The USS Gerald R. Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest aircraft carrier, came back to Virginia on Saturday after an 11-month deployment that spanned operations tied to the U.S. war with Iran and a separate mission to capture Nicolás Maduro when he was Venezuela’s president. The Associated Press said the ships arrived at Naval Station Norfolk with about 5,000 sailors waiting to see their families for the first time since leaving in June.
According to the AP, the Ford and two destroyers docked as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on hand for the arrival. The accompanying ships included the destroyer USS Bainbridge, and the AP reported that Hegseth told the Bainbridge crew that it “made history” and that “You made a nation proud,” speaking on the destroyer’s deck.
The AP said Hegseth also spoke to the crews of the USS Mahan and the Ford. It reported that the Ford and the accompanying ships received the Presidential Unit Citation, a high-level award the AP described as typically reserved for significant combat achievement, in recognition of their service during the Iran war. The citation was described by the AP as lauded for “outstanding performance in action” against “a determined enemy.”
The Ford’s return capped a deployment the AP described as the longest since the Vietnam War. The AP said the carrier’s 326 days at sea were also the most for an aircraft carrier in the past 50 years, citing U.S. Naval Institute News for comparison figures. The AP further said that only earlier deployments—USS Midway in 1973 at 332 days and USS Coral Sea in 1965 at 329 days—were longer than the Ford’s time at sea.
In addition to the missions tied to Iran and Maduro, the AP reported that noncombat incidents affected the crew and schedule. It said a noncombat-related fire left hundreds of sailors without places to sleep and forced lengthy repairs on the Greek island of Crete, and it noted that the fire started in one of the carrier’s laundry spaces.
The Associated Press also reported that the Ford’s long time at sea raised questions about how prolonged absences affect service members and about strain on the ship and equipment beyond the fire. It described how, when the Ford left Virginia’s coast in June, it initially headed to the Mediterranean Sea before being rerouted to the Caribbean Sea in October as part of what the AP called the largest naval buildup in the region in generations.
The AP said the carrier then moved into the Middle East as tensions with Iran escalated, participating in the opening days of the Iran war from the Mediterranean Sea before going through the Suez Canal and heading into the Red Sea in early March. The AP also said the deployment included taking part in the January military operation to capture Maduro.
The AP compared the Ford’s deployment timeline with a separate reference point for days away from home. It said the crew of the USS Nimitz was on duty and away for a total of 341 days in 2020 and 2021, but that time included extended isolation periods ashore in the United States to help prevent the spread of COVID-19.