'Give them a verbal hug': Emails show how the Navy scrambled to manage a spate of suicides
As the USS George Washington reeled from a spate of suicides two years ago, Navy leaders reacted with anger and denial while discussing news coverage of the deaths and whether to promote the sailors posthumously, according to emails obtained by NBC News.
As the USS George Washington reeled from a spate of suicides two years ago, Navy leaders reacted with anger and denial while discussing news coverage of the deaths and whether to promote the sailors posthumously, according to emails obtained by NBC News.
After five sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier died by suicide within a year, including three in one week in April 2022, some of the ship’s commanders dismissed claims about poor living and working conditions, and at least one of them admitted to having a weak grasp of the mental health issues that plagued his sailors, the messages show.
“I myself, have an extremely limited understanding of mental health issues and have a very hard time understanding why,” William Mathis, the executive officer, wrote in one of the roughly 130 emails the Navy recently provided, nearly two years after NBC News filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
The USS George Washington during its mission in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in 2017.USS George H.W. Bush via Getty ImagesAt the time, several sailors said their struggles were directly related to a culture in which seeking help was not met with the necessary resources, as well as the unbearable state of the ship while it was docked and undergoing a lengthy overhaul in Virginia.The deaths sparked investigations, prompted visits from the Navy’s most powerful officials and led to the relocation of more than 280 sailors.
For at least one sailor’s family, the years have done little to heal wounds.
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