Secretary of War Pete Hegseth visited the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln as it returned from a record-breaking 321-day deployment, praising the crew for combat operations off Iran.
The Lincoln completed 264 consecutive days at sea without a port call, surpassing the previous Navy record of 206 consecutive days set by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2020.
The deployment included Operation Epic Fury, six months of sustained combat operations from February through August off the coast of Iran. Hegseth detailed the strike group's achievements: 3,693 combat sorties, delivery of 1.37 million pounds of ordnance, launching of 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shooting down of 77 unmanned attack drones, sinking of 64 Iranian warships, destruction of 21 anti-ship cruise missiles, and defense against four fast-attack craft and explosive-carrying vessels. Hegseth noted that all 3,693 flights occurred "without a single aircraft mishap."
The carrier also participated in an ongoing blockade of Iran in and around the Strait of Hormuz following the combat operations.
In recognition of the strike group's performance, Hegseth presented the crew with the Presidential Unit Citation, the highest military decoration awarded to units for extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy. Hegseth told the crew: "You have changed the arc of history: ensuring that crazy people — theocrats — never get a nuclear weapon changes the arc of history."
The Lincoln has conducted lengthy deployments previously, including a 294-day deployment during the COVID-19 pandemic between 2019 and 2020, and a 290-day deployment between July 2002 and May 2003 in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.