After nearly ten months, the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and her Strike Group arrived home back in San Diego yesterday. The historic deployment, which was the longest since Vietnam, saw the Nimitz Class super carrier’s Air Wing flying nearly six continuous months of missions over Iraq and Syria against ISIS targets.
For our Iphone mobile users, click here to see the video on the Carl Vinson’s Facebook page.
In total, the Carl Vincent Carrier Strike Group flew a whopping 12,300 sorties, which included almost 2,400 combat missions, during which aircraft dropped over half a million pounds of weaponry onto ISIS positions.
On April 15th, the Carl Vincent and her escorts were finally relieved off station in the Persian Gulf by the USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group. As the flotilla made its way home, it steamed through the tense South China Sea and partook in combat exercises with allies in the region.
Once the ship arrived in Hawaii, family and friends were embarked for a rare Tiger Cruise for the final leg home. You can see a similar time lapse video of the big carrier pulling into and out of beautiful Pearl Harbor below:
A huge congrats for a job well done and a heartfelt welcome home to the “The Gold Eagle” and her dedicated crew!
Contact the author at Tyler@jalopnik.com.