Hegseth tells USS Abraham Lincoln sailors he 'plead guilty' for extending their gruelling 300-day deployment twice

From the Newshound archive · first published 8 October 2026.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth came aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on Wednesday to greet thousands of sailors and Marines as they arrived back in San Diego after a deployment lasting more than 300 days — the second-longest since the Vietnam War. He confirmed that he had signed the extension orders on two separate occasions and announced that the crew would receive a Presidential Unit Citation, among the highest honours available to a US military unit.

The deployment was marked by reported food shortages, supply failures, suicide attempts and a mental health crisis that drew bipartisan congressional criticism.