The USS Peleliu, USS Green Bay, and USS Rushmore - all part of the Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group - returned to homeport Naval Base San Diego this morning, completing an eight-month deployment to the Middle East.
The deployment was memorable for many reasons, including the Peleliu's salute to the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting. As Home Post previously reported, crew of the Peleliu planned a special memorial field day while deployed at sea to honor the victims of the Newtown massacre. Sailors and Marines who participated in the field day did 26 different exercises - one for each of the Sandy Hook victims.
And late last month, the USS Peleliu was briefly diverted from its journey home to San Diego in order to search for two stranded British mariners. The Peleliu, and other Coast Guard and Navy crews, spent more than 50 hours over three days searching roughly 2,340 square miles of the North Pacific Ocean.
The search for Luke Stimson was later called off, but not before a Navy helicopter assigned to the Peleliu rescued Stimson's fiancee Laura Vernon from her yacht.
San Diego television station KFMB-TV was at today's homecoming, and shot some great video of the ships pulling into port. You'll find that video at the top of this post!
