About two dozen people gathered at a Yokosuka Naval Base park to watch the aircraft carrier USS George Washington as it returns to Yokosuka Naval base, Japan, Dec. 11, 2025. (Akifumi Ishikawa/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The bellow of a ship’s horn coupled with the cheers of about 100 people waiting pierside signaled the arrival Thursday morning of the USS George Washington and the conclusion of its annual deployment.
Scores of sailors in dress blues manned the aircraft carrier’s rails as it steamed through Tokyo Bay toward its usual pier at the home of the U.S. 7th Fleet. Waiting friends and families held welcoming signs and flowers for their loved ones.
Sarah Hoopengardner, of Washington, D.C., and her children Tripp, 11, and Lily, 10, were on the pier to greet their husband and father, Cmdr. David Hoopengardner, a planning officer with Carrier Strike Group 5.
“We are excited that he gets to come home for Christmas and celebrate the holidays,” she told Stars and Stripes before the ship arrived. The family plans to mark the occasion with a steak dinner and by decorating their Christmas tree.
The carrier’s arrival closed out its first annual deployment since its return to Japan in November 2024. Previously homeported in Yokosuka from 2008 to 2015, the George Washington subsequently spent nearly six years in the United States for midlife nuclear refueling and maintenance.
Petty Officer 2nd Class Andre Garrett, right, greets his wife, Crystal, and 3-year-old son Andre after the aircraft carrier USS George Washington returned to Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Jonathan Baez/Stars and Stripes)
Friends and family of U.S. Navy sailors aboard the USS George Washington watch as the aircraft carrier pulls into Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Jonathan Baez/Stars and Stripes)
Sailors in dress blues man the rails of the aircraft carrier USS George Washington as tugboats guide the ship into its pier at Yokosuka Naval Base, Japan, on Dec. 11, 2025. (Jonathan Baez/Stars and Stripes)
During its six-month journey this year the ship traveled approximately 56,000 miles, with port stops in Guam, the Philippines and South Korea, ship spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Mark Langford told Stars and Stripes by email Thursday.
Rear Adm. Eric “Pappy” Anduze, commander of Carrier Strike Group 5, and Capt. Timothy Waits, the George Washington’s skipper, delivered brief pierside remarks to media Thursday, but took no questions.
“Through every operation, every exercise and every milestone, our sailors performed with professionalism and pride, living up to our Navy’s core values of honor, courage and commitment,” Anduze said.
One of the carrier’s two escorts, the guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup, arrived last week, while the other, the guided-missile destroyer USS Robert Smalls, is due at Yokosuka in several weeks.
This was the first operational deployment for the F-35 Lightning II with the embarked Carrier Air Wing 5, signaling a “new era of Navy fifth-generation air power permanently stationed” in the region, Anduze said.
The carrier’s aircraft and pilots arrived home at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, on Saturday.
The George Washington also participated in several large-scale exercises, including Talisman Sabre 2025 in Australia, ANNUALEX alongside the Japan Self-Defense Force and Carrier Strike Group Exercise 2025 with South Korea, Anduze said.
The carrier made a lengthy mid-deployment stop in September, during which sailors honored Petty Officer 3rd Class Jose Antonio Rivera Lynch IV in a Sept. 25 Bell’s Across America ceremony. Lynch, an aviation boatswain’s mate presumed lost overboard off Australia’s northern coast.
The ship departed Sept. 30 but returned to Yokosuka on Oct. 18 with carrier’s air wing still on board.
President Donald Trump spoke in the carrier’s vaulted hangar Oct. 28 for nearly an hour to approximately 6,000 U.S. and Japanese troops.
