The carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is returning to San Diego after leading the RimPac multi-national war games off Hawaii and is expected to be at its berth by the middle of next week, Navy sources told the Union-Tribune.
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The flattop will then prepare to deploy to the western Pacific, and possibly the Middle East, in September, about a month early, according to the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
The T.R., as many call it, left San Diego on June 15 to serve as the command ship of RimPac, a five-week maritime exercise that occurs every two years. At the time, President Donald Trump was considering diverting the carrier to the Middle East due to tensions with Iran.
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Trump ended up sending the carrier to Hawaiian waters to oversee RimPac’s 30 other surface warships, five submarines and more than 190 aircraft.
The near-term future of another San Diego-based carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is less clear. The carrier is in the Middle East, serving as a lead combatant in the U.S. war with Iran. It has been at sea for more than 220 days without a port call, an unusually long period of time. The Navy has not said when the Abe will be allowed to turn for home.
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