one lady comes up and we got talking and she didn't come up specifically to complain.
01:44
But when she mentioned, "Oh yeah, my son just returned from deployment on board the Boxer." And I said, "Oh, well, what was his experience like?" Man, she she had the same story as this other woman. Only her son's a Marine. The other woman's son is a sailor. And then um when the report came out yesterday in the Guardian about at least six uh attempted suicides or suicides on board the USS Abraham Lincoln.
02:12
Um another friend who I've introduced you to, um he he he and and again, he initially reached out to me because of the article that I wrote on Jamie Lee. And uh the the this uh former officer was first a you know, a regular enlisted guy. Uh he was in the initial invasion of Iraq back in 2003, and then he went to West Point.
02:40
And uh he's he's currently the class president of his graduating class. And he says one of the one of the duties comes with that is that when they update sort of the class list of deceased, his job is to figure out whether the guys that are committing suicide are combat casualties or not. And uh he he just said this report that there's all the six attempted suicide, he says based on his experience, he says that could be five to 10 times more than that.
03:16
Now, the the what the lady I first mentioned whose son was a sailor on the Tripoli, she wrote me yesterday. She said they at least on her son's ship, she didn't know how widespread it was, they pulled the chaplains off. The one the one group of people who are there to counsel sailors and and Marines to keep them mentally straight, the Hegseth and his knuckleheads in the Department of War pulled the chaplains off, according to her.
03:44
So, um when you and and then the you know, more and more reports are starting to spell I mean, parents are starting to come out in numbers cuz it's not just the Tripoli, it's not just the Boxer, it's not just the Abraham Lincoln. And that that they're reporting just lousy food for the for the enlisted personnel.
04:04
Um as one retired Navy chief told me he goes chiefs always had good food. Yeah, because they you know, they they run the ship. But uh you know, the the officers are not going down and eating with the enlisted mess. Uh and so they're not seeing what the regular the day day-to-day soldiers are seeing. And then you you work without functioning toilets and you know, people uh you know, I I guess you know, I grew up in a household of uh three brother a brother and two sisters and mom and dad and we only had one bathroom. So, I know what it's like
04:43
to do you know, to queue up to get into the to the latrine. But uh it's not pleasant when you're at sea. And then and and that's one of the problems they're running into. >> And and yeah and you can see that that's in I think today's news is some of the other. So, it's not it's not just anecdotally.
05:02
I mean, you're starting to see this is across the board here. I mean, this one I don't know if you can speak to some of this. Somebody was asking somebody who was deployed why isn't there milk and they say the supply ship that comes here can't bring fruits and stuff cuz it can't stay fresh long enough by the time it gets here.
05:17
So, we haven't had anything fresh but meat cuz it's freeze. Obviously who just wrote that. Sometimes even that gets here rotten. I mean, what what can you tell us Larry about about how these deployments are even designed? How are they supposed to work? I mean, it's not like we have never thought hey, if we go to war with somebody, we might have to be deployed.
05:35
I mean, these ships could be out at sea for a while. We have to have some kind of a system that can keep them healthy and fed with food that's not rotten. What is breaking down here? >> Hey, well, let's let's put it into a historical context. You know, and and I think you'll find these numbers shocking. So right now the Abraham Lincoln set a record.
05:54
Uh it's uh been at sea for 207 consecutive days without a port call. Now the Gerald Ford actually holds the record for the actual longest float. Like 320 days. But but they had stops in between. So So that means the sailors, Marines they could get get off board ship, go go ashore for liberty, maybe for 12 hours, 24 hours, and then get back on.
06:24
But we're talking continuous time on board the ship. Uh the pre- previous record was the the Dwight D. Eisenhower back in >> That's crazy. >> 2020, they had 206 days. Before that uh and again we're talking consecutive days on board ship without touching land. Uh in 2001 to 2002, you had the Teddy Roosevelt. Um they did 159 days.
06:51
In World War II this massive war that that that that dwarfs anything that we're currently doing the longest they kept sailors afloat there were 79 days on the USS Essex. That was off the coast Yeah, 79 days off the coast of Okinawa. Now those ships they had ship tenders and oilers. These ships that would come alongside and resupply.
