U.S. Navy sailors from the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier strike group will arrive at their homeports December 30 following a seven-month deployment to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.
More than 6,000 sailors will return home just in time for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) (Ike), guided-missile cruiser USS San Jacinto and guided-missile destroyers USS Mason and USS Nitze are returning to Naval Station (NS) Norfolk.
USS Roosevelt is returning to its homeport of NS Mayport, Florida.
Commanded by Rear Adm. James Malloy, the Eisenhower CSG is comprised of Ike, embarked squadrons of carrier air wing (CVW) 3, CSG 10 staff and destroyer squadron (DESRON) 26 staff and ships.
While deployed, the strike group performed in the 5th and 6th U.S. Fleet areas of operations carrying out combat missions and launching F/A-18 strikes against ISIL in Syria and Iraq.
While conducting operations in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandeb Strait, USS Mason defended itself and other U.S. ships from multiple inbound anti-ship cruise missiles during the week of Oct. 9.
In response to these threats, sailors aboard Nitze carried out a defensive Tomahawk strike against three radar sites on the Yemeni coast.
Now that the Ike CSG is nearing home, the U.S. Navy has no aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean and the Middle East.