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Agora debate ·

Navy Confirms Eight Suicide Attempts Aboard USS Lincoln

The question

Should the Navy shorten extended deployments, even if it reduces US military capacity overseas?

Yes 67%No 33%

55 players picked a side before playing.

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The best arguments

Written by Agora players and ranked by Agora's AI reasoning score. Shown without names.

  • The USS Abraham Lincoln should come home and be replaced by a fresh ship and crew, because extended deployments put both sailors' mental health and the mission at risk. The crew of roughly 5,000 spent 286 days at sea, a record, with only one brief port stop, while families reported food shortages, water contamination and mail disruptions. Eight sailors across the strike group attempted suicide during the deployment, at least two of them by jumping overboard, and exhausted crews with low supplies are a readiness problem as well as a welfare problem. The Navy already acknowledged this when it relieved the Lincoln with the USS George Washington, so the argument is that rotation should have happened sooner. Opponents will say continuous carrier presence was needed against Iran and that the attempt rate was roughly in line with the active-duty Navy overall, but rotating ships and crews on a sustainable schedule protects both the people and the mission.

    A player · exceptional argument

  • For reference, it’s estimated that 0.8% of US adults attempted suicide in the last year. With the carrier’s population of 5,000 you’d actually expect a higher number of suicide attempts. This isn’t to say there aren’t real concerns for the well being of the soldiers on their extended deployment, but the suicide attempts alone aren’t a cause for concern.

    A player · strong argument

  • Response times to enemy movements will be more effective, as one specific example, but the point is that raising morale raises the baseline. Even if soldiers are more effective at cleaning, that's more time for soldiers to help with more directly impactful tasks. Better watchmen, better gunners, better pilots, and even better leaders. Additionally, we are lessening the impact of calling a ship down by having another take its place, some of these power positions cannot be left fully unattended. By having shorter deployment times and faster replacement times, we will see a large improvement in our naval effectiveness.

    A player · strong argument

  • It’s tempting to dismiss this because “we don’t have a baseline” for how many suicide attempts there are. But we do have a baseline for how often it’s a big enough deal that the Navy confirms any number of suicide attempts at all. It is shocking that this happened at all. If this were normal, the Navy would’ve been incentivized to share statistics to that effect so as to dismiss the severity of this situation. But they didn’t. This is shocking and an indication of how poorly this administration is prosecuting this war.

    A player · strong argument

  • It’s helps address the global commitments by having carriers on mission. Why does it matter if you have one single carrier out for 286 days or if you have 3 separate carriers out for 96 days which results in vastly improved mental health metrics while maintaining mission integrity

    A player · decent argument

  • Sending a replacement will relocate healthy assets into our highest priority zone causing a small temporary dip in a low priority zone, the choice is obvious

    A player · decent argument

  • The cost will be relatively the same since some are coming home and others are replacing them instead of one constant mission. It will help maintain stability in the Middle East, and in America since the service men can come home to recieve any medical treatment needed and spend time with their families. Peace will be kept by renewing our moral and equipment.

    A player · decent argument

  • The presence of the carriers as deterrence only acts as such, a deterrence. The sailors' welfare is an unfortunate concession for being spread too thin due to the necessity of deterrence. Thus, the deterrence acts against sailors' welfare, but in order to maintain presence in the strait. What would protect the sailors' welfare is better scheduled cycles for crew members wherein deterrence would not have to be minimized and sailors would remain healthy.

    A player · decent argument

In this game

  1. Two truths and a lie. Click the lie.
  2. How long were they deployed?
  3. Five sailors attempted suicide during the Lincoln’s deployment.
  4. Immersive Command Mode
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