BREAKING: Sailors Aboard USS Abraham Lincoln Finally Headed Home after Nine Months in Grueling Conditions

(AP Photo/Richard Vogel)

Sailors aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln are finally heading home to California after a grueling nine-month deployment in the Middle East, where some complained of low morale and moldy food.

The ship’s replacement, the U.S.S. George Washington, arrived earlier this week.

More than 5,000 sailors and Marines left San Diego on the Lincoln on Nov. 21, but the deployment did not end in May as scheduled, as the Iran war drags on.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth came under fire for saying the reports of clogged toilets and sailors jumping over board “completely misrepresented the situation.

In a clip shared by NewsMax foreign affairs correspondent Alex Salvi, Hegseth said, “Listen, we make sure that every ship, every crew, every captain has everything we can provide them at every single moment.”

“Some deployments are longer than others, and I have more respect and gratitude for those sailors than anybody,” Hegseth said. “What they do in those high seas and those austere conditions with fewer port calls — it’s incredible. Americans don’t understand what it’s like to do that.

“So as someone who’s not been on a ship like that but been on long deployments, I feel it. I want them home as soon as everybody else, too. I want folks rotated as quickly as possible. I want the best for them. My commanders know that, our service secretaries know that. The president expects that,” he added.

“And so to that crew and to all those crews, we’re going to do everything we can for you,” Hegseth said. “And we are so grateful for their dedication of that crew and others they’ve held the line for the country and they’ve done a fantastic job.”

When asked about the lengthy deployment supporting U.S. efforts against Iran, President Donald Trump told reporters that the more than 240 days  at sea was “not nearly long enough.”

This is a breaking story and has been updated.

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