After spending over 260 consecutive days at sea without a port call, the USS Abraham Lincoln returned home to Naval Air Station North Island today, where nearly 5,000 sailors were greeted by family members, friends and loved ones.
One mother, Misty Scott, said she drove all the way from Missouri to welcome her daughter, Emmaleigh, home after almost a year of very little communication.
“It’s a relief. It was very very stressful,” said Misty as she left the main gate of Naval Air Station North Island with her daughter.
Emmaleigh Scott, 20, had spent her time on the Lincoln fueling jets and aircraft on the flight deck. She said this deployment was one for the books.
The Lincoln’s record-long deployment in the Middle East started at the end of November when the carrier departed Naval Air Station North Island with no public attention. The carrier strike group was quickly directed to assist in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran, most notably being used to block the Strait of Hormuz in recent months.
The Lincoln and its strike group executed nearly 3,700 combat missions, launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shot down 77 one-way attack drones, sank 64 Iranian warships, and destroyed 21 anti-ship cruise missiles, according to a citation that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth read on Oct. 7.
Hegseth flew out to the Lincoln on Oct. 7 to give the sailors aboard the ship the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor a unit can receive for extraordinary heroism.
The Lincoln’s return follows ongoing reports of stress, poor mental health, suicide attempts and food shortages aboard the ship.
Hegseth said that the media tried to turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into “a symbol of dysfunction, or a symbol of low morale, or a symbol of failed mission.”
He applauded the sailors on their deployment, saying that he draws inspiration from the mission they executed.
“You have changed the arc of history: Ensuring that crazy people — theocrats — never get a nuclear weapon changes the arc of history. … And it’s because of what this strike group has done, and [what] other great Americans are still doing now,” Hegseth said, as reported in a release from the U.S. Department of War.
“We’re all glad to be back, happy, and we were very thankful for the homecoming that we got,” said Emmaleigh Scott.
“I can’t even explain to you how I feel (about ending the deployment),” said Victoria Mendez, who was also on the Lincoln. “Shock at first, I feel like nothing has settled in yet.”
