Embraces all around as the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
NORFOLK, Va. — Hundreds of family members and friends lined the pier at Naval Station Norfolk on Saturday to finally welcome home sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford after 326 days on a historic deployment.
“It feels unreal,” said Alexis Burgess, of Hampton, Va. “I didn’t think they were ever going to get back. I thought they were going to get extended again.”
“But we’re here. And it’s everything. I wish it could have been sooner.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was part of the welcoming committee, presented the Presidential Unit Citation to the carrier group.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks with a Navy spouse before the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Jennifer Hegseth greets families as they wait for the sailors to disembark as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
“The Ford Carrier Strike Group did an extraordinary job,” Hegseth said. “The only story we can tell today is of the heroism and the skill and the professionalism of these sailors, who went three times around the globe to defend that flag right there.”
The Presidential Unit Citation is the military’s top award for valor by a unit in battle.
Adm. Daryl Caudle, the chief of naval operations, said the extended time at sea was difficult for sailors and their families.
“We thought it would be a seven-month deployment,” Caudle told CNN. “These were missed events from weddings to births.”
For many, that included giving birth while their spouse was deployed, including Burgess.
A baby wears a sailor uniform during a homecoming event of the USS Gerald R. Ford at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Families wait for their sailors as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
A girl embraces a sailor after the USS Gerald R. Ford returned to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Families wait for their sailors as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
A sailor is reunited with his family after the USS Gerald R. Ford returned to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Families wait for their sailors as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
A sailor embraces his family as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Families wait for their sailors as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Aviation Support Equipment Technician 1st Class Sidney Tamez hugs her son on the pier at Naval Station Norfolk on Saturday May 16, 2026. (Sophie Pinkham/U.S. Navy)
A sailor walks toward a crowd of families during a homecoming event for the USS Gerald R. Ford at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
“This morning, 80 newborn children were held by their fathers, most for the very first time,” said Rear Adm. Gavin Duff, the commander of Carrier Strike Group 12. “While I cannot begin to count the number of birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and milestones missed during this deployment, I can say this with absolute certainty: The sacrifice of our families is inseparable from the success of this carrier strike group.”
Ford’s guided-missile destroyer escorts USS Bainbridge and USS Mahan also returned to Norfolk on Saturday. The carrier’s air wing squadrons returned to their homeports in Virginia, Florida and Washington earlier this week. The aircraft of Carrier Wing 8 conducted more than 11,800 launches throughout the deployment.
Ford left the Mediterranean Sea last week, concluding an 11-month deployment that took the strike group across the U.S. Central Command, U.S. European Command and U.S. Southern Command areas of responsibility. Other ships assigned to the strike group include destroyers USS Mitscher, USS Forrest Sherman and USS Winston S. Churchill.
The return to Norfolk was a long time coming for sailors and their families.
“He’s ready to go home and just relax,” said Brittanie Hyder of Mount Morris, Mich., about her husband. “The kids expected him to come home, and then he doesn’t. They’re just ready for him to be home and spend time with him.”
Ford and its more than 4,500 embarked sailors and personnel departed Norfolk on June 24, 2025, for what had been expected to be a routine deployment to Europe.
They spent 326 days deployed, setting a post-Vietnam War record for the longest deployment of an aircraft carrier. The previous record was held by USS Abraham Lincoln, which completed a 295-day deployment in January 2020.
Ford was operating in the Mediterranean Sea near Israel when it was ordered to the Caribbean Sea in October as part of a large military buildup intended to disrupt drug trafficking and degrade and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.
That included the nighttime operation that resulted in the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in January.
Sailors disembark as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
Sailors line the deck as the USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026, after a record-setting deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
The USS Gerald R. Ford returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., on Saturday, May 16, 2026 after 326 days on a historic deployment. (Kaylyn Barnhart Batista/Stars and Stripes)
It then transited to the Middle East to operate in the Red Sea in support of Operation Epic Fury, the ongoing joint American and Israeli military campaign against Iran. Ford operated with the USS George W. Bush and USS Abraham Lincoln, marking the first time in more than two decades that three U.S. aircraft carriers were deployed to the Middle East at the same time.
In March, the aircraft carrier experienced a non-combat related fire in its main laundry spaces. The fire was fully contained, but affected several berthing compartments and displaced some 600 sailors. Three sailors were injured as a result; one was flown off the ship for medical treatment. Caudle confirmed Saturday that an investigation into the fire is ongoing.
Following the fire, Ford docked at U.S. Naval Support Activity Souda Bay on the Greek island of Crete to undergo repairs and maintenance.
Then, it was on to the Red Sea and back to work.
Stars and Stripes reporter Alison Bath contributed to this report.
