The destroyer USS Gonzalez pulled out of Norfolk Monday morning.
The Navy will not say where the ship is headed but the U.S. continues to send ships to the Middle East.
With a crew of just more than 300, the ship is going to Naval Weapons Station Yorktown to be loaded, said Cmdr. Michael Schenk, the ship's captain.
“We are trained and ready to go, and we're making sure that right now our focus is on a safe transit up to Yorktown and then follow on deployment overseas,” Schenk said.
The Strait of Hormuz has become a choke point for international oil shipping since the U.S. and Israel began bombing Iran. The Trump administration recently called on allies to help protect international shipping in the region as oil prices surge.
In response to reporters' questions, President Donald Trump said the Navy will begin escorting tankers through the Strait of Hormuz “soon, very soon.”
Schenk said the crew of the Gonzalez drilled on escort duty as part of its regular draining leading up to its deployment on Monday.
“Escort duties are one of the many items that we go through to make sure that we are ready to meet the whole host of missions that we could potentially be assigned while deployed,” he said.
The USS Gonzalez is deploying separately, though it had been conducting exercises with the carrier USS George W. Bush in recent weeks, including the Composite Training Unit Exercise. That certified the carrier is ready to be deployed.
Several reports have said USS Bush and its 4,500 sailors will soon leave for the Middle East.
A spokesman for the Navy said the ship must still complete minor maintenance work along with finishing predeployment leave. The ship is not expected to leave Norfolk for at least two weeks.
In the meantime, USS Gerald R. Ford remains in the Red Sea.
The Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. James Kilby told Congress that he does not expect the carrier to return to Norfolk until May, meaning the ship could be deployed for 11 months, possibly breaking the post-Vietnam record for a deployment.
The USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with its three ships and 2,200 Marines have been in the Caribbean since leaving Norfolk in August.
It played a role in the U.S. mission to oust the leader of Venezuela, Nicholas Maduro in January. There is no word on when it will return.
The Navy likes to keep deployments to six or seven months, but the pace of operations has forced the Navy to keep ships in the field longer as it struggles to handle the workload.
