04:20 PM PST on Friday, March 4, 2005

By MELANTHIA MITCHELL , Associated Press

EVERETT, Wash. -- Judy Hughes' coffee table is piled high with gifts for her husband, reminders of the time they've been apart since Master Chief Petty Officer William Hughes deployed last fall with the USS Abraham Lincoln.

AP

With sailors lining the rails, the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier makes its way to its home port at Naval Station Everett in Everett, Wash.

Throughout his career, there have been plenty of presents to mark missed celebrations and delayed occasions. The stack this time includes a University of Southern California T-shirt, a souvenir of his favorite team to mark their 20th anniversary Jan. 31. There's also a poker-table top and chips for his birthday on Feb. 12.

"The last few months he's been away have been very difficult, but we've been doing this for 22 years now," Judy Hughes said from the family home in Port Orchard, west across Puget Sound from Seattle. "It's almost become a ritual in itself, knowing that he's going to be gone."

After roughly five months at sea, the Nimitz-class carrier and more than 3,000 sailors returned Friday morning to Naval Station Everett, where the Lincoln has been homeported since 1997. Its guided-missile destroyer USS Shoup arrived shortly before the huge carrier came into sight.

The 1,092-foot carrier left in mid-October for a four-month deployment in the western Pacific.

In December, the Navy diverted the vessel to south Asia, where the Lincoln and its air wing were the hub of a relief operation to help victims of the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami. Hughes was in Hong Kong visiting her husband when the earthquake-driven wave crashed ashore. She said she knew the Lincoln would be dispatched to help.

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Anna Gorski introduces four-month-old Tristan to his father, Petty Officer 1st Class Chad Gorski after the USS Abraham Lincoln pulled into its home port of Everett, Wash.

"The Lincoln's always been the one that's been there for everything," said Hughes, 43, whose husband has been with the carrier since it was commissioned more than 17 years ago. He plans to retire in April 2006.

During the Gulf War, the nuclear-powered carrier was en route to the Arabian Gulf when it was ordered to help with evacuations in the Philippines after Mount Pinatubo erupted. In 1993, under orders from President Clinton, the ship deployed to the coast of Somalia to help with United Nations relief