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US aircraft carrier returns home after record deployment that included Iran war, Maduro capture

By Sean Lyngaas


The USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, is set to return to port in Virginia Saturday after nearly a year at sea that included participating in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Iran war, a shipboard fire, and repeated plumbing issues.

It will go down in history as the longest operational deployment by a carrier since the end of the Vietnam War, a voyage that has seen the ship serve as a focal point for a string of President Donald Trump’s military objectives overseas.

For families of the sailors, it’s a long-awaited end to what has been a nerve-wracking year when their service members were regularly participating in military operations that dominated the news.

“Now I can actually relax and breath and go back to a normal sleeping pattern,” Amini Osias, whose daughter is an aviation electrician who served on the Ford, told CNN. He said he planned to go out to eat with his daughter, hear her account of the deployment and just be a dad with her.

It was a rough journey at times. A fire broke out in the Ford’s laundry area in March that took the crew roughly 30 hours to put out, clean up and prevent from reigniting. Some 600 sailors lost access to their bunks due to the damage, but none were seriously injured. The damage meant the ship couldn’t do laundry for a stretch, adding to the challenges for the crew.

The fire happened months into the ships’ deployment after it had already experienced repeated issues with its toilet system that resulted in intermittent partial outages, a hassle for the crew that required a port visit for repairs.


Even though the Ford is technically advanced and the newest carrier in the fleet, Osias said, families of the sailors “still had those doubts that something can happen.” He cited the fire as a cause for worry.

Current and former military officials say the $13 billion ship has been indispensable in the US military operations in Iran and Venezuela. For the Venezuela operation the ship launched aircraft that participated in the capture mission, and in Iran the ship served as a platform to send wave after wave of fighter jets into action.

The ship’s electronic catapult system allows it to launch anything from small drones to big aircraft, giving commanders an array of firepower options, Brent Sadler, a 26-year veteran of the Navy and former submarine officer, previously told CNN. The other 10 US aircraft carriers don’t have that capability, according to Sadler.

After pulling away from Virginia last June, the Ford moved across the Atlantic, initially heading to the Mediterranean and up to Norway as part of its scheduled trip before being pulled to the Caribbean for the operation to capture Maduro in January. Then the ship was ordered to rapidly make its way to aid in a potential Middle East war, where it contributed to Iran war operations, until it began heading home and passed into the Atlantic from the Mediterranean Sea earlier this month.

Ikpunnegi1:
News i like to hear! I like iran; no much noise from their side.

WhiteIverson:
A ship can be always be repaired and brought back to life but I can't say the same for Ayatollah and his minions in paradise still waiting in line for their imaginary 72 virgins 😂😂😂😅

bizzibodi:
No single photo of the shop on fire or damages by fire, propaganda don't win war,USS G.ford has done her tour of duty successfully and still sailing with no loss of a single sailor's life is that not wonderful!you and your bunch swore the Gerald Ford will be sent to the bottom of the sea.

brain54:
Carriers that are becoming almost obsolete...


These things are almost out of fashion!

HIGHESTPOPORI:
USA have money to replaced any lost equipment as far as no lives were lost.These Iran sympathies are pathetic.

Kemetian:
It's not "almost". They are done.

Today all you need is missiles and drones, in large quantities, and you can defeat any power on Earth that tries to invade your country.

Iran has shown it can be done.

bizzibodi:
No single photo of the shop on fire or damages by fire, propaganda don't win war,USS G.ford has done her tour of duty successfully and still sailing with no loss of a single sailor's life is that not wonderful!you and your bunch swore the Gerald Ford will be sent to the bottom of the sea.

Lanre1st:
The whole has seen that US has it limit military. As against what we watch in the film that they achieve any military operation like Venezuela.

FreeStuffsNG:
The US aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford is being temporarily withdrawn from the Middle East to Greece for repairs following a major fire on board, according to media reports.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that the carrier would be towed from the Red Sea after a fire broke out last week, while USNI News cited a US official confirming the vessel’s departure for repairs, without initially disclosing its destination.

The CNN western propaganda report cunningly omittted this significant event during the war to protect their country and the businesses that build US aircraft carriers.

The so-called largest aircraft carrier barely participated in the war before it got hit and quickly withdrawn from battlefield to be holed up in Greece then later Czek

fyneboi79:
Chai! This ya name sweet me...Ikpunnegi1!!