USS Abraham Lincoln Returns Home After 321-Day Deployment

The USS Abraham Lincoln came home to San Diego on Thursday. The carrier reached Naval Air Station North Island after a 321-day deployment, most of it spent in a war zone.

The ship left San Diego on Nov. 21, 2025, more than three months before the United States and Israel went to war with Iran on Feb. 28. The Lincoln spent more than 200 days in the combat zone, flying strikes against Iranian targets and helping enforce the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as part of Operation Epic Fury. The crew went 265 days without a port call.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew out to the carrier on Wednesday, a day before it arrived, and awarded the crew the Presidential Unit Citation, the military’s highest unit honor. “You have changed the arc of history,” Hegseth told the crew, crediting them with keeping nuclear weapons from Iran’s leaders.

He pushed back on reports of poor conditions aboard the ship. “There were a few folks in the media who tried to turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into some sort of a symbol, a symbol of dysfunction, or a symbol of low morale, or a symbol of a failed mission,” he said. “When I talk to your leadership, I know it’s the exact opposite.”

The toll the deployment took

The deployment wore down the roughly 5,000 sailors aboard. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told Congress in September that eight sailors in the Lincoln strike group attempted suicide during the deployment. No sailors died by suicide, he said. The Navy has acknowledged the ship suffered resupply disruptions, and families raised alarms at an Aug. 6 town hall in San Diego about possible food shortages and self-harm. Days later, Military Times reported that two service members had attempted to jump overboard.

President Trump said on Aug. 14 that families were not worried about the ship and that, in his view, the deployment had not gone on long enough. Families told USA Today the opposite: they were concerned about their relatives and upset by his remarks.

What’s next for the ship

The Lincoln will stay at North Island while the crew takes leave and equipment comes off the ship. An advance group of about 40 sailors from the carrier’s helicopter squadron already flew home last week. The Navy is expected to move the carrier to Naval Base Kitsap in Washington, which has the only West Coast dry dock big enough for a Nimitz-class ship, but it has not set a date.