The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Here, left, Capt. Pete Riebe, commanding officer, USS Lincoln, and Rear Adm. Adan Cruz commander, Carrier Strike Group Three. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego) 
The USS Abraham Lincoln returned to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado Friday after a five-month deployment. Loved ones awaited the aircraft carrier with signs and smiles as it arrived at Lima Pier. (Photo by Adrian Childress/Special for Times of San Diego)
The Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group returned home Friday just in time for joyous holiday reunions after months at sea that included clashes in the Middle East.
The group, anchored by the USS Abraham Lincoln, arrived at Naval Air Station North Island after a five-month deployment that included travel to the U.S. 3rd and 7th Fleet areas.
The strike group also was ordered to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility to bolster forces in the Middle East, a mission that included the launch of strikes into Iranian-backed, Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen.
In addition, the strikes marked the first ever in combat by the F-35C Lightning II variant, flown by Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 314, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.
Destroyers in the group also patrolled maritime shipping lanes to prevent attacks on international commercial ships as well as U.S. coalition and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden.
“Our incredibly successful deployment of firsts includes the first combat employment of the F-35C Lightning II platform, the first employment of the ALQ-249 Next Generation Jammer, the first Nimitz-class aircraft carrier to re-fuel at sea with a commercial oiler, the first Multi-Large Deck Event with the Italian Navy’s Cavour CSG in the Indo-Pacific, the first west coast CSG to conduct combat strikes to degrade Iranian-backed Houthi rebel combat capabilities, and the first carrier to pull into Malaysia in over 12 years to strengthen critical regional partnerships,” said Rear Adm. Adan Cruz, commander, Carrier Strike Group 3.
The group is composed of nearly 7,000 sailors and Marines across four major subordinate commands, Carrier Air Wing 9 (CVW 9), USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), USS Frank E. Petersen, Jr. (DDG 121) and the destroyers assigned to Destroyer Squadron 21
(DESRON 21).
