2 sailors on USS George Washington died by suicide a day apart

At least two out of three Navy shipmates found dead in Virginia in less than a week died by suicide, including a 23-year-old newlywed who “never showed his pain,” family members and officials said Wednesday. .

Third Class Retail Services Specialist Mika’il Rayshawn Sharp died by suicide off base in Portsmouth on April 9, his mother, Natalie Jefferson, said.

Sharp, 23, joined the Navy about two years ago, following in the footsteps of several relatives, including his great-grandfather. Jefferson, 43, said he just got married last year and plans to buy a house and start having children with the wife he’s had an affair with.

“He was the life of the party,” Jefferson said, adding that she never understood that her son was struggling. “I never thought it would come this close to home.”

The Navy said on April 10, interior communications electrician Natasha Huffman died off base in Hampton. The state’s medical examiner’s office on Wednesday confirmed that the cause of death was suicide.

Five days after Huffman’s death, one sailor was found unresponsive aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, where they all served, Navy Lieutenant Colonel Cmdr. Robert Myers said in a statement. The sailor’s identity and cause of death have not yet been released.

The Naval Criminal Investigative Service and local authorities are investigating all three deaths, the Navy said. It made no additional comment on Wednesday following the confirmation of both suicides.

The news comes less than three years after similar suicides by the Navy. In 2019, three sailors who served on the aircraft carrier USS George HW Bush, die by suicide The Navy said at the time within a week in isolated cases off-base.

In 2020, the most recent year for which full data is available, 580 military members died by suicide, up 16% from 2019, when 498 people died by suicide, according to the report. Department of Defense.

The Pentagon said it did not see a statistical change in suicide rates from 2020 to 2019 or 2018 indicating an increase related to Covid-19.

“No two individuals are exactly the same and no two life experiences are exactly the same,” Army Major General Clement S. Coward said in the 2020 report. “So we’re working to solve the problem.” addresses a wide range of risk factors and enhances protective factors for members of our Armed Forces.”

According to Pentagon statistics, in 2020, 19 out of 100,000 sailors die by suicide compared with members of the Army, who have the highest rate, at around 36 per 100,000.

Jefferson, who lives with Sharp in Norfolk, Virginia, said she doesn’t think she has reason to worry about her son’s mental health. When not dancing, playing pool or cuddling his beloved dog, Sharp enjoys being in the Navy and learns a lot from his job, his mother says. He proposed to his girlfriend as soon as he returned home from training camp with an engagement ring his mother helped him choose.

Jefferson said her son must have hidden his struggles every day when he got home from work. “He never showed his pain,” she said.

But she wished he had. Jefferson urged other military members to seek help, whether from family and friends, other shipmates or military resources.

“Don’t be afraid to talk to anyone,” she said, “because the last thing any parent wants to do is bury their child.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741, or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for more resources .

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