The USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, returned 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 goes 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, the return is 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. They gathered in Norfolk on Saturday to welcome to the carrier home, cheering as it made its way to the dock. Sailors aboard waved to a crowd that held several handmade signs, including one that said, “I missed you! Glad you’re back.”
Victoria Dobson — who, along with her 2-year-old daughter, wore a white dress with American flags on it to welcome her husband home, told CNN’s Brian Todd, “I’m very excited, I’m very relieved.”
“The most difficult part was definitely the single parenting. When he left, she was a baby, and now she’s a big girl,” she said. “All the transitions, like no more high chair … no more baby bottle, I did all that without him and it was hard.”
