Sailors in their dress whites lined the deck of the aircraft carrier as it pulled into Norfolk, Va., last weekend. Helenna Parrish let out a whoop when she spotted her daughter Asia, a culinary specialist, on the deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford.
"I'm just happy she's back on U.S. soil, that's all. I'm happy she's back, all of them, really, her shipmates, because I know some are stronger than others, so I pray for all of them," she said.
This was her daughter's first deployment. Ford's tour stretched from the coast of Venezuela to the Red Sea where the carrier launched F/A-18s to support the U.S.-Israel war on Iran. The Navy estimates the carrier traveled enough miles to circle the earth three times before the exhausted crew returned home to Naval Station Norfolk.
"These kids are ready for their dad to come home, and I'm ready for a break," said Brittany Hyder as she waited on the pier for her husband Mack, an Aviation Ordnanceman. "I'm ready for my husband to come home," she said.
They have three children, all under eight. Mack Hyder was also on the Ford for eight months, in the early days of the Israel-Gaza conflict, before returning in January 2024. He was home for less than 18 months before the carrier left again in June of 2025. This time, he has been gone for close to a year. She says her first priority is to get him up to speed on everything that has happened.
"Just trying to get back to a schedule with him coming back, trying to reintegrate him back into what we do every day," she said.
Thousands of family and friends crowded the pier for the roughly 3,500 sailors still on board, after the aviators who flew the planes attached to the carrier, flew off earlier in the week. There were poster board signs with sailors' faces and welcome home messages. "I'd wait forever, but 334 days is crazy" read one sign.
The hero's welcome is a Navy tradition that also has a practical value. It will help inoculate the crew as they transition from the stress and camaraderie of life on board the ship to the quiet reality of life back at home with their families, said Carl Castro, a professor at USC. He directs the military and veterans programs at the school of social work.
"You want them coming off that ship thinking every minute they were on that ship was worth it, and they would do it again. Then you know that you've got, you've built this resilience," he said.
The USS Ford broke the post-Vietnam record for a carrier deployment. Typically, there is a a 30 to 40 day honeymoon period before the reality of homelife sets in. Some relationships will have cracked. He recommends families ease into their daily routines and that the Navy give sailors ample time off.
Since they left Norfolk last June, roughly 80 children were born to sailors in the strike group, says commander Rear Adm. Gavin Duff.
"Some are going to read their kids' books as they fall asleep tonight or rock their newborns, but fundamentally we're going to reconnect and reintegrate, and that's where our focus is going to be for the next several weeks," Duff said.
Sailors will be given leave and shortened work weeks. The amount of time off is up to the individual commander, he said.
Admiral Daryl Caudle, the chief of Naval operations, met with families on the pier. He said the Navy doesn't want to break any more records. Planners are trying to bring down the length of deployments, which have grown steadily. He called Ford's nearly 11-month deployment a "once in a lifetime" event, after the Trump administration ordered the carrier to the Caribbean late last year as part of a mission to oust Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. The mission was extended to support the ongoing conflict with Iran.
"We really want to deploy our ships for the length of time they're designed to. Currently, our design is seven months, and we want to hold to that," Caudle said. "But when we are called to actually go into harm's way and provide our Navy combat power for longer than that, we do that."
Even a normal six-to-seven month deployment strains family life for many sailors, said Heather Wolters, a senior researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses, which provides research for the Navy.
"When you're gone for an entire year, you are almost certain to miss all of those major family milestones for an entire year. That adds stress and strain for the family, and so all of the strain that you would normally experience is exacerbated by the extended length of time, especially if that length of time wasn't anticipated beforehand," Wolters said.
Some of the resources sailors need during this transition include lessons in financial literacy and conflict resolution. And there are more immediate concerns. Despite the celebration, sailors should also ease into alcohol use, Wolters said.
Sen. Mark Warner said he believes the Ford should not have been kept in the Middle East, especially after a March fire that started in the laundry room and damaged the berthing area for hundreds of sailors. He plans to meet with families in Norfolk in the coming weeks.
"That is not treating our military with the respect they deserve, and I'm going to be very curious to see how many of these professionals we lose because of the extended time on this deployment," he said.
As sailors were getting ready to disembark from the carrier in Norfolk, Jaylessa De La Rosa waited for her partner Omar Mora. She held their four-month-old son.
"It's been emotional. He left when I was 10 weeks pregnant, so I went through the whole pregnancy by myself. He missed the birth," she said.
De La Rosa is also a sailor. She watched the headlines about a fire in the laundry room, which spread into the sleeping areas. She heard about issues with the sewage system that caused toilets to shut down at times.
"Honestly, I think deployments should be no more than seven months. Almost a year out to sea is very depressing. Especially the plumbing issues, the fire, you know, it was very, very low morale for everybody, so I know everybody's glad to be home."
The carrier will go into maintenance at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.
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