The USS Gerald R. Ford, the world largest aircraft carrier, returned home to Virginia on Saturday after an 11-month deployment, the longest since the Vietnam War, that saw it support the war with Iran and the capture of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. The most advanced US warship and two accompanying destroyers docked at Naval Station Norfolk with about 5,000 sailors waiting to see their families for the first time since June, the AP reports. Hundreds of friends and family members lined the pier to celebrate the end of a difficult mission that left many displeased. "I didn't think they were ever going to get back. I thought they were going to get extended again," said Alexis Burgess, per Stars and Stripes, adding, "I wish it could have been sooner."
Besides conducting combat operations and traversing continents, the sailors aboard the carrier faced a noncombat-related fire that left hundreds without places to sleep and forced lengthy repairs on the Greek island of Crete. They missed weddings and births; Burgess was among those who gave birth with a spouse at sea. "The kids expected him to come home, and then he doesn't," said Brittanie Hyder. The deployment began on June 24 as a peacetime cruise, per the New York Times. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth then ordered the group to the Caribbean ahead of the Venezuela raid. He was in Norfolk on Saturday and presented the Presidential Unit Citation. "The only story we can tell today is of the heroism and the skill and the professionalism of these sailors, who went three times around the globe to defend that flag right there," Hegseth said.
The length of the Ford's time at sea has raised questions about the impact on service members who are away from home for long periods, as well as about the strain on the ship and its equipment beyond the fire, which started in one of the carrier's laundry spaces, per the AP. Erica Feiste said she was able to talk with her husband frequently. "I think the communications were actually better than I expected for the most part," she said. "The length and the conditions" of the deployment, she added, "were worse than I expected."
At a town hall hosted by Navy officials in Norfolk in March, family members were able to sound off, per the Times. At times, they jeered John Phelan and Hung Cao. "I do not control what the Navy does," one woman read from a statement by a Ford sailor. "I do, however, control whether or not I will re-enlist, and as of right now I cannot and will not afford the Navy the opportunity to potentially tear my family apart again for a year."
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