USA Today
USS Nimitz completes a 99,000-mile journey likely not done since WWII
Josh Farley, Kitsap Sun
Sun., March 7, 2021, 5:30 p.m.�6 min read
BREMERTON, Wash. � At long last, the USS Nimitz returned home Sunday, close to a year after the aircraft carrier left Sinclair Inlet in Washington state.
The 100,000-ton warship, in completing a deployment that included flying sorties against the Islamic State in the Middle East to navigating the disputed waters of the South China Sea, returns to Bremerton, Washington, having logged 99,000 miles. Navy leaders have called it a record-long journey for a carrier in the years after World War II.
Most of its 3,000-plus sailors, roughly half of which were serving in their first-ever deployment, boarded the warship April 1, 2020 to quarantine for COVID-19. With its crew manning the rails, Nimitz squeezed through Rich Passage to Sinclair Inlet Sunday, just 25 days shy of a full year away from families.
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