US aircraft carrier returns home after record deployment that included Iran war, Maduro capture

Sailors conduct routine operations on the flight deck of the USS Gerald R. Ford while underway in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, on March 22, 2026. - Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Tajh Payne/US NavyThe USS Gerald R. Ford, America’s largest and newest aircraft carrier, is set to return to port in Virginia Saturday after nearly a year at sea that included participating in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the Iran war, a shipboard fire, and repeated plumbing issues.It will go down in history as the longest operational deployment by a carrier since the end of the Vietnam War, a voyage that has seen the ship serve as a focal point for a string of President Donald Trump’s military objectives overseas.For families of the sailors, it’s a long-awaited end to what has been a nerve-wracking year when their service members were regularly participating in military operations that dominated the news.“Now I can actually relax and breath and go back to a normal sleeping pattern,” Amini Osias, whose daughter is an aviation electrician who served on the Ford, told CNN. He said he planned to go out to eat with his daughter, hear her account of the deployment and just be a dad with her.It was a rough journey at times. A fire broke out in the Ford’s laundry area in March that took the crew roughly 30 hours to put out, clean up and prevent from reigniting. Some 600 sailors lost access to their bunks due to the damage, but none were seriously injured. The damage meant the ship couldn’t do laundry for a stretch, adding to the challenges for the crew.The fire happened months into the ships’ deployment after it had already experienced repeated issues with its toilet system that resulted in intermittent partial outages, a hassle for the crew that required a port visit for repairs.Even though the Ford is technically advanced and the newest carrier in the fleet, Osias said, families of the sailors “still had those doubts that something can happen.” He cited the fire as a cause for worry.Current and former military officials say the $13 billion ship has been indispensable in the US military operations in Iran and Venezuela. For the Venezuela operation the ship launched aircraft that participated in the capture mission, and in Iran the ship served as a platform to send wave after wave of fighter jets into action.The ship’s electronic catapult system allows it to launch anything from small drones to big aircraft, giving commanders an array of firepower options, Brent Sadler, a 26-year veteran of the Navy and former submarine officer, previously told CNN. The other 10 US aircraft carriers don’t have that capability, according to Sadler.After pulling away from Virginia last June, the Ford moved across the Atlantic, initially heading to the Mediterranean and up to Norway as part of its scheduled trip before being pulled to the Caribbean for the operation to capture Maduro in January. Then the ship was ordered to rapidly make its way to aid in a potential Middle East war, where it contributed to Iran war operations, until it began heading home and passed into the Atlantic from the Mediterranean Sea earlier this month.For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com