The Lincoln has entered the harbor.
With the traditional water being sprayed over the aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln entered Possession Sound as a gathering throng anxiously awaited its arrival at Naval Station Everett.
The Lincoln has been gone on a five-month deployment, including the final few months in Southeast Asia helping victims of the deadly tsunami there.
Meanwhile, with military precision and accuracy, the USS Shoup docked at the base right on time this morning at 8:30.
Hundreds of family members were on hand to greet the ship’s crew of 320. But thousands were expected in the next hour as others arrive to greet the 4,000-strong Lincoln crew.
No one was happier to see the Shoup return than Katie Loy. When he saw her, crew member Robert Zimmerman, with a little help from his friends, displayed four placards that read: “Will You Marry Me?” When Loy saw that, she started crying and someone next to her gave her a sign. On the back, Loy wrote, “Yes.”
Loy said she was surprised but looking back at it she thought all her relatives were acting suspicious.
“I’m excited and nervous and everything all at once, I guess,” Loy said.
As more and more people arrived waiting for the Lincoln, the party was getting under way. Children were spruced up and dressed in their Sunday best on this Friday. Country music was playing. There were flags and flowers, food booths and even Santa and Mrs. Claus.
The base is closed to the public, but people were gathering at parks on bluffs overlooking the bay and at the Everett Library to watch the carrier return.
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