USS Abraham Lincoln docks in San Diego after grueling deployment

The USS Abraham Lincoln docked in San Diego on Thursday, completing a lengthy and grueling deployment to the Middle East, which was mired in tight food supplies and degrading mental health onboard the massive ship.

The Lincoln, a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, completed the 322-day deployment, which was expected to end this summer. It was extended as part of the U.S. war against Iran, in which the aircraft carrier helped enforce the U.S. naval blockade in the Arabian Sea.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised the crew on Wednesday for supporting the U.S. military’s operations against Iran, arguing the Abraham Lincoln strike group “projected decisive combat power and established maritime advantage” to help achieve President Trump’s strategic objectives.

“I draw inspiration from the mission that you executed so successfully,” the Pentagon chief said in a 16-minute speech aboard the vessel. “You have changed the arc of history, ensuring that crazy people, theocrats, never get a nuclear weapon, changes the arc of history.”

The Defense secretary said the Lincoln’s crew members showed resilience, conceding they operated in a tough environment, and he accused the news media of attempting to “turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into some sort of a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale, or a symbol of a failed mission.”

“When I talk to your leadership, and I have had a chance to talk to a number of you, I know it’s the exact opposite, which is actually what the media does so often. They see success, and they see excellence, and they see difficulty and challenge that needs to be overcome, an extension, a challenging environment, and they want to point to it as a symbol of something that was missed or wrong,” Hegseth said.

For its achievements, the Defense secretary presented the highest unit award, the Presidential Unit Citation, to the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group.

The strike group executed 3,693 combat sorties, delivered 1.37 million pounds of ordnance, launched 450 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles, shot down 77 Iranian one-way attack drones, sunk 64 Iranian warships, destroyed 21 antiship cruise missiles and defended against four fast-attack craft and dhows, according to Hegseth.

The deployment of the Lincoln, with about 5,000 sailors onboard, was thrust in the news cycle following news reports of poor living conditions, food supply challenges and degrading mental health.

The aircraft carrier did not have a port call for 286 days; it finally docked in Thailand for several days last month.

Part of the reason the Lincoln ran into logistical challenges is that Iranian strikes devastated the Naval Support Activity in Bahrain, the home of the U.S. 5th Fleet and the Navy’s logistics hub in the region.

Democratic lawmakers and some former Pentagon officials criticized the lengthy deployment, arguing the administration owes answers to military families.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.), whose district includes parts of San Diego, praised the sailors as “heroes,” saying they earned their homecoming, but argued the Trump administration owes answers to military families.

“For months, Marines and Sailors sounded the alarm about conditions aboard the ship, inadequate support, and the mental health toll this deployment was taking on those serving onboard,” Levin said Thursday on social media. “Their families begged for help and were repeatedly ignored.”

“And when those families were forced to turn to the press just to be heard, Pete Hegseth responded by telling the world the reports were fake news,” Levin wrote. “That is beyond unacceptable. It’s a betrayal of the men and women who put everything on the line for this country.”

Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao told Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a Senate Armed Services Committee member, that eight sailors assigned to the Lincoln carrier strike group attempted suicide during the deployment.

The end of the deployment for some abroad will mean they can see their family members for the first time.

“I just want to hold him, play with him,” said Brent Ledbetter, an air traffic control center officer, in an interview with NBC News when speaking about his baby boy, Nathan.

“He’s crawling around now, so I’m excited to chase him around the house and give him all the love that, that, you know —have been kind of withheld for the last 10 months,” he said. “I’m so excited.”

Hegseth told sailors on Wednesday to pass on gratitude from President Trump and himself to family members for the long wait “we believe, was in service of a righteous and historic mission.”

“Thank them for their patience, for their patriotism, for their love, and for their support for pitching in on the homeland, which is never easy.”