Thousands gather to welcome tired USS Lincoln sailors after difficult time at sea | American military

By 4 a.m. Thursday, the skies still dark, Private Grayden Monroe, 19, and his mother had arrived at Naval Base San Diego, Calif., the very first members of the military family huddled on a set of metal bleachers overlooking the dark water. They were waiting for Monroe’s 21-year-old sister to come off the USS Abraham Lincoln, the troubled aircraft carrier that has been at sea for nearly a year.

Monroe, a soldier stationed at Fort Campbell, wore his military uniform for the occasion. “I hope she’s proud of me,” he said of his sister, “and I hope she knows full well that I’m just as proud of her.”

As the sun rose over Naval Air Station North Island, thousands of people flocked to the base for the long-awaited return of the USS Lincoln. The atmosphere was de facto festival-like, with a live band, performers on stilts, therapy dogs, handmade signs, giant cutouts of smiling sailors’ faces. People were crying, laughing, shouting with joy.

When the Lincoln came into view midway around noon on the downtown corner, cheers erupted across the bay. Uniformed sailors lined the sides of the ship, waving to the crowds and calling loved ones. Under the American flag, rust spots were visible on the sides of the carrier. The immense city-like ship had finally reached dry land.

Military families and friends have been waiting for this day for months.

The Lincoln first left San Diego last November, with an expected return date in the spring. But as the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran, the aircraft carrier was diverted to the Middle East, extending the deployment of the approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines on board for a then unknown length of time. The Lincoln’s deployment spanned 321 days, including 264 consecutive days at sea nonstop, a record in modern naval history, the Department of Defense said.

For months, sailors have reported unsafe living conditions aboard the Lincoln: shortages of food and basic supplies, a series of suicide attempts and a general sense of deteriorating mental health and declining morale. The reports immediately sparked a political firestorm, with Democratic lawmakers calling for an investigation, even as Donald Trump and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sought to downplay the situation. The US Navy confirmed last month that eight service members from the Lincoln and its accompanying strike group had attempted suicide since the deployment began.

After the Lincoln was officially announced home in August, it took the carrier nearly two long months to return to San Diego, making a brief stopover in Thailand and then charting a course east across the Pacific Ocean.

But on Thursday, at the naval base, the scene was not completely euphoric.

A baby in a stroller was placed with a sign reading “I waited 234 days to hug my daddy!” » The baby’s mother, Brenda Rivas, said she was five months pregnant when her husband was deployed. He missed the birth and the first time he was able to see his daughter via video call was six months later.

“It’s mixed emotions,” Rivas said. “I’m more sad than excited because he’s missed so much.”

And an emotional reunion on the dock was not an option for everyone, especially for the many military families spread across the country.

Dawn, a mother who asked that only her first name be used because she feared reprisals from the military, anxiously watched the ship’s arrival live from a small Texas town, her eyes “glued to the television” for hours. His son is a soldier on the Lincoln.

“I couldn’t sleep. I was tossing and turning,” she texted early Thursday morning. “I feel so happy that my granddaughter sees her daddy!

Figuring the scene in San Diego would be too chaotic, Dawn flies to California the next week to reunite with her son and five-year-old daughter. She plans to help him “put everything back in order”: making sure his house is clean, preparing home-cooked meals.

Over the past 11 months, one thing has been keeping her son sane and tethered to a reality off the ship, she said.

“He said he was only thinking about his daughter,” she said. “That’s what got him through all of this.”

Months of dwindling rations and deteriorating mental health

As sailors sailed around the world for most of the past year, their loved ones sat at home and waited, wondering what might be happening thousands of miles away. on the ship.

Dawn’s son sent her updates via WhatsApp whenever he received service. Last spring, he told her, conditions were dire.

“Like the 3rd world…” he wrote in a message. “We couldn’t get soap or toothpaste. »

He sent her photos of mold dripping down the walls, of dwindling daily rations: divided cafeteria trays with only a few compartments full. Two hard-boiled eggs and watery soap. A scoop of oatmeal and some soft noodles.

The extended deployment, long work hours and supply shortages appear to be taking a toll on the entire ship, especially younger sailors, Dawn said. Nearly half of all active duty military personnel are 25 years old or younger. She could imagine her son, now in his 30s, being like a father figure to those who were really struggling. Reports that some sailors tried to jump overboard were true, his son told him.

“My son is a tough kid, so he could handle it,” she said in a telephone interview last week. “But for these 19-year-olds who are going on their first deployment, it’s scary for them.”

One of the worst moments for Dawn was the unsolicited comments, on Facebook, Instagram and in real life, saying that even if the ship’s conditions were rough, the sailors probably just couldn’t hack it.

“That’s exactly what people said about the military: that they were babies, and that in 1969, or whenever they (served), it wasn’t like that,” she said. “I couldn’t even read the comments. I’m still upset about it.”

These sentiments even came from Trump, who told reporters this summer that the Lincoln rollout was “not long enough.”

This type of remark changed everything about how Dawn viewed the president.

“I like President Trump. I voted for him. But I don’t really think he gets it,” she said.

“Leave his son outside, just for a few days, and see how it goes. If he really tolerated this, if his son could really stand it, I’m sure he couldn’t.”

Temporary rest, changes in political opinions

Now that the Lincoln has returned home after a surprisingly grueling and high-profile deployment, sailors must figure out what’s next.

Some of these next steps are immediate. Monroe, 19, said her family was excited to take her sister out to dinner tonight – but then she would return to duty tomorrow.

After the trials of the past year, Monroe has a more serious idea of ​​what might happen during a deployment and how harsh that isolation can be.

“When shit hits the fan, everything kind of sucks. Especially when they’re alone. It’s really just you and the guy next to you,” he said. “So to get stuck there and be able to get through something like that – I don’t think I could have done it, honestly.”

His sister, he added, was “probably one of my biggest role models.”

For Rivas, the wife whose husband missed the birth of their daughter, she will have to transition from life as a single parent for a year to a new life as a team parent.

“It’s going to be different teaching her how to take care of herself,” she said. “But she’s good with people, so I’m sure she’ll adapt.”

For Dawn, as a Texan and saying she still wouldn’t vote for a Democrat, she left the USS Lincoln experience with a very different view of Trump. The majority of his small town’s residents and family are lifelong Republicans, but the Lincoln controversy has erratically crossed traditional party lines.

“It’s really hard for me because I just wanted (my son) to be okay. And I don’t know…” she said, her voice trailing off over the phone. “I’m just not really happy with President Trump right now. At all.”

As for what her son thinks about the difficult deployment, she says, it’s probably too early to tell how this experience will shape his life and career. But it put certain things into perspective.

“He just wants to live for his child,” she said. “He wants to see his daughter grow up.”