“Home is the sailor, home from sea.”

Robert Louis Stevenson penned that line almost 150 years ago — but on Thursday, those words read sweet and new to thousands of sailors and Marines aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.

After an almost 11-month deployment to the Middle East, the sea-weary aircraft carrier arrived at its homeport at San Diego’s Naval Air Station North to massive crowds of cheering, misty-eyed and flag-waving spouses, children, parents, friends and fellow troops.

The massive ship played a pivotal combat role during the ongoing Iran war — setting a record-long deployment of more than 260 uninterrupted days at sea that included two extensions.

The USS Lincoln arrived in San Diego Bay late Thursday morning under unseasonably warm skies. Scores of sailors and Marines, dressed in service dress uniforms, lined the carrier’s flight deck to the delight of awaiting loved ones.

The deployment’s historic length — coupled with reports of stark conditions during combat — brought wide attention to the USS Lincoln and its crew.

And while the carrier is now far from the Middle East, the scrutiny of its 2025-2026 deployment will continue. Accounts of suicide attempts, food rationing, broken plumbing and mental health emergencies prompted Democratic lawmakers to call for a congressional hearing.

President Donald Trump labeled reports of dire conditions about the USS Lincoln as “a CNN fake report” — and refuted that relatives of the Lincoln sailors had raised concerns about the carrier’s length at sea, saying the deployment was “not nearly long enough,” The Associated Press reported.

And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in August that conditions aboard the Lincoln were “completely misrepresented.”

But Navy leaders later acknowledged issues aboard a “city at sea” that thousands called home while underway. Meanwhile, experts told The Associated Press that the reported suicide attempts are a low number in a strike group of 6,000 sailors at sea for over 10 months.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Ill., requested the congressional hearing following a Sept. 22 letter from Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Hung Cao confirming that eight suicide attempts were made during the Lincoln group’s combat-heavy deployment.

“Our troops and their families make immense sacrifices every single day, yet the president dismissed them with open disrespect,” wrote Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“That this administration can find endless taxpayer dollars for bombs, ballrooms and billionaires, but cannot take care of our service members, is completely unacceptable.”

Americans, she added, need hearings, accountability, and “a clear plan to protect our service members and prioritize American families.”

Hegseth: A ‘generational mission’ for the USS Lincoln

While the Lincoln sailors had to wait until Thursday to finally step on terra firma, Hegseth flew on a helicopter to the carrier Wednesday to get an early jump on the “welcome homes.”

“I’m here today on behalf of the President of the United States to make sure you understand how deeply grateful we are — and how much we want to showcase and recognize the historic undertaking of this strike group,” said Hegseth.

The secretary announced that Trump was presenting the USS Abraham Carrier Strike Group with the Presidential Unit Citation — the highest collective unit award in the American military.

Hegseth also saluted the Lincoln carrier group’s “back of the baseball card” statistics that included almost 11 months at sea, two extensions in the middle of a combat zone, over 10,000 flights and 23,000 flight hours, 1.5 million pounds of ordnance dropped and 64 Iranian Navy ships sunk.

“You were called upon by your nation for an important and significant and generational mission to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon,” added Hegseth. “Theocratic regimes should never have access to nuclear weapons. President Trump recognizes that — and he called upon the Lincoln from day one to execute on that.”

The Iranians and the United States made a deal to share the ocean, he joked. “The Iranian Navy gets the bottom of the ocean — and the Lincoln gets the top.”

Since the beginning of the Iran war, Hegseth has been frequently critical of the media’s coverage of the conflict. He once again scolded the press during his Wednesday visit to the Lincoln.

“There were a few folks in the media who tried to turn the USS Abraham Lincoln into some sort of a symbol — a symbol of dysfunction or a symbol of low morale or a symbol of a failed mission,” he said.

“And when I look at (the crew), and when I talk to your leadership. … I know it’s the exact opposite, which is actually what the media does so often.”

The families and loved ones of the Lincoln sailors, added Hegseth, have also performed honorably during the long deployment.

“When you greet your families tomorrow, just pass along my gratitude from the president and myself,” he told the troops. “Let them know that their long wait was in service of a righteous and historic mission. Thank them for their patience, for their patriotism, for their love, for their support and for pitching in on the homeland, which is never easy.”

Lincoln’s sailors reflect on nearly a year at sea

As the 1,092-foot-long vessel was navigating towards the U.S. mainland on Wednesday, many Lincoln sailors told the San Diego Union-Tribune that they were not always aware of the broad news coverage at home because Wi-Fi communication on the ship was sometimes limited.

Roman Elliott, a 20-year-old mechanic’s mate, said, with a smile, “I learned to deal with it by playing cards. Lots of cards.

“I am a little nervous about the (homecoming). It’s kind of like things were at the end of boot camp, when you’re finally free,” he added. “I’m looking forward to that.”

Christian Webster, a 22-year-old aviation repair worker, had a different take, telling the San Diego Union-Tribune that he never thought he would see combat when he joined the military.

“This is going to stay with me, knowing that I went through and accomplished what I want to do, and that I have gone far.”

Meanwhile, sailor Steven Rivas learned firsthand the sacrifices that are often asked of American service personnel during times of war. His wife, Brenda, gave birth to their daughter during the historic Lincoln deployment.

But Rivas didn’t find out he was a new dad for more than a week after Baby Evie’s birth because the Lincoln crew was not allowed to use Wi-Fi at the time to send messages.

“I had no way to find out if there were any complications,” Rivas said Wednesday in a San Diego Union-Tribune interview. “It was just a waiting game for me to find out. When I finally did see pictures of (Evie) I, well, I cried. My wife said the birth was a real snap.”

Rivas and his wife are not alone. The babies of scores of Lincoln crew members were reportedly delivered during the carrier group’s deployment.