Two destroyers are staying behind as USS Lincoln heads home

While the USS Abraham Lincoln makes its way home to San Diego after a grueling nine-month deployment, 600 sailors aboard two guided-missile destroyers that were deployed to protect the aircraft carrier are staying behind and will remain deployed at sea.

Initially, the USS Spruance, USS Michael Murphy and USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., which made up the USS Lincoln carrier strike group, had been told their mission was to escort and protect the carrier, according to a sailor aboard one of the destroyers who was granted anonymity by MS NOW because they were not authorized to discuss operations publicly.

But now, the USS Lincoln is headed home without two of those destroyers.

The USS Murphy and USS Spruance have not yet been ordered to return to their home ports of Hawaii and San Diego, respectively, according to family members and a friend who have loved ones on the destroyers.

The USS Petersen is on its way to its home port in Hawaii, according to a family member of a sailor aboard the destroyer.

The three destroyers, and the roughly 1,000 sailors across all three ships, have been deployed with the USS Lincoln since late 2025, according to the U.S. Naval Institute, or USNI. The typical deployment length for a destroyer is seven months, meaning these destroyers have surpassed the normal length at sea.

It is not clear why only one of the destroyers in the strike group is returning home and not the other two.

Asked about the two destroyers staying at sea, a spokesperson for the 7th Fleet said, “The composition of the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group continually changes based on mission requirements.”

“It is not uncommon for carrier strike groups to disaggregate on deployment,” a U.S. official told MS NOW.

Family members with loved ones aboard the two destroyers that remain deployed — who were granted anonymity to address a sensitive topic — expressed their frustration and disappointment over their loved ones being gone almost an entire year with no set return date.

“I feel absolutely heartbroken,” one family member said, adding that this deployment has caused severe mental and physical stress, and they are constantly worried about whether their loved one is safe. They also outlined the strain the extensions are causing both emotionally and financially on their plans.

“I am angry and I feel so defeated,” they said.