The strike group’s achievement included successfully sustaining 40 days of continuous combat operations and helping to enforce a maritime blockade against Iranian ports.
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group played a vital role in preventing Iran from ever acquiring a nuclear weapon during its nearly 11-month deployment to the Middle East, an effort that saw the carrier awarded a Presidential Unit Citation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.
The strike group’s achievement included successfully sustaining 40 days of continuous combat operations and helping to enforce a maritime blockade against Iranian ports, Hegseth said in presenting the award during a visit to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.
The effort included completing 3,693 combat flights, sinking 64 Iranian warships, launching 450 Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles, and shooting down 77 one-way aerial attack drones, he said.
“You have changed the arc of history, ensuring that crazy people, theocrats, never get a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.
He added that the strike group’s commitment to its mission and performance had earned the thanks and admiration of both himself and President Donald Trump.
The Presidential Unit Citation is the military’s top award for valor by a unit in battle. It is rarely given, but the Lincoln strike group is among at least five units, including the Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group, to receive the citation this year.
The Lincoln group includes Carrier Air Wing 9 and a cadre of ships, such as the destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr.
Hegseth’s visit came a day before Lincoln is scheduled to return to San Diego. Petersen returned to its homeport in Hawaii on Sept. 28, and some elements of the carrier air wing also have returned in recent days.
Lincoln departed its homeport in November for what was anticipated to be a routine deployment to the Pacific but was soon redirected to the Middle East.
During that time, the strike group supported Operation Epic Fury following the joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran launched in February, and, later, Overseas Operations.
In August, Stars and Stripes reported family member concerns about the mental health of Abraham Lincoln sailors and Marines, including at least one suicide attempt. At the time, the carrier had logged more than 250 consecutive days at sea, including a record-breaking number of days without a port call.
The concerns first detailed in that reporting drew subsequent coverage from Navy Times and other news organizations. The issue also drew the attention of U.S. lawmakers, some of whom demanded an investigation into conditions aboard the carrier.
Hegseth said at the time that reports about the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.” But the Navy ultimately sent aircraft carrier USS George Washington to relieve Lincoln, which left the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in late August, subsequently making a port call in Thailand and a logistics stop in Guam.
Last month, acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao revealed in a letter to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., that eight sailors assigned to the Lincoln strike group had attempted suicide during the deployment.
As of Wednesday, Lincoln has been deployed 321 days. In acknowledging the long deployment Hegseth asked Lincoln crew members to pass along his and Trump’s thanks to their families, who have demonstrated patience, patriotism, love and support.
“Let them know that their long wait, we believe, was in service of a righteous and historic mission,” he said.
- Security