WASHINGTON — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave the USS Abraham Lincoln’s crew a hero’s welcome in San Diego after the sailors returned from roughly 300 days at sea. During the ceremony, he even dropped to the deck for push-ups after misstating one of the carrier’s deployment statistics.
Hegseth praised the crew for enduring significant adversity and completing complex missions against Iran, while briefly recognizing the mental-health difficulties many sailors experienced during the extended deployment.
“I realize I’m the only thing standing between you and home,” Hegseth told the sailors. “I’m the one who signed that orders book twice to extend you…[I] plead guilty because of the incredible effectiveness that you showcased on the battlefield and the necessity.”
He later said the crew’s accomplishments had inspired him. “You have changed the arc of history, ensuring that crazy people, theocrats, never get a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Hegseth concluded his remarks by announcing that the Lincoln would receive a Presidential Unit Citation, one of the highest honors awarded to a US military unit.
During the record-setting deployment, the roughly 5,000 sailors aboard the Lincoln reportedly faced mental-health challenges as they spent an unusually long time away from their families. They also dealt with dwindling hygiene supplies and shortages of other essential items.
Some sailors reportedly attempted to jump overboard while struggling with the harsh conditions.
The supply problems are believed to have stemmed from retaliatory Iranian attacks intended to disrupt supply routes, especially those connected to a base in Bahrain.
Hegseth criticized the media for bringing those difficulties to public attention.
“There were a few folks in the media who tried to turn the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln into some sort of a symbol, a symbol of dysfunction, or a symbol of low morale, or a symbol of a failed mission,” he said.
“I know it’s the exact opposite,” Hegseth continued. “Instead, what makes the US military, the US Navy, and all these sailors different is that you adapt and that you’re resilient and you overcome. You finish the mission nonetheless.”
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“Yes, it’s hard.”
The USS George Washington relieved the Lincoln in August, but the nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier still took weeks to make its way back to the United States.
In his welcome-home address, Hegseth highlighted the Lincoln’s achievements during its unusually long mission in the Middle East in support of Operation Epic Fury and the blockade of Iran.
“What the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group did, no other carrier strike group has ever done,” he said. “10,000 sorties, 23,000 combat flight hours, almost 4000 combat sorties, 1.5 million pounds of ordnance dropped on the enemy.”
“You did it without an aircraft mishap. I honestly have no idea how that’s possible,” Hegseth added.
The sailors cheered as Hegseth recounted the group’s accomplishments. He briefly misstated one figure, saying the crew had conducted 60 hours of continuous combat flight operations before being corrected that the total was 160 hours.
“Excuse me, I’ll do two push-ups,” the chest-thumping war secretary said. He then dropped to the ground and completed two push-ups to acknowledge the error.
“The level of excellence, the level of skill, the level of precision, the only reaction the American people and the American media should have is pride,” Hegseth said later.
Earlier that day, the 46-year-old secretary was seen attempting to keep pace with troops during runs and military exercises in San Diego.
Recently, the USS Theodore Roosevelt set sail from San Diego and is poised to join the other two aircraft carriers currently stationed in the Middle East. It may relieve one of the other two.
Officials had assured the crew that they had learned lessons from the Lincoln’s deployment, stocking the vessel with critical supplies and improving amenities such as communications so that the sailors could remain in touch with loved ones.
