Secretary Hegseth Welcomes USS Abraham Lincoln After Record Deployment

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth welcomed the crew of the USS Abraham Lincoln to San Diego on Wednesday, October 7, 2026, following a 320-day deployment. The aircraft carrier, which departed in November 2025, was rerouted to the Middle East to support Operation Epic Fury during the war against Iran. The mission was one of the longest post-Vietnam carrier deployments, with the crew spending between 260 and 286 consecutive days at sea without a port call.

During the deployment, the strike group executed 3,693 combat missions, sank 64 Iranian warships, and launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles. Hegseth awarded the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest honor for unit achievement in combat, and praised their resilience. However, the mission was marred by severe hardships, including food and medicine shortages caused by Iranian attacks on a U.S. logistics center in Bahrain.

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirmed in a letter to Congress that eight service members across the strike group attempted suicide during the deployment. Democratic lawmakers, including Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Representative Sara Jacobs, criticized the administration for poor planning and deteriorating living conditions. President Donald Trump and Secretary Hegseth previously dismissed these reports as misrepresentations, with Trump stating the deployment was "not nearly long enough."