When the USS Abraham Lincoln pulls into San Diego on Thursday after a grueling 10-month deployment during the Iran war, the wife of a sailor who jumped overboard from the carrier in August — in what she describes as a suicide attempt — plans to be at the homecoming, handing out flyers to the crew and their families.

“Every service member deserves support, not stigma,” the flyers read. “Need mental health support? You have the right to ask.”

She’ll be passing them out alongside Kristofer Goldsmith, an Army veteran who survived a suicide attempt after his own deployment to Iraq and was disciplined by the Army afterward. Goldsmith printed the flyers so the nearly 5,000 sailors and Marines coming home will know they aren’t alone, and that the law gives them ways to get help while they’re still serving.

Homecomings are usually festive and emotional. This one comes at the end of an unusually hard tour.

In a letter to a Democratic senator last month, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said major combat operations against Iran had made it harder to resupply the Lincoln while its strike fighters attacked Iran and helped defend U.S. bases and allies in the region. He also acknowledged temporary problems with the ship’s plumbing and drinking water systems.

Cao wrote that there were eight suicide attempts during the deployment across the Lincoln and the other ships in its carrier strike group. He confirmed that a sailor went overboard in August, and that shipmates stopped another sailor from going overboard in March.

The Lincoln has “no elevated mishap rates” compared to other carriers, Cao wrote, adding that the Lincoln’s medical personnel were able to take care of all mental health needs. 

The wife of the sailor who jumped off the Lincoln’s flight deck in August described his increasing frustration that the ship’s return date kept getting pushed back and that intermittent internet access on board due to combat operations meant he wasn’t able to consistently communicate with her and their young children. She spoke to MS NOW on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive mental health issues.

After he was medically evacuated to San Diego, she was shocked that he faced disciplinary charges when what she felt he needed was mental health assistance. The wife said her husband was found guilty of “jumping from a vessel” and “malingering,” in September, and given an oral reprimand.

In response to questions from MS NOW about why sailors may face disciplinary charges for incidents like this, a Navy spokesperson said they are not able to comment on a specific service member’s personnel records.

Sailors are accountable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Navy official wrote in a statement, “but suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts are not, themselves, punishable misconduct. They require a safety-first response, clinical care, and command support. Any separate allegation of misconduct is considered on its own facts with appropriate legal consultation.”

After MS NOW reported on the disciplinary charges the sailor faced, a dozen veterans reached out to describe experiencing retaliation or discipline when they were facing their own mental health challenges while serving, including Goldsmith, who was also disciplined after he tried to die by suicide. 

All of them wanted to bring attention to the way the United States military handles mental health crises of both active service members and veterans.

‘Treated like a criminal’

It was Kristofer Goldsmith’s dream to serve a life in the military. In 2005, at age 19, he deployed to Iraq, serving as an Army forward observer, where that dream quickly turned into a nightmare. 

Part of his job was photographing mass graves and victims of torture and murder. Some of the victims he documented were children, Goldsmith said. That work, along with what he described as “people trying to kill me for a year straight” and the constant gunfire and explosions of a war zone, left him with severe post-traumatic stress, he said.

Back home, Goldsmith said, he kept his head down for the next 18 months and was promoted to sergeant. He didn’t plan to reenlist when his contract ended in May 2007. He wanted to use the GI Bill to pay for college instead. He had come to see college as the “light at the end of the tunnel” after his hard years of service, he said.

But that year, the Army issued stop loss orders to keep troops enlisted during the surge of forces sent to fight a growing insurgency in Iraq, extinguishing Goldsmith’s light. Instead of leaving, Goldsmith had his service involuntarily extended, and he was redeployed for an unspecified length of time.

That “absolutely broke” him, Goldsmith said. His symptoms — which he said had been manifesting for six months by then — got worse. 

Goldsmith said he tried to be “proactive” and repeatedly tried to “get help” for his mental health by going to the hospital in Fort Stewart, Georgia — where he was stationed — in hopes of getting treatment from medical professionals. 

Goldsmith said he told his Army psychiatrists that he had been contemplating suicide.

During Memorial Day weekend that year, Goldsmith attempted to die by suicide. He said he went from “being the golden boy” in his unit to being “treated like a criminal.” He said he woke up handcuffed to a gurney at Winn Army Community Hospital on base and was “threatened with being kept there indefinitely” unless he “played ball” which he claimed meant lying and saying he wasn’t actually suicidal and was ready to deploy.

Goldsmith then received an Article 15, a form of nonjudicial punishment in the Army that lets commanders discipline service members without a formal trial. The charge was “malingering,” which accuses a service member of faking an illness to get out of duty.

Because he had evidence that he had tried to get help, Goldsmith said, he demanded a court-martial, a formal military trial in front of a judge. He said he never got one, and instead, he was forced out of the Army.

The Army did not reply to a request for comment.

“Within three months” of attempting suicide, Goldsmith said, “I went from Sgt. Goldsmith to Mr. Goldsmith, living in my childhood bedroom, having my life’s dream stripped away, and again being left with a military record that looked like a criminal record, despite years of honorable service.”

That court-martial never came to fruition, and instead, Goldsmith was discharged from the Army.

Goldsmith left the military with general discharge which meant he didn’t have access to the GI Bill. Goldsmith did have access to VA healthcare, and found out he was eligible for a vocational rehabilitation program. He started going to community college, got good grades and eventually transferred to Columbia University in New York City. 

