USS Abraham Lincoln Returns After 321-Day Deployment

The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to San Diego on October 8, ending a 321-day deployment that included combat operations in the Middle East and a record-long stretch without a port call. The carrier strike group received a Presidential Unit Citation the day before, recognizing its combat service. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the award aboard the carrier on October 7 and praised the crew’s performance. The citation credited the strike group with 3,693 combat sorties, 450 Tomahawk missile launches and the sinking of 64 Iranian warships. Those figures were cited in the award ceremony and describe the strike group’s operations, not the carrier alone. The deployment included 264 or 265 consecutive days without a port call, according to accounts of the ship’s record. The Lincoln left San Diego in November 2025, was redirected to the Middle East in January, and supported U.S. operations there before beginning its return journey. It made port calls in Thailand and Guam on the way home. Hegseth told sailors that accounts portraying the deployment as dysfunctional or marked by low morale did not reflect what he had heard from the crew and its leaders.