07:18
They're not even The problem is we've gotten rid of those kinds of ships. We don't have that many anymore. You know, it's just the it's as if we we said "How bad can we do screw up our Navy?" I know what. Let's and boy they start cost-cutting in certain areas, and then they build this expensive monstrosity with 5,000 people on board that you know, the logistics requirements for that are are are just unfathomable.
07:52
And and so that's one of the that's one of the ways where it's breaking down, but you know what? I I pin this on the officers as well. So this this is a failure of command from Donald Trump to Pete Hegseth to Hong Cao, the the acting Secretary of the Navy to General Dan Cain Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as and the actual officers on board that ship.
08:19
They're not taking care of the troops. That's their that's their first and foremost responsibility as a commander. Make sure your personnel are properly cared for. >> So so let me ask you then Larry. I mean is the system breaking down or did somehow we never design a system that could be sustained combat for these periods of time? >> I think it's the latter.
08:43
I I think it's just it's an absolute lack of planning to where they don't sit down and think dynamically and critically about if we're going to do this, what do we need to do? I mean it's reflected in we're going to talk about the you know, the the program to build more Patriot missiles. There again, you'd think that if you got this weapon system that you consider to be a critical part of your defense that you will have planned and recognize what do we need to build it? Do we have enough supplies? What is our supply chain to make sure we can build
09:20
something? I mean just that kind of planning. That's not taking place. That's what's so shocking about this. And so then um when they get these these personnel at sea and and and you know, for for you know, 200 We're now 209, 210 days. I mean, these boys and girls are setting a new record, and it's not one that they're going to be proud to wear.
09:49
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https://meidasnews.com/news/rotten-meat-no-milk-troops-detail-life-aboard-the-uss-abraham-lincoln
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/rotten-meat-no-milk-troops-012047036.html
“Rotten Meat, No Milk: Troops Detail Life Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln”
13 August 2026, Aaron Parnas
Text messages shared with MeidasTouch by a family member of a service member currently deployed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln paint a bleak picture of daily life on board, more than eight months into a deployment that was supposed to end in May and instead has no announced return date.
The sailor's identity is being withheld to protect them from retaliation.
"Why isn't there milk?!" the family member asked in one exchange. The sailor explained that the ship's supply runs simply can't keep perishables fresh long enough to make the trip out to the carrier. "So the supply ship that comes here can't bring fruits and stuff cause it can't stay fresh long enough with the time it gets them to get here," the sailor wrote. "So we haven't had anything fresh but meat cause it's freezed. Sometimes it gets here rotten."
In a separate message, the sailor sent a photo of a plastic container of what looks like cereal, writing: "Hey honey I'm eating cereal rn. Wish there was milk tho. Haven't had milk in 3 months."
The sailor also described a deployment that veteran crew members are calling unlike anything they've experienced. "This deployment is the worst one and I pray no other boat goes through the same," the sailor wrote. "Even people that have been deployed a hundred times claim this one to be the worst and believe it can get worse than this. The Navy does not care. The mission will always come first."
In the same message, the sailor relayed a conversation with another crew member: "I was talking to some random dude at the smoke pit and he was saying it's an experiment the government is doing to see how far they can push sailors limits of being out to sea with the worst experience." The sailor was careful to frame this as something someone else said, not a claim the sailor is personally making, adding, "Idk anymore."
The sailor went on to describe the emotional toll of the extended deployment: "I know my family needs me and the navy is not being fair rn taking me away far longer than expected. Worst part my expectations were already at an all time low. But as per usual, the navy beat those too by going lower than hell. So there's that."
These texts add a firsthand voice to reporting from Military Times, Stars and Stripes, and MS NOW over the past week, which detailed multiple attempted overboard incidents on the Lincoln, food and supply shortages, weeks without laundry or hot water, and a ship that has now set a Navy record for continuous days at sea. The Navy has acknowledged the deployment length is "challenging" for the crew but says the carrier "remains fully capable of meeting all mission tasking," and has not said when the USS Theodore Roosevelt strike group will actually relieve the Lincoln.
If you are a service member or family member aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln with information to share, you can reach out to MeidasTouch directly and confidentially.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
