The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier is returning home to San Diego Thursday after a nearly year-long deployment at sea that drew national attention following reports of crew stress and supply shortages.
The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, the flagship of San Diego-based Carrier Strike Group 3, is scheduled to dock at Naval Air Station North Island at 3 p.m. ET Thursday with a complement of more than 5,000 sailors and Marines. The arrival marks the end of a record-setting days at sea and a deployment that was extended after the Iran war began in February.
The carrier supported military operations during the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran, dubbed Operation Epic Fury. It was at sea without a port call for 286 days, the second-longest deployment since the Vietnam War, with more than 300 consecutive days overseas. The USS Gerald R. Ford set the record for longest deployment by an aircraft carrier at 326 days, which ended earlier this year.
Hegseth visits Lincoln before arrival in San Diego
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew out to the carrier on Wednesday to give the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive that is typically reserved for significant achievement in combat.
NBC News reporter Courtney Kube was aboard the ship for Hegseth’s visit and for the Lincoln’s return home. Kube described the mood on the ship as “jovial” on the evening before they were set to dock. Sailors were seen chatting and laughing, while some were running a 5K around a deck now free of aircrafts.
In a speech to crewmembers on Wednesday, Hegseth acknowledged that he was the “only thing standing between you and home” and that he had been the one “who signed that orders book twice” to extend the ship’s deployment.
But, he pushed back against what he said were efforts to turn the “Lincoln into some sort of a symbol, a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission.”
He said that “what makes the U.S. military and the U.S. Navy and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you’re resilient and you overcome — you finish the mission nonetheless.”
Hegseth told the crew that President Donald Trump “tracked your activities from day one and couldn’t be more proud of what you executed.”
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The Navy initially downplayed problems on the carrier
The carrier drew national attention following reports of stress among the crew and poor mental health, as well as supply shortages, including food and hygiene products, during its Iran war mission.
The Navy initially downplayed any problems, and Trump commented in August that the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment was “not nearly long enough.”
The carrier had left San Diego in November and arrived in the Middle East in January. U.S. and Israeli forces launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28.
Navy leaders, however, eventually acknowledged there were some issues aboard.
In August, acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said the Lincoln maintained adequate food supplies, but because combat operations limited resupply opportunities, meal options were reduced from two to one for a short time. He said in a letter to a Democratic lawmaker seeking information that four nutritionally balanced meals were served daily.
The Navy told lawmakers that eight sailors attempted suicide during the record-setting deployment, though experts say that number is low in a strike group of 6,000 sailors over 10 months.
After more than 10 months at sea, the Lincoln’s crew got a stop in Thailand early last month on the way back from the Middle East.
According to the citation that Hegseth read to the crew, the Lincoln and its strike group executed 3,693 combat missions, delivered 1.37 million pounds of ordnance, launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shot down 77 one-way attack drones, sank 64 Iranian warships, destroyed 21 anti-ship cruise missiles and defended against four fast-attack craft and explosive-carrying ships.
Another carrier, the usually Asia-based USS George Washington, relieved the Lincoln in the Middle East in August.
This story originally appeared on NBCSanDiego.com.
