USS Gerald R. Ford arrived in Norfolk 327 days after leaving Naval Station Norfolk on June 24.
The grueling mission took the USS Ford Strike group from Europe, to the Caribbean for Operation Southern Spear, which included the apprehension of Venezuela leader Nicholas Maduro, and onto the Red Sea for Operation Epic Fury after the U.S. attacked Iran.
“It's nearly 80,000 miles sailed,” said Adml. Daryl Caudle, the chief of Naval Operations. “That's like going around the Earth three times - over 2,500 sorties, 12,000 takeoffs of tactical aircraft, over 200 tons of ordnance dropped, I mean, that is incredible United States Navy firepower, combat power in the theater. So that's what this type of strike group can deliver.”
The families of the roughly 3,500 sailors who remained on board the carrier after the airwing departed days earlier lined the pier at Naval Station Norfolk. Jalyssa De La Rosa waited for Orma Mora, holding their four month old son, who he had not met.
“We got close to the first homecoming, we were excited, just to hear they got extended again, and then again and again,” she said. “It was emotional, it was frustrating, because, you know, you just want them home. It was a tough deployment for everybody, for sure.”
The deployment broke the record for the longest deployment by a carrier since the Vietnam War. WHRO first reported that issues with the carrier’s vacuum plumbing system created problems early on in the deployment. A March 12 fire in the laundry room displaced hundreds of sailors from their birthing areas. DeLaRosa, who is also in the Navy, said she is happy Mora is finally back.
“Especially the plumbing issues, the fire, you know, it was very, very low morale for everybody, so I know everybody's glad to be home,” she said.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth presented the Ford Strike Group with the Presidential Unit Citation for its work in Operation Epic Fury. The highest decoration a unit can receive, PUC honors extraordinary heroism in the face of the an enemy. under He and his wife Jennifer handed out teddy bears to families. He addressed the crews on board the carrier and two of the destroyers who returned home with the strike group, USS Mahan and USS Bainbridge.
“You didn’t just accomplish a mission. You made history. You made a nation proud. You showed the world what American strength is all about,” Hegseth told the crew of USS Bainbridge.
The lives of the sailors were put on hold for nearly a year. Two friends of the mother of Petty Officer 1st Class Kanisha McDonald waited in the crowd for her to return. McDonald’s mother died a month before she deployed. Shannon Luzzi and Reginia Brown came to see her off when she left in June, and they were back to welcome her home.
“She took her mom with her. Everywhere around the world and in every port,” Luzzi said.
“You just want to break down and cry with tears of joy, all the proudness that you have for them. It's an overwhelming thought that the day is finally here.”
Long deployments are also tough on the ship. Though USS Ford is the newest carrier in the U.S. fleet, it set sail on this record deployment roughly 18 months after returning home from a deployment to the eastern Mediterranean. The carrier was in the region just after war originally broke out in Gaza in October 2023 and stayed out for eight months.
The Ford is now expected to spend more than a year in maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
