NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — More than 7,000 sailors have returned to Virginia after a seven-month deployment.
News media outlets report that sailors from the USS George H.W. Bush strike group were welcomed back to Naval Station Norfolk on Monday with hugs and tears.
During their time overseas, the sailors assisted in the liberation of Mosul and fight against the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.
WAVY-TV reports that the carrier’s air wing logged more than 30,800 flight hours, including more than 12,000 in combat.
The Virginian-Pilot reports that the sailors dropped 1,717 pieces of ordnance, which is the most since Desert Storm in the 1990s.
Petty Officer 3rd Class Brett Penfield told the newspaper that the strike group accomplished a lot that “had to get done.”
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