Editor’s note: This story mentions suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling, call 988 to reach the state’s mental health lifeline. Service members can press 1 to reach the Military Crisis Line.
Six U.S. Navy service members from one unit at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City died by suicide last year.
The Frontier identified the service members using state medical examiner records and obituaries. The sailors ranged in age from 20 to 41. Some died within weeks of each other.
Military officials confirmed six members of the Navy’s Strategic Communications Wing 1 at Tinker died by suicide in 2025 in response to The Frontier’s questions.
“We mourn the loss of our shipmates and friends. Our sincerest condolences are with the sailors’ families, friends, and shipmates during this extremely difficult time,” the Navy and Tinker Air Force Base said in a statement. “Grief counseling services and support are available through the chain of command and the command chaplain.”
Naval leaders visited Tinker in response to the deaths to gather information on how the Navy can better support sailors stationed at Tinker, the statement said. Two teams of chaplains also traveled to Tinker to provide “suicide prevention, relationship building and resilience training,” the statement said.
Strategic Communications Wing 1 employs about 1,300 active duty service members and 100 contractors. The unit supports the Navy’s E-6B Mercury aircraft, sometimes called the doomsday plane. The plane can act as a nuclear command center in the sky, allowing the U.S. President and the Secretary of Defense to communicate with submarines, bombers and missile silos, even if everything on the ground has been leveled in an attack or other disaster.
Thatcher Rupert, 20, was the most recent sailor to die from Tinker. He was part of the Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron 3, also called the VQ-3 Ironmen. The VQ-3 is one of three Navy squadrons under Strategic Communications Wing 1.
Rupert loved science and enlisted in the Navy after graduating from high school in Connecticut, hopeful for a career as a nuclear submariner. But the Navy assigned him to a clerical job at Tinker instead, his mother Alicia Kelsey said.
Rupert struggled with depression at Tinker and was hospitalized twice in the months leading up to his death.
On Dec. 9, 2025, Rupert went to the mental health clinic at Tinker, asking to be hospitalized again, his mother said. Rupert’s parents have received conflicting accounts of what happened next. But they said Rupert left the military base without receiving help and was later spotted on a nearby highway overpass, where he jumped to his death.
Rupert’s parents believe their son’s death could have been prevented if he had access to immediate help.
“We know something pushed him to go to that bridge that day,” Rupert’s dad, Kenneth Kelsey said. “It’s hard to imagine that if they were trying to accommodate him that he would have just left.”
Tinker has a mental health clinic that offers immediate crisis care for service members, Tinker and the Navy said in response to questions about Rupert’s death.
“The clinic does not turn away any distressed service members for not having an appointment,” the statement said.
The clinic can refer service members to inpatient or specialized hospitals if they need a higher level of care. Tinker also has a provider for emergency mental health care outside of regular clinic hours, officials said.
U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, acknowledged the recent deaths at Tinker during a Senate Armed Services subcommittee meeting in February.
Blumenthal asked the highest-ranking enlisted member of the Navy during the hearing what military leaders were doing to prevent more deaths.
“First, is there an issue at Tinker Air Force Base,” Blumenthal asked. “Second, what concrete changes are being made now to ensure service members’ crises are identified, treated and protected before they reach a breaking point?”
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy John Perryman said an investigation after the first handful of suicides found no “systemic” reason for the deaths. A subsequent review found “no contagion” at Tinker that had contributed to the deaths, he said.
Naval personnel at Tinker have counselors embedded with their unit, he said.
“They are on an Air Force Base and receive what I believe and what I have been told is exceptional service from the Air Force mental health people,” Perryman said.
Perryman also said the military has been “slow to institute actual prevention programs.”
The Frontier wants to talk to anyone with information about the recent deaths or access to mental health care at Tinker. Contact Brianna Bailey at 949-439-4855 or brianna@readfrontier.com.
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Brianna Bailey was hired by The Frontier in 2018 and became the outlet’s Managing Editor in 2021. Her hobbies are baking and crashing meetings she isn’t invited to attend. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The University of Oklahoma.
Email her at brianna@readfrontier.com
