In a surprise announcement Saturday, the U.S. Navy said the Everett-based aircraft carrier the USS Abraham Lincoln will leave on deployment in mid-October, and not early next year as previously planned.
The Lincoln, which has a crew of about 5,000 when the carrier’s air wing is on board, was last deployed to assist the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The Lincoln spent a record 290 days at sea and returned to Everett in May 2003 to a hero’s homecoming.
Navy officials had repeatedly said the Nimitz-class carrier would leave early in 2005 on its first deployment since the Iraq war. The official announcement on the Lincoln’s October departure was expected to be made on Tuesday, but word began to circulate over the weekend that the carrier was to leave sooner rather than later.
“Their schedule changed unexpectedly,” said Navy Lt. Kim Marks, a spokeswoman for the Third Fleet in San Diego.
“The ship just found out. The family notifications were supposed to happen today (Saturday),” Marks said.
The Navy said the carrier would deploy to the western Pacific Ocean. But Marks said she could not say whether the Lincoln would be returning to the Persian Gulf and the war in Iraq.
“I don’t have any details on the specifics,” she said.
The Lincoln has been at sea in recent weeks for pre-deployment training.
The carrier has been a rare sight in Everett since its return last year. It spent about 11 months in the Bremerton shipyard for $280 million in repairs after it returned from the war in Iraq, and has been in and out of Naval Station Everett for training since early June.
The Lincoln has been a near-constant fixture in the news in recent weeks.
President Bush’s visit to the Lincoln as it returned from the Iraq war – where he used the carrier’s flight deck for a national speech to declare the end of major combat in Iraq beneath a “Mission Accomplished” banner – has been recalled repeatedly as the 2004 presidential campaign and the insurgency in Iraq continue.
The Navy said on Saturday it would announce later the ships that are to accompany the Lincoln on its deployment. Earlier, a Lincoln spokesman reported that the Everett-based guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup had joined the Lincoln’s strike group.
That means Naval Station Everett may see the Lincoln and the Shoup deploy within days of each other.
The Lincoln will also get a new air wing. Carrier Air Wing Two will embark on the Lincoln during its next deployment. Last time, Carrier Air Wing 14 deployed with the carrier.
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