Democrats demand answers about conditions aboard USS Lincoln

The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao on Wednesday demanding more information about the extended deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln amid the war with Iran and raising further questions about the Navy's ability to preserve service members' well-being while sustaining its current "operational tempo."

In his letter, Sen. Richard Blumenthal noted the Lincoln has been deployed for more than 250 days and has gone more than 200 days without a port call.

"There have been widespread reports of shortages of basic supplies, water contamination, plumbing issues, deteriorating mental health, deck safety concerns, and disruptions in the mail system, which have caused many care packages en route to the ship to be lost in transit for months," Blumenthal wrote. "These reports warrant immediate attention, but they also raise a broader question: whether the Navy can sustain the operational tempo now being demanded of its carrier force, particularly as this Administration repeatedly commits U.S. forces to conflicts of its own choosing and increasingly relies on aircraft carriers to sustain those operations."

His letter comes amid reports that the sailors are exhausted and, according to Military Times, one family member alleges a sailor attempted to go overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln.

A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News that a sailor went overboard in early August from the Lincoln and was quickly recovered. The incident is under investigation, the official said.

Hegseth on Thursday pushed back on reports of a sailor going overboard from the Lincoln and accounts of sailors struggling through an unusually long deployment have been "completely misrepresented."

"We make sure every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment," Hegseth told Newsmax. "Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody."

A Navy official told ABC News in a statement that the Lincoln has not seen an uptick in mental health issues and has "not identified an increase in reported suicidal ideation or suicide attempts aboard the ship."

"We know that extended deployments place a significant strain on our service members and their families, and we are grateful for the resilience and sacrifices they make in support of our nation's security," the statement said.

A U.S. official told ABC News on Thursday that the Navy's data shows its not uncommon for suicidal ideation to occur on deployed ships and that typically the rates are higher at the start of a deployment. The official said the data shows the Lincoln is following that trend and so far there have been no deaths or suicides since it departed from San Diego last November.

The 5,000 sailors aboard the carrier have access to mental health assistance as well as chaplains, according to the official.

The ship was slated for a normal six-month deployment to the Pacific but has been extended on an unusually long nine-month deployment due to the war with Iran, where it was redirected earlier this year.