The Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower returns to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., July 14, 2024, concluding a nine-month deployment in the Middle East. (Hunter Day/U.S. Navy)
On the flight deck of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, Petty Officer 1st Class Keith Woodcock wiped his brow as the aircraft carrier navigated the Atlantic Ocean about 100 miles off the coast of Virginia.
It was day 274 of a 275-day deployment to the Middle East that sailors aboard the warship characterized as “nonstop.”
“She is tired,” Woodcock said about the ship. “We all are.”
The Eisenhower and its strike group returned July 14 to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., from a twice-extended deployment spent operating at a combat pace not seen since World War II.
Now, the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group, which deployed in January from San Diego, has replaced the Eisenhower in the Middle East and is already hard at work defending against missile attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes by Houthi rebels in Yemen. In addition, the Defense Department announced Friday that the Roosevelt would soon be replaced by the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the region. The Lincoln deployed in May from San Diego to the Pacific.
These intense, extended deployments raise concerns for the Navy about sailor burnout and its effects on retaining crews. At the same time, clear missions with purpose such as battling the Houthis in the Red Sea could drive more people to recruiting offices, some defense analysts said.
“If you are a potential recruit and you are basing your decisions mostly on what you see in the news and what you see from the recruiting commands, then you are going to be more likely to join the Navy. But if you base your decision on feedback you are getting from sailors themselves, it could be more of a mixed bag,” said retired Navy Cmdr. Bryan Clark, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute think tank in Washington.
Sailors prepare ordnance for transport aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea on Feb. 2, 2024. (U.S. Navy)
Recruitment and retention
In the hangar bay of the Eisenhower on July 13, Lt. Colin Duggan helped pack up Strike Fighter Squadron 83’s gear. Duggan, an F-18 fighter jet pilot, said the deployment was intense, though it was gratifying to see the real-world application of their training.
“Shooting down drones and missiles — every single flight we do, we are practicing that stuff,” he said. “The only thing that changed is now there is a real bomb.”
In total, the strike group’s aviators launched about 60 air-to-air missiles and released 420 air-to-surface weapons against Houthi targets. The group also launched 155 standard missiles and 135 precision Tomahawk missiles from guided-missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea and guided-missile destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason.
As fears of a regional war in the Middle East mount, the Navy’s mission is more tangible than ever — providing international security and responding to Iran-backed Houthi attacks, according to Clark. Such missions can be useful for recruiting and retention, he said.
“People can see the value of the Navy, which during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, there was a lot less of that. It was less clear what the Navy’s mission was,” Clark said.
The Navy is projected to miss its recruiting goal for the second consecutive year while struggling to fill 18,000 jobs at sea.
The service set a goal to recruit 40,600 active-duty sailors during fiscal 2024 — a target that the service is projected to miss, Vice Adm. Richard Cheeseman, the chief of naval personnel, told members of a House Armed Services subcommittee in April. As of June, the Navy had recruited 30,067 active-duty enlisted members since October, the start of the fiscal year, according to a quarterly meeting held by the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services.
The Navy is exceeding year-to-date retention forecasts among those who have been in the service for up to 14 years, the service said.
But how long that will last is uncertain, Clark said.
Petty Officer 1st Class Keith Woodcock, a quartermaster, poses for a portrait July 13, 2024, onboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as the aircraft carrier transited the Atlantic Ocean 100 miles off the coast of Virginia. (Caitlyn Burchett/Stars and Stripes)
Fewer ships, more deployments
Seaman Ashton Phillips celebrated his past two birthdays at sea on the Eisenhower — one during the pre-deployment phase and the second on deployment in the Red Sea. As the carrier and crew prepared to return to its homeport, the 20-year-old said he was ready for a break from ship life.
“I have been getting dressed with my flashlight for the past nine months,” Phillips said. “I am looking forward to getting dressed with the lights on, not having to wear shoes in the shower — the simple things.”
The Eisenhower strike group received a combat action ribbon, a military award for performance under fire. Navy leaders said the award was given to everyone that was part of the strike group, regardless of job, and helped keep crews across the group motivated during the deployment.
However, Mark Cancian, a senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, said he predicts the Navy will see a dip in retention due to sailor burnout, especially if deployment extensions with little notice continue.
“It is retention that deployments affect,” he said. “It’s the people who are experiencing it, who are aware of it and feel the impact.”
In the hangar bay of the Eisenhower, multiple sailors said news of the extensions, which came at the tail-end of the deployment, were some of the worst moments aboard the carrier. The crew, many of whom work in areas of the ship that are not climate-controlled, had to endure extreme heat serving in the Red Sea several weeks beyond their anticipated return date.
“Everyone was working hard expecting news we would be going home, when the orders came out we were extending,” said Lt. Cole Carey, another F-18 pilot. “It was horrible. For a couple days after each extension, the vibes were down across the entire boat.”
The Navy is taking on a lot of responsibility, spreading its fleet geographically thin, according to Cancian. The Navy is working to maintain an aircraft carrier presence in the Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Additionally, the Defense Department in June released its strategy for the Arctic Region, calling for a greater Navy presence in the High North.
“Hopes that the Navy and all the services could focus on the Pacific and pare back deployments elsewhere have not borne out. In fact, quite the opposite has happened,” Cancian said.
The maintenance desks of aircraft squadrons aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower were lined with victory marks akin to those affixed to their aircraft. At the maintenance desk for Strike Fighter Squadron 131 “Wildcats,” red and blue stencils of bombs and missiles representing successful combat engagements covered the wall from ceiling to floor. (Caitlyn Burchett/Stars and Stripes)
The Navy has 11 active aircraft carriers that act as mobile, seagoing airports for a variety of aircraft, including fighter jets and helicopters. Of the carriers, two — the USS George H.W. Bush and the USS John C. Stennis — are not deployable because they are undergoing heavy maintenance in a shipyard. Additionally, the USS Ronald Reagan is waiting to enter the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington.
That leaves eight carriers to be ready to respond to crises around the world. This means the Navy will tap those eight carriers more frequently for deployments, both defense analysts said.
“The Navy’s force structure is declining, and the demands are staying at least level and likely increasing,” Cancian said.
The Eisenhower has been the busiest among the Navy’s carriers, deploying three times in the past five years in comparison to a typical cycle of one deployment every three years, according to service data.
“There is a certain point at which the number of deployments does begin to erode retention. It’s not clear where that point exists because I think the Navy has gone so long without having this kind of stress where you’re deploying people at this frequency,” Clark said.
Longer maintenance cycles
A single difficult deployment likely won’t jeopardize the service’s recruiting and retention efforts as sailors see value in the mission, Clark said. Rather, he said extended maintenance times post-deployment could impact the service’s recruiting and retention efforts more so than months at sea in a combat zone.
“The problem will come on the back end, when the ships go back to Norfolk (Virginia) or Mayport (Florida) and have a lot of maintenance done,” Clark said.
Nine-month deployments with higher operational tempos will continue in the Middle East until U.S. Central Command, which oversees military operations in the region, and allied nations disrupt the Houthis’ supply chain for weapons, he said. But extending deployments from seven to nine months could mean a ship misses its post-deployment maintenance and risks disrupting the ship’s schedule, as well as the maintenance schedule of other ships.
“The maintenance facility capacity is pretty tight,” Clark said. “It’s not easy to accommodate a different schedule because things are generally heel to toe.”
Sailors pose in front of an F-18 fighter jet onboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower on July 14, 2024, as the aircraft carrier returned to its homeport of Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. (Caitlyn Burchett/Stars and Stripes)
Typically, East Coast-based aircraft carriers enter Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Va., for heavy maintenance. The USS George H.W. Bush is now undergoing maintenance at the Virginia shipyard. It entered the shipyard on Jan. 11. Before the Bush, the USS Harry Truman was at the shipyard, departing Dec. 17, 2023 — less than one month before the Bush’s arrival.
When the Eisenhower and other carriers eventually enter maintenance periods, the ships are likely to have more “wear and tear” from extended, nonstop deployments that could lengthen time in the shipyard, Clark said. For an aircraft carrier, a typical maintenance period can run from nine months to two years.
“If you are doing five years at sea, that is going to be maybe one deployment and a lot of time in shore in a maintenance overhaul or waiting for a maintenance overhaul. That is not a very attractive prospect when you are thinking about joining the Navy to see the world,” Clark said.
The Navy’s office of chief of information said the warship was following the service’s Optimized Fleet Response Plan, a 36-month cycle during which all required maintenance, training and evaluations are done. The cycle also includes one eight-month deployment.
“The Navy consistently works to mitigate consequences impacting fleet readiness, including possible delays to future deployments, delayed or canceled training, and diminished morale of our sailors and their families,” a Navy spokesperson said.
The Eisenhower has already begun pier-side maintenance at Naval Station Norfolk. The Navy did not say if the warship’s extension at sea delayed its maintenance cycle.
An aviation boatswain’s mate directs an F/A-18E Super Hornet attached to the “Wildcats” of Strike Fighter Squadron 131 on April 12, 2024, during flight operations aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Red Sea. (U.S. Navy)
A long-awaited break
On the Eisenhower as the crew prepared for its homecoming July 14, evidence of the warship’s time at sea was hard to miss.
Inside, the floor of a galley was slick from cooking round-the-clock for the 5,000 sailors onboard. Stairwells near the anchor chain room were covered in moist black grime that threatened to stain the white dress uniforms of sailors brave enough to venture through the area. Those who had not yet changed for the homecoming instead wore work clothes, discolored from sweat and grease that refused to come out of the fabric.
On the flight deck, deep chunks were missing from the impact pads where the wires of the arresting gear slapped the deck as tail-hooked aircraft landed on the carrier. Red rust streaks highlighted the warship’s exterior surfaces exposed to salt water.
Woodcock looked across the water as sailors buzzed around him, getting last-minute preparations done before the ship returned to its homeport. It was Woodcock’s second time bringing the Eisenhower home. He was assigned to the warship in late 2020, deploying with it in 2021. The July 14 homecoming marked the conclusion of Woodcock’s fifth deployment across his 13 years in the Navy.
“It was hard. A lot of crazy nights. But we got through it, and we got to the end,” he said of the recent deployment.
A sailor prepares the arresting cables onboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to be put into storage July 13, 2024, as the aircraft carrier returned to its homeport of Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia. (Caitlyn Burchett/Stars and Stripes)
Even harder, Woodcock said, were the extensions.
“To stand in front of your sailors and have to say, ‘Hey guys, we have another month out here.’ It is a hard job. But at the end of the day, they knew this mission was different than others. There was meaning behind this mission,” he said.
Woodcock, a quartermaster, was part of the team responsible for navigation. His average shift began at 8 p.m. and ended at 4 a.m. He would work with the senior chief to plan new routes for the warship, ensuring it was where it needed to be when it needed to be there.
“We kind of reset the standard of a Navy deployment,” Woodcock said. “But is this going to be the new norm going forward? What are we doing to be doing a couple years down the line when we deploy? Is this what we are going to be doing?”
He said he wasn’t certain whether this deployment would change his perspective about continuing his Navy career.
“I think I need to relax before I answer that. Obviously, when duty calls, duty calls. But it definitely would change a lot of mindsets,” Woodcock said. “This was a beast.”
