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More than 4,000 Sailors and Marines were welcomed home by their loved ones at Naval Station Mayport Monday.
The USS Iwo Jima and USS Fort McHenry journeyed back to the U.S. after spending seven months at sea.
“As soon as we started pulling into the harbor here and seeing American soil, we just felt free again,” said Arjun Strong, who returned from his fourth deployment.
Strong’s wife and two kids were there to greet him as soon as he stepped off the ship.
“It always makes my heart feel good because they miss him just as much as I do and it’s just a really happy moment,” said Strong’s wife.
For some, it was their first deployment and first time getting to meet new faces that joined their family while they were deployed.
Courtney Milcoff gave birth while her husband was deployed and she couldn’t wait for him to finally meet their six-month-old son for the first time today.
“It’s going to be really exciting,” said Milcoff. “I think it’s going to be an emotional thing for him, well, for all of us actually.”
The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) and 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) provided support security, crisis response, and disaster relief. The ships also played a crucial role in Yemen evacuation and participated in multiple training exercises.
While deployed, the ARG, traveled nearly 135,000 combined nautical smiles and logged close to 5,000 flight hours. The ships also completed more than 4,000 passenger transfers and moved more than 35,000 pounds of cargo and mail to and from ARG shipping
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