Sailor aboard USS Theodore Roosevelt died by suicide, coroner's office confirms

The cause of the death of a sailor who was found dead on USS Theodore Roosevelt on Dec. 5 was confirmed to be suicide, according to Kitsap County Coroner's office. Family members of the sailor were notified by the Navy, and the death is under investigation by Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Electrician's Mate (Nuclear) 3rd Class Jacob Slocum, 23, from Elmhurst, Illinois, was assigned to be a nuclear electrician on the USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2019. He came to Bremerton with the aircraft carrier when the ship arrived for overhaul at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in July 2021, according to his family in an interview with the Kitsap Sun. Jacob Slocum's sister, Danya Slocum, said her brother was inspired to military service by an uncle who served more than 27 years in the Navy.

"He always wanted to join the military," Danya Slocum said, adding that her brother was proud of his Navy service.

Although the Navy can't confirm the manner of Slocum's death before NCIS completes its investigation, USS Theodore Roosevelt spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Ben Anderson confirmed that one other USS Theodore Roosevelt sailor died by suicide since the ship has been stationed in Bremerton. That death occured over a year ago, according to Anderson.

"While that tragedy occurred more than a year ago, even one death is far too many," Anderson said. "Leadership at all levels on our ship are actively engaging with Sailors to ensure they and their families are aware of and receive all the resources available to them when they are in need, and to ensure a climate of trust and transparency that encourages Sailors to ask for help."

NCIS is conducting an investigation into the death of Slocum and will not comment further while the investigation continues out of respect for the investigative process, said an NCIS spokesperson, Jeff Houston, in a written email replied to Kitsap Sun last week.

Family members of Slocum, currently in Illinois, told the Kitsap Sun they have requested records from NCIS and have been told the investigation could take from three to four months up to a year.

The incident in Bremerton comes just after a time when at least four U.S. Navy sailors who worked for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Maintenance Center (MARMC), which maintains military ships and is based in Virginia, died by suicide between October and November, as reported by NBC News.

Navy leadership has responded by adding mental health resources available to Roosevelt sailors. Chaplains, psychologists and counselors are providing support and counseling, according to Anderson. In addition, resources from Naval Base Kitsap and a Naval Hospital Bremerton Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team (SPRINT) were also requested by the ship’s leadership to provide further support to the sailors of the ship.

USS Theodore Roosevelt has a deployed resiliency counselor, a staff clinical psychologist, an enlisted behavioral health specialist and three chaplains assigned to it. Additional resources have been added, Anderson said, including an additional clinical psychologist, two psychiatric technicians from Naval Hospital Bremerton, three additional chaplains from Naval Base Kitsap, and two licensed mental health professionals from Fleet and Family Services. The Commanding Officer also requested and received a Naval Hospital Bremerton Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team on the ship from Dec. 12 to 16, to provide further support to the sailors of Theodore Roosevelt, Anderson said.

A command-wide Behavioral Health and Safety Stand Down event was held Thursday, which brought crew and leaders together to discuss suicide prevention and other safety-related topics, Anderson said.

Service members and veterans who are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide and those who know a service member or veteran in crisis can call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat online at VeteransCrisisLine.net/Chat to contact the Veterans Crisis Line for confidential support.

For those in Kitsap, Navy Medicine Readiness Training Command (NMRTC) Bremerton provides daily safety check walk-in availability in its mental health department for all active duty service members from Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Those in need can also call the mental health department at 360-475-4219 for help, according to the hospital's spokesperson Douglas Stutz.

“If a patient calls with safety concerns and is unsure if they are able to make it into Mental Health, a safety check assessment will be done over the phone to make certain the patient is getting the care/help which they need, even following up at our clinic or contacting [their] command to help get the patient to the nearest emergency room, if necessary,” said NMRTC Bremerton staff psychologist Lt. Maxwell Anderson.

This story has been changed since it was first published to correct the information regarding the Special Psychiatric Rapid Intervention Team.

Reporter Peiyu Lin covers the military and South Kitsap for the Kitsap Sun. She can be reached at pei-yu.lin@kitsapsun.com or on Twitter @peiyulintw.

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This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Sailor aboard USS Roosevelt died by suicide, coroner's office confirms