JAKARTA - The United States Navy has launched an investigation into the culture and customs of an aircraft carrier, after seven sailors died in the past 12 months, including four by suicide.
The investigation will also look at links or links between deaths, which came after three sailors died by suicide in one week earlier this month.
The aircraft carrier USS George Washington (CVN-73) is in port in Newport News, Virginia, undergoing refueling and repairs. In the last 12 months, there have been seven deaths among the crew.
The four most recent deaths, including three this month, were confirmed suicides, Captain Sarah Self-Kyler, spokeswoman for US Fleet Forces Command, told CNN.
Two of the deaths in May and October 2021 were confirmed not to be suicide. The cause of another sailor's death in July has not been determined, Self-Kyler said.
CNN previously reported that the Navy was investigating the deaths of three sailors from the aircraft carrier. Two sailors were found dead at the off-base location on April 9 and 10.
A third sailor was found unresponsive aboard the ship on April 15 and died in hospital. The Navy determined all three deaths were suicides, though the final cause is still under investigation, Self-Kyler said.
Investigators confirmed that last December's death was a suicide.
The Navy identified the latest death as Master at Arms Seaman Recruit Xavier Hunter Mitchell Sandor. The Navy identified the sailor found dead on April 9 as Class 3 Retail Services Specialist Mikail Sharp and the sailor found dead on April 10 as Class 3 Interior Communications Electrician Natasha Huffman.
There were also three more deaths from the ship in late 2019 and 2020. Two of those deaths are still under investigation, Self-Kyler said, but another death in December 2020 was also a suicide.
Despite being based on the West coast, the USS George Washington has been at Newport News' shipyards since 2017 through Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH), a process carried out in the middle of the carrier's lifetime refueling its nuclear fuel and updating its systems. The process was supposed to take two years, but has been delayed several times by the pandemic and other setbacks.
As of April 1, there have been 15 suicides this year among active service members of the Navy. Three in a single week earlier this month brings the total to 18 suicides.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has made addressing the issue of military suicide a priority. Last month, Secretary Austin set up an Independent Review Committee on Suicide Prevention and Response, which will look at the Department of Defense's efforts to address suicides among troops.
The committee will start work in May and begin visiting military bases and installations later this summer. A preliminary report with a set of preliminary recommendations will be released early next year.
"One death by suicide is too many," Austin wrote in the memo announcing the independent review committee.
"And the suicide rate among our Service members is still too high."
"We certainly want to look at things like the climate of command and culture and mission and op-tempo, the tempo at which we push people. All of those are stressors in life. Some of that can contribute to the problem of suicide. But then again it is It's a very individual thing," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said at a news conference Thursday.
"Every death is tragic in its own way, no matter how. And we, our thoughts and prayers go out to the family, and frankly the shipmates."
It is known that throughout 2020, 580 members of the military committed suicide, according to the Department of Defense. Suicide rates had risen across all branches of the military over the previous five years.
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