Family members reunited Thursday with their loved ones, who were on board the USS Abraham Lincoln as the aircraft carrier docked in San Diego, California, completing its months-long deployment in Asia and the Middle East. 

The Lincoln, carrying approximately 5,000 sailors and Marines, was first deployed in the Pacific and South China Sea last November but has been supporting U.S. military operations more recently in the Middle East. The crew's deployment was extended in May.

The sailors and Marines, who had just spent 10 months at sea, were welcomed back to the United States by loved ones who were carrying flowers and balloons and ringing cowbells. Some family members include babies that were born while their fathers were overseas.

One wife, Kathy Monterrosa, held her six-month-old daughter, Sarahi, to meet the baby's father, her husband, for the first time. Sarahi was clothed in a tiny blue and white sailor dress, according to the Associated Press.

“She’s our deployment baby,” Monterrosa, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, told the outlet. “We are different people now; we are parents now. We definitely matured from the last time we saw each other.”

The Navy said some of the first people off the boat will be a group of 64 fathers who have never met their babies.

The arrival comes a day after War Secretary Pete Hegseth presented the crew with the Presidential Unit Citation, which is the highest unit award. It was created in the 1940s and is given to units that show “extraordinary heroism in action against an armed enemy.”

“I draw inspiration from the mission that you executed so successfully,” Hegseth said in a speech on the military ship. “You have changed the arc of history, ensuring that crazy people, theocrats, never get a nuclear weapon, changes the arc of history.” 

According to the award's citation, the Lincoln and its strike group executed nearly 3,700 combat missions, launched 450 Tomahawk cruise missiles, shot down 77 one-way attack drones, sank 64 Iranian warships, and destroyed 21 anti-ship cruise missiles.

The return comes after the aircraft carrier made headlines recently following reports that at least eight sailors aboard the ship attempted suicide during the deployment because of conditions on the ship. 

Conditions on board the ship included piping failures and temporary issues with its reverse osmosis desalination units, which were due to "high-ambient seawater temperatures and continuous operations." It was also difficult to restock the ship and the Navy had to make reductions in food for the sailors.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.