The Flyby: The USS Ford's World Tour
Setting a record for the most Atlantic crossings?
Carrier Strike Group 12, headed by the mighty USS Ford, is full steam ahead toward—correction… the USS Ford, CVN-78, is nuking toward Iran.
Let me reword that, given these tense times: the USS Ford, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is hastily heading back to 6th Fleet on its way to 5th. Because apparently, 'nuking' is an engineering term that requires a much better PR and potentially legal department.
A Brief History
On February 12th, the poor sailors of CSG-12, who have already been deployed for eight months, heard news that they would be leaving the Caribbean and heading back across the Atlantic to Iran. They will join the USS Abraham Lincoln and the rest of CSG-3 already out there.
For those keeping score at home, the Ford has had quite a busy deployment already:
June 24, 2025: Departed Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia
July – September 2025: Conducted operations in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea
Late September 2025: Transited into the Mediterranean Sea
October 2025: Diverted from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean Sea
January 2026: Casually overthrew a dictator in Venezeula
February 12 2026: Ordered to go back to the Middle East
Today: Transiting the Strait of Gibraltar
Navy deployments may rhyme, but they never repeat. Many sailors can tell you about their interesting/awful/younameit deployment at sea but for this already-tested crew, if they remain deployed until April they’ll break the record for longest carrier deployment of 295 days.
A depressing record to steal, ironically, from the Lincoln back in January 2020.
What Now?
Earlier this year, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, the Iranian regime murdered thousands of its citizens for protesting in the streets. Additionally, there has been a recent push to negotiate curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The idea behind sending the Ford to sit alongside the Lincoln is send a message of “Peace Through Strength”, projecting military might to pressure the regime into meeting diplomatic demands.
Let’s hope it’s a quick resolution and the crew of CSG-12 will be heading back to homeport very soon.
Side note: interestingly, when doing research for this article, Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT both were unaware of the Iranian protestors who were murdered earlier this year. Yet could provide up-to-the-day information on other world news.
How You Can Help
If you’d like to show your support for the men and women stationed on the Ford and beyond, you can donate to the USO. Already, US Navy ships have started implementing onboard USO Centers for sailors to relax or play games and just feel a bit more “at home”.
Other resources to help:
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