CORONADO, Calif. — After more than 10 months at sea, thousands of sailors Thursday poured out of the the USS Lincoln on San Diego Bay to thunderous cheers, streaming tears and emotional hugs, marking a homecoming that included new dads who met babies born while they were away on a historic deployment supporting the Iran war. The reunion followed an emotional rollercoaster for families who described crying and losing sleep after hearing reports of supply shortages and deteriorating mental health among the crew during the deployment that spent a record 265 days of uninterrupted time at sea. Many said they only could communicate with family via the occasional email or rare WhatsApp calls.
Abel Ramirez, 20, was glad to have that all behind him. He walked off the carrier with a big grin, overjoyed that his first deployment was over. "It feels amazing," he said while headed out to search for his parents who traveled from Texas.
"There was a certain point when I never thought I would come off." Cassity Garduque, 14, waved as her mom in her sailor uniform frantically waved back from the top deck after the ship docked at the pier. "It feels really overwhelming," she said about being seeing her mom again. "She missed most of my seventh grade and my birthday." She added that she's happy her mom won't be eating ramen almost every day and can celebrate with her now.
Daniel Keeler, the ship's commander, said most of the crew was on their first deployment and that the issues they faced were normal for such a long deployment, adding everyone had access to four meals a day. "It's a floating city as you can see and at any moment there might be a clogged toilet," he said. The Navy initially downplayed any problems during the deployment, and President Donald Trump commented in August that the Lincoln's lengthy deployment was "not nearly long enough." Navy leaders eventually acknowledged there were some issues aboard.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew out to the Lincoln on Wednesday to give the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive. Hegseth told the crew 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 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." The Lincoln, which set a record for uninterrupted time at sea, is the second carrier to endure an unusually long deployment during the Iran war and to receive the Presidential Unit Citation afterward, typically reserved for significant achievement in combat.
The crew of the USS Gerald R. Ford returned in May from a 326-day deployment — the longest for an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years and a record in the post-Vietnam War era. The Lincoln's deployment of 322 days was just shy of that.
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