17 years ago, USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) embarked on the longest deployment for an aircraft carrier in post-Vietnam military history.
On Apr. 1, 2019, the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia for a scheduled deployment. The following month, in the wake of rapidly escalating tensions with Iran, the carrier and her strike group were tasked to deploy to waters just outside the Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the geopolitically vital Persian Gulf.
Then, in late October, the United States Navy officially extended Abe’s deployment indefinitely.
Sister supercarrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75), which was Lincoln’s scheduled relief, was unable to set sail due to problems with its electrical distribution system, forcing its escorts to depart Norfolk without it. Over half of the U.S. carrier fleet is undergoing maintenance or training, leaving only two, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) and USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), ready for some level of real-world tasking. Lincoln’s extension also comes on the heels of a significant deployment of reinforcements to Saudi Arabia to deter Iran.
Though CVN-72 is now on pace for an extra-long deployment, it is not without precedent. From the 1970s to the early 1980s, seven-to-eight-month deployments were often the norm. Nor is Abraham Lincoln specifically sailing in uncharted waters with regards to an extension – 17 years ago, the same carrier embarked on the longest deployment for an aircraft carrier in post-Vietnam military history.
On July 20, 2002, CVN-72 departed Naval Station Everett, Washington for a deployment as the centerpiece of a battle group flagged under Cruiser-Destroyer Group Three. In addition to the carrier, the group consisted of Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers Mobile Bay and Shiloh, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Paul Hamilton (DDG-60), Spruance-class destroyer Fletcher (DD-992), and Oliver Hazard Perry-class guided-missile frigates Crommelin (FFG-37) Reuben James (FFG-57). The Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarines Honolulu and Cheyenne were also assigned to the battle group. Within days, Carrier Air Wing Fourteen (CVW-14) had flown aboard and the battle group set course due west to commence the deployment.
Abe’s 2002 cruise occurred during a critical juncture in world history. Terrorists, at the direction of Osama bin Laden, had attacked America by striking the World Trade Center less than a year before; U.S. and allied forces had overthrown the Taliban and were well into an extended occupation of Afghanistan, and preparations were now underway for an invasion of Iraq. With the War on Terror being waged at full bore, it was easy to foresee Abraham Lincoln playing a critical role in the campaigns to come.
The first month-plus of CVN-72’s deployment took place in the Western Pacific, featuring port calls in Sasebo, Japan, Hong King, and Singapore. According to the ship’s official command history for 2002, the carrier then transited the Indian Ocean, relieving USS George Washington (CVN-73) on, coincidentally enough, September 11, and commenced air operations into Afghanistan from its station in the North Arabian Sea. Abe’s participation in Operation Enduring Freedom was uneventful and lasted little over a month, however; on Oct. 21, the battle group charted course for the Persian Gulf, where its first stop was Bahrain, headquarters of the Navy’s Fifth Fleet.
Come Oct. 28, Lincoln was patrolling the Gulf and her air wing commenced Southern Watch operations, the no-fly zone covering southern Iraq, which had now been in place for over a decade. Unlike in years past, however, the missions, this time around, constituted anything but uneventful airspace policing.
Three months earlier, in a major policy shift that went unnoticed by the public at the time, the U.S. and its Coalition partners decided to escalate the air war against Saddam Hussein. It was a response to an increasing number of no-fly zone violations and provocations by Iraq, but also a means of softening up Saddam’s de