A seven-month deployment has finally ended for 1,800 sailors aboard the USS Boxer, USS Green Bay, and USS Comstock. USS Boxer docked on Thursday and is one of the three ships that make up the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group that deployed in February and arrived back to San Diego this weekend. Coronado will be packed with family reunions, excited sailors, and new ships!
USS Boxer returned to Naval Air Station North Island after seven months in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of the Western Pacific and the Middle East. They were able to provide humanitarian aid, combat piracy issues, and help with overseas operations. Along with the Navy’s sailors, Camp Pendleton’s 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit sent about 2,200 Marines along with the USS Boxer and the other two ships associated with the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group. These Marines gladly returned to North County Marine Corps on Thursday as well.
Sixth in its Wasp class, the USS Boxer was named after a captured British ship in the War of 1812. The USS Boxer is looking forward to a little break before more orders are given.
Here’s a video of the USS Boxer departing San Diego for its 7 month deployment:
After a grueling 7-month deployment to Afghanistan and Japan, the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan has finally made it home. USS Ronald Reagan arrived at the North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado on Friday morning with many families and supporters there to greet them.
The carrier left San Diego in February and was one of the first ships to respond to the traumatizing earthquake, tsunamis, and major power plant damage that occurred in Fukushima, Japan mid March. The major concern of the Reagan’s mission in Japan was the long periods of exposure to radiation while dealing with complications of the power plant’s damage.
Fortunately, the crew was able to stay relatively further away from the coastline and send helicopters ashore with supplies and help. Within the first week of relief operations, 17 crew members were detected to have radiation from the damaged nuclear power reactors and began the tedious process of decontamination.
After relief operations in Japan were no longer the ship’s mission, USS Ronald Reagan provided maritime security in anti-piracy operations around Thailand, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Guam, and Hawaii. About 900 combat missions were carried out by the air wing in Afghanistan during the extended deployment and the crew escorted convoys and assisted ground forces under attack during the long seven months abroad. The deployment was a very successful operation and has helped strengthen our ties significantly with Japan and provided security in the most dangerous waters.
The future of the USS Ronald Reagan will lie in Bremerton, WA for a 12-month overhaul in the beginning of 2012.
On March 19th 2011, the USS Abraham Lincoln stopped in San Diego Bay after a 7-month deployment that began in September 2010. With a swarm of friends, family, and supporters waiting in Coronado, many of the 5,000 crew members were able to finally return back home. For the rest of the crew, their journey will [...]
A seven-month deployment has finally ended for 1,800 sailors aboard the USS Boxer, USS Green Bay, and USS Comstock. USS Boxer docked on Thursday and is one of the three ships that make up the Boxer Amphibious Ready Group that deployed in February and arrived back to San Diego this weekend. Coronado will be packed with family reunions, excited sailors, and new ships!
