A U.S. Navy sailor suffered a non-combat injury on March 25 while working during flight operations aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, the Navy said.
The sailor was moved ashore for further medical treatment and is in stable condition, according to a statement released Thursday by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The statement described the injury as non-life-threatening.
The Navy withheld the sailor's name, rank and the specifics of what caused the injury. An investigation is underway.
Few Details Released
The statement offered few details beyond confirming the injury and noting that the Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group continues to carry out missions in support of Operation Epic Fury, the joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran. It did not specify whether the injury occurred on the flight deck, in a hangar bay or elsewhere aboard the ship.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after a fire broke out aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford in the Red Sea on March 12, injuring three sailors. That blaze, which started in the carrier's main laundry area, was also unrelated to combat. Two of those sailors returned to duty, while a third was flown off the ship for treatment.
The Ford has since left the theater entirely, pulling into Naval Support Activity Souda Bay in Crete for repairs after the fire destroyed roughly 100 beds and displaced about 600 sailors.
Iran Claims Missile Strike on Same Day
The sailor's injury occurred on the same day Iran's military claimed it fired Qader coastal anti-ship cruise missiles at the Lincoln and its strike group. The Iranian Army's public relations office announced the launch through state media.
Iranian Navy commander Rear Adm. Shahram Irani said the carrier is under "constant surveillance" and would face what he called "crushing strikes" whenever it enters the range of Iran's missile systems.
Iranian officials said the missiles forced the carrier to change position. The Fars News Agency released video showing missiles being fired into the darkness, but the footage did not show any impact on the carrier. No independent verification has confirmed damage to the ship.
It was the third time since the start of the war that Tehran claimed to have struck the Lincoln. On March 1, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said four ballistic missiles hit the carrier. CENTCOM called that claim a "lie" and posted on X that the missiles "didn't even come close."
Iran made a similar claim involving drone strikes on March 5. CENTCOM denied that one as well and released photos showing the carrier operating normally.
President Donald Trump said on March 24 that Iran had fired 101 missiles at the carrier and that U.S. naval defenses intercepted all of them. The Pentagon has not issued its own detailed account of that engagement.
The Carrier's Role in Operation Epic Fury
The Abraham Lincoln departed San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, for an Indo-Pacific deployment. The Navy rerouted the carrier and its strike group to the Middle East in January as tensions with Iran escalated in the weeks before the war began on Feb. 28.
The Lincoln operates as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 3, which includes Carrier Air Wing 9, the guided-missile destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. and ships from Destroyer Squadron 21, including the USS Spruance and USS Michael Murphy. The air wing's aircraft have been flying sorties against Iranian military targets around the clock since Epic Fury began.
Nearly 290 U.S. service members have been wounded in the campaign as of this week, according to CENTCOM spokesman Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins. About 255 of those troops have returned to duty, while 10 remain seriously wounded.
At least 13 American service members have been killed since the operation started. Those casualties have come primarily from Iranian drone and missile strikes on U.S. installations across seven countries in the region.
While the Lincoln sailor is not counted as part of the combat casualties, flight deck operations on a carrier remain one of the most dangerous jobs in the military. The tempo of wartime operations only raises the risk.
