PACIFIC OCEAN (Sept. 27, 2008) The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) was underway during a transit of the Pacific Ocean. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class James R. Evans/Released)
A search-and-rescue operation has ended for a US sailor who went overboard from the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier in the Persian gulf on Wednesday.
Ships from the US and Spain were searching for the missing sailor.
The sailor’s name is being withheld in accordance with Navy policy.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family, friends and shipmates of our lost Sailor,” said Vice Adm. Jim Malloy, commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet, and Combined Maritime Forces. “During this tragic time, I want to thank the Spanish Álvaro de Bazán-class frigate Méndez Núñez for their assistance in the search operations, and all the Sailors involved in the search for their valiant efforts to find our shipmate.”
The Sailor remains listed as Duty Status Whereabouts Unknown. The Sailor’s name is being withheld in accordance with Navy policy.
The USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group was deployed to the Middle East in May due to a “number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” from Iran, US national security adviser John Bolton said at the time.
Prior to that deployment, the US Navy had been without an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf since early April, when the USS John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group departed to head to the Mediterranean for exercises with the Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, according to the US Naval Institute’s Fleet and Marine Tracker.
Also in the Lincoln strike group are the cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and the guided-missile destroyers USS Bainbridge, USS Mason and USS Nitze, according to a Navy release from early April, which also said a Spanish destroyer would be operating with the strike group for its entire deployment.
The USS Lincoln used to be based in Norfolk but has since changed homeport to San Diego.
