Hundreds of people gathered along San Diego’s Shelter Island shoreline Thursday morning to watch the USS Abraham Lincoln return to San Diego Bay.
Just before noon, the loud crowd full of American flags, patriotic music and veterans welcomed home the ship and its thousands of sailors after one of the longest deployments in modern U.S. military history. The Lincoln was deployed for more than 10 months.
“In my mind, growing up, serving my country seemed noble, it seemed just, and it seemed like it was alignment with God’s will in a way,” said Navy veteran Tyler Romero.
The return of the ship was bittersweet for him.
The now 26-year-old was deployed for several months during his own service between 2018 and 2024.
He was at Shelter Island protesting with the organization About Face: Veterans Against the War.
Romero was happy the crew was finally home, but he's against the war and said the ship should have never been sent out. He was concerned about media reports alleging issues happening on board.
The USS Lincoln was reported to have low crew morale and supply shortages, among other allegations.
“I think they were out for an egregious amount of time and should have returned a long time ago,” Romero said. “Laundry fires, toilets overflowing, service members having to sleep wherever they can because its filthy on that ship, multiple suicide attempts. It's outrageous really and it's disgusting.”
Romero was one of a couple dozen veterans or family members of those in service protesting in the large crowd.
Octavio Sifuentes was there doing the same. He’s a Navy veteran who served on two seven-month deployments.
“This administration continues to hide the true cost of war. And it does so by silencing, by intimidating, by censoring the voice of the service members,” Sifuentes said.
Sifuentes is also the local chapter president of Veterans for Peace. He said they spoke for the sailors who were likely not allowed to speak on their own.
“We're here to stand alongside them to demand better conditions, to demand that they stop being put in harm’s way for no goprotesters” Sifuentes said.
Alongside the protestors were many other people simply cheering and welcoming home the sailors, like those from the Point Loma Optimist Club.
Jeffrey Fischbeck is part of the organization. He’s also a veteran who commanded the USS La Jolla submarine from 1988 to 1991.
“We are all here to say thank you and show our support with our flags,” Fischbeck said. “So we wanted to bring them down and wave the flags to say thank you for theiprotesterses.”
He said he listened to the protestors. While they may have differing opinions on some political matters, Fischbeck agrees that long deployments are challenging in many ways.
He said the hardest part for him was missing family. He recalled a deployment when his daughter was 6-months-old. She wasn’t yet talking.
“When I finally got to call home from Australia, my wife said there's someone who wants to talk to you. And there's my daughter who said ‘Daddy, I love you,” Fischbeck said, holding back tears. “You know I missed four months. And that’s the tough part.”
Fischbeck said there's a silver lining for the issues brought to light aboard the USS Lincoln: the public attention it has brought toward the sacrifices young sailors and their families make on behalf of the U.S.