In the years that followed, Goldsmith has spent his time pushing the Army to change how it treats people in crisis, including by testifying before Congress and advocating for legislation to protect veterans. 

He also worked to get his discharge upgraded to an “honorable” discharge, and after 12 years, he was finally able to do just that. But he said the damage was already done, and he would never get his twenties back.

Goldsmith’s work is bringing him across the country from his home state of New York to San Diego for the Lincoln’s arrival Thursday. He’s worked alongside fellow veterans and military families with VALOR Media Network to bring the flyers and gift packages for the returning troops.

Goldsmith’s red, white and blue cards are meant to inform service members of their right to mental health care under the Brandon Act, a 2021 law is named for Brandon Caserta, a Navy sailor who died by suicide in 2018 after asking his command for help.

‘It is literally a law’

Teri and Patrick Caserta want more service members, including those stepping off the Lincoln this week, to know their rights under the law named for their son.

Brandon Caserta grew up surrounded by the Navy — his dad served for 22 years — and he wanted to be a Navy SEAL. With hard work, including hours-long workouts, and his parents’ support, he met the fitness standards to join Navy SEAL basic training in 2015.  

A few weeks into Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training, known as BUD/S, Brandon started having pain in his leg and thought he needed an X-ray. His parents say the medical staff assigned to the SEALs pushed back and insisted he just had shin splints.

One day during beach drills, Brandon collapsed and passed out. His parents said that instead of getting medical help, he was thrown in the back of a pickup truck and taken to “the bell” — a brass ship bell that sits at the center of the SEAL training compound, where if rung by a trainee, signaled a voluntary withdrawal from the SEAL program.

According to his mother, Brandon argued with his instructor for 10 to 15 minutes. He said he would not ring the bell and that he needed medical attention. She said the instructor ignored him and rang the bell for him, ending Brandon’s chance of becoming a SEAL.

Afterward, Brandon was seen at a hospital on the base, where his parents say he begged for an X-ray and was again told he probably had shin splints. When he finally got one, it showed his shin was broken in three places, they said. His parents argue that an earlier X-ray would have found the break and could have been rolled into a later class once he healed and gotten another shot at becoming a SEAL.

Now out of SEAL training, Brandon had to re-rate, which meant choosing a new job specialty in the Navy. After initial training as an aviation electrician in Florida, he was sent to Norfolk, Virginia, to specialize in working on helicopters.

In Norfolk, his parents say Brandon was mistreated and verbally abused for not finishing SEAL training. They said he tried to get help for his mental health struggles, but his command wouldn’t let him.

In 2018, after two years in Norfolk, Brandon died by suicide. 

The Navy did not reply to a request for comment.

Devastated, his parents went to Washington in 2019 to find members of Congress who would back a bill to make sure service members in Brandon’s position could get the help they need.

“We wanted to make sure that no other service member goes through what Brandon went through, and no other family goes through what we went through,” Teri Caserta said. 

The bill was signed into law in December 2021 by then-President Joe Biden as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. In May 2023, the Defense Department announced it was being implemented.

The law improved the self-initiated referral process for a mental health evaluation for members of the armed forces, “requiring the commanding officer or supervisor of the member to refer the member to a mental health provider for a mental health evaluation as soon as practicable following the request of the member.” It was also designed to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. 

“It is a law. It is literally a law,” Patrick Caserta said. “If you’re not following the Brandon Act, you, or allow somebody to use it, you are breaking the law.” 

But the Casertas want the military to do more. 

They are now pushing for passage of the Brandon Act Training and Protocol Act. The bill would require the defense secretary to develop a strategic plan for the mental health of the armed forces. The plan would include specialized training for commanders, senior enlisted leaders and medical personnel on spotting and responding to mental health concerns.

In the military, you’re drilled on the idea that mission comes first, said Patrick, “But unfortunately, you cannot do the mission without the people, so, like it or not, people come first,” he said. “You need to take care of those people.” 

‘No accountability’

Jaimie Bethea died by suicide aboard the USS Fort Lauderdale in June, 11 months into a lengthy deployment in the Caribbean where the ship had been part of the operation that captured Venezuela’s then-president Nicolás Maduro.

Bethea had been texting her family about the mental health challenges she was facing being onboard as the Navy repeatedly pushed back its return date, says her sister Arianna Calderon. 

Her mother had died in the months leading up to the deployment, and she’d been prescribed antidepressants by the Navy, her sister said. But she was still struggling. 

She told her sister she had repeatedly consulted the medical team on board the ship, according to text messages reviewed by MS NOW. “I think going on deployment 3 months after going through that is taking its toll,” she wrote in a text to her sister. 

A U.S. Navy spokesperson said the Navy “mourns the loss” of Bethea and is not able to discuss a specific sailor’s medical information or use of support services.

After her sister’s death, many veterans, including the Caserta family, reached out to offer their condolences and support, Calderon said in an interview with MS NOW’s The Assignment.

She believes the Navy should have done more to get her sister the help she needed, as laid out in the Brandon Act, she said.

“This law is not being followed — blatantly,” Calderon said. “Why are we as civilians being forced to do the work of the military for them? Why is there just no accountability for them?”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.

The post As the USS Abraham Lincoln heads home, concerns mount over how the military treats mental health appeared first on MS NOW.

From MS Now.