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 1. 
 2. Military News


SAILOR WHO DIED BY SUICIDE ON ROOSEVELT CARRIER FACED LACK OF RESOURCES, POOR
LEADERSHIP BY ENLISTED SUPERVISORS



The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt and ships assigned to
Carrier Strike Group Nine (CSG) 9 sail in formation in the Pacific Ocean, Nov.
10, 2023 (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Richard
Tinker)
Military.com | By Konstantin Toropin
Published January 05, 2024 at 6:44pm ET

A Navy investigation of a suicide aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft
carrier last year has revealed deadly shortcomings in the service's peer-based
method of addressing mental health, which depends on fellow sailors and
deckplate leadership to provide support.

The command-directed probe of the death aboard the Roosevelt as it was
undergoing a long maintenance period in Washington state details failures by
friends on the ship to report warning signs and poor leadership by enlisted
supervisors that may have contributed to the death. It also suggests a separate
recent suicide cluster aboard another carrier, the USS George Washington, was
not an isolated issue.




Electrician's Mate (Nuclear) 3rd Class Jacob Slocum, who died by suicide on the
ship on Dec. 5, 2022, was one of three sailors on the Roosevelt at the time who
would end their lives in the span of a few months. The investigation into his
death was not publicly released but was provided to his family and obtained by
Military.com.

Read Next: B-1B Lancer Bomber Crashes at Air Force Base in South Dakota During
Training Mission

"The findings of this investigation, coupled with those of the investigation
into suicides aboard USS George Washington ... indicate that sailors assigned to
ships in extended maintenance availabilities may be at higher risk," Rear Adm.
Christopher Alexander, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 9, wrote in the
letter accepting the investigation's findings.

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The investigation, which focused largely on the circumstances that led to
Slocum's suicide in one of the ship's engineering spaces, reveals that access to
mental health was lacking aboard the ship even as pressure increased on the
crew, and especially Slocum's nuclear reactor division, to make the ship ready
to leave the shipyard.

In the case of the George Washington, Navy figures showed that the carrier had
suffered at least nine suicides since November 2019.

It took sailors reaching out to Military.com after the final incident in April
2022 to make the spate of suicides public. The sailors who were interviewed
pointed to issues such as commuting time, challenges with living aboard and
absent leadership as problems. Later, Navy investigations confirmed those
problems, along with leadership issues and a general failure to take care of
sailors that left them fending for themselves and drove suicidal thoughts to
become widespread among the ship.

The commander of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. Brian Schrum, noted that
"having reviewed the [George Washington] investigations, I observed several
commonalities that exist within this report" in his own letter accepting the
investigation's findings.

However, Schrum did not specifically say what he thought those were and also
noted that there were "very specific and unique matters to what occurred onboard
[the Roosevelt], such as the individual leadership and performance failures that
were noted in the investigation."

A Navy spokesperson told Military.com that "while the Navy is a resilient force,
we face the same challenges in physical and mental health affecting the nation
we serve."

"The Navy is working daily to ensure support and resources are available to
sailors in the shipyards, at sea and at home," the spokesperson added.

During the summer of 2022, the Roosevelt's psychologist "noticed what he
believed was an increase in psychiatric hospitalizations and use of uniformed
mental health outpatient services" aboard the ship.

The lieutenant, whose name is redacted in the report, also determined that
reactor department sailors like Slocum were the "largest consumers of mental
health outpatient services," with nearly half of all mental health encounters
from June to July 2022 being from that team.

Schrum acknowledged that "a pressurized shipyard workload, coupled with
increasing schedule fluctuation and pressure to remain on timeline, created a
demanding environment for our sailors across the ship and especially within
[the] reactor department."

The ship asked for another counselor in August. The report noted that "the
ship's psychologist assessed that current manning is insufficient to meet the
mental health needs of over 2,600 individuals on board."

That request went unanswered, but wait times for help grew.

"Most of the sailors interviewed understood the wait time to see a shipboard
mental health provider when someone is not in a state of acute crisis is
generally 2-4 weeks; however, some were of the belief that it could take months
to get an appointment," the report found.

The investigations of the George Washington found similar, overwhelming demands.

The crew started to buckle, and the report found that in the year since June
2022, the Theodore Roosevelt had placed 14 on limited duty and separated another
24 from the Navy altogether for mental health reasons.

There was an acknowledgement from senior enlisted leaders that the shipyard
environment was part of the problem.

One senior chief petty officer in the reactor department told investigators that
"the shipyard was responsible for 80% of the low morale," and that "the dynamic
between the shipyard and the sailors can cause friction and becomes an added
stressor."

Even the investigator, a Navy captain who himself ran a reactor department in
the past, noted that the "climate/culture that was present over the last year on
[the Roosevelt] is not that different from my recent experience on [USS Carl
Vinson] at a similar time in a [carrier] lifecycle just a few years ago."

In those situations, when mental health services are stretched or unavailable,
the Navy says sailors should turn to each other and their bosses -- the chief
petty officers -- for help.

Last March, at the rollout of the Navy's new "Mental Health Playbook," Force
Master Chief Jason Dunn, a top enlisted official at the Navy's Installation
Command, told reporters that "the chief's mess is obligated to know their
sailors and detect differences and things in a sailor so that they can have that
conversation and check on their quality of life and well-being."

"Sometimes, the sailor just needs that conversation -- that kneecap to kneecap
-- to have a discussion about what's going on in their lives," Dunn said.

However, the investigation found that the chiefs in Slocum's orbit were part of
the problem. Many sailors blamed one chief for Slocum's suicide while another,
senior chief was "specifically cited by multiple witnesses as being unsupportive
of sailors accessing mental health resources."

In fact, "several witnesses in various levels of reactor leadership positions
agreed that the stigma against mental health was occurring at the deck plate or
'peer to peer' level," the investigators said.

"Several people who cared for [Slocum] were made aware of warning signs about
his mental well-being," the report found, but it noted that none alerted ship
leaders.

"First-line supervisors appear ill-equipped to identify warning signs and to
take appropriate preventive actions," the report concluded.

The ship's medical officer wanted to have a training period to talk to the crew
about "mental fitness, resiliency, and stress control" that they began planning
in August. But "due to various ship scheduling and assessment conflicts," the
date was ultimately set for "early or mid-December."

Slocum died on Dec. 5, 2022, just three days after the scheduled date for the
training. It was "ultimately shifted to mid-December 2022," the report noted.

Following Slocum's death, the investigation found that leaders in the reactor
department and the ship gave those sailors "a week off of work to grieve, access
resources, and recover from the tragic loss of their shipmate."

But when additional time was requested, it was "ultimately denied, by
individuals up echelon due to the need to complete the availability in a timely
manner," the report added.

Alexander said that he agreed with the report's recommendation that additional
mental health resources be made available to the ship and even added that "this
recommendation is likely applicable to all [aircraft carriers]."

After Slocum's death, the ship received an influx of temporary help, including
grief counselors and the Navy's "Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team,"
or SPRINT. But, the report, which was submitted in August, noted that at the
time, the Roosevelt had yet to receive the extra, permanent counselor it
requested in the prior summer.

Veterans and service members experiencing a mental health emergency can call the
Veteran Crisis Line, 988 and press 1. Help also is available by text, 838255,
and via chat at VeteransCrisisLine.net.

Related: 'A 9/11-like Event': Navy Report on Carrier Suicides Cites Missed
Warning Signs, Leadership Failures

Story Continues
Related Topics: Military Headlines US Navy Topics Mental Health and Wellness
Aircraft Carriers Suicide Prevention


KONSTANTIN TOROPIN



Konstantin Toropin is a reporter for Military.com specializing in coverage of
the Navy and Marine Corps. He is also a US Navy veteran, having served five
years in the surface fleet as a signals intelligence analyst. Read Full Bio

© Copyright 2024 Military.com. All rights reserved. This article may not be
republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written
permission. To reprint or license this article or any content from Military.com,
please submit your request here.
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