The USS Abraham Lincoln is leaving the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia and heading home to Everett, military officials said Thursday.
Navy Lt. David Benham, a spokesman for the Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said in an e-mail that the Lincoln is heading home.
“USS Abraham Lincoln and Carrier Air Wing Two have been released from their duties in support of the tsunami relief effort in Southeast Asia. The carrier and air wing have begun their transit home to Naval Station Everett and respective West Coast naval air stations,” Benham said.
The aircraft carrier had been stationed off the northern coast of Sumatra.
The Navy has not officially announced when the Lincoln will return to Everett. Because of security concerns, specific homecoming dates are usually not announced more than 48 hours in advance.
The destroyer USS Shoup also is expected to return to Everett about the same time.
Jeanie Kitchens, spokeswoman for Naval Station Everett, said homecoming plans are under way. She said the homecoming may rival the huge celebration of May 2003, when the Lincoln returned from a 290-day deployment for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We’re looking at hopefully the first week in March,” Kitchens said. “We expect that it will be bigger than the typical (homecoming), maybe as large as the one when they came back from their 10-monther, because of what they wound up doing this time.”
The Lincoln, which has a crew of more than 5,000, was a pivotal player in the relief efforts. Aircraft from the warship’s two helicopter squadrons ferried supplies to areas left devastated by the earthquake and tsunamis, and carried medical teams and relief workers to hard-hit areas.
The Nimitz-class carrier left Everett in October and was expected to return early this month. The USS Shoup, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer also based at Naval Station Everett, left as part of the Lincoln carrier strike group the same week.
In January, however, Navy officials said the group’s deployment would be extended indefinitely so the ship could assist with the tsunami relief effort.
In an e-mail from the ship, Lincoln public affairs officer Lt. Cmdr. John Daniels said the Lincoln played a vital role in the relief effort. Crew members delivered nearly 5 million pounds of food, water and medical aid to devastated villages in Indonesia, and the carrier’s aircraft flew more than 1,500 missions.
More than 1,000 volunteers from the Lincoln’s crew went ashore to help.
U.S. military forces were deployed to Indonesia, Thailand and Sri Lanka three days after the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami.
Kitchens said it was too early to say if the Lincoln and Shoup will come home at the same time or on different days. The warships left Everett for deployment a day apart.
Reporter Brian Kelly: 425-339-3422 or kelly@heraldnet.com.
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