Navy Discharges 19-Year-Old Sailor After 67-Foot USS Lincoln Jump
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 29
Navy Discharges 19-Year-Old Sailor After 67-Foot USS Lincoln Jump
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 29
Summary
Nicholas McKelvey, a 19-year-old Navy airman, was discharged Thursday for alleged “malingering” after jumping 67 feet from the USS Abraham Lincoln into the Arabian Sea in early August.
Navy records reviewed by the New York Times show he was rescued by helicopter after about 50 minutes; McKelvey said he had reached a breaking point and “didn’t want to be there anymore.”
His wife said the general discharge under honorable conditions will strip him of GI Bill education benefits, cutting off a college path the family had planned to use.
McKelvey had spent 255 days aboard the carrier, working 12-hour shifts during the Iran war, missing his daughter’s birth and enduring family illness and food shortages.
The case spotlights how the Navy handled mental health strains on the Lincoln, which returned to San Diego this month after a near-record 322-day deployment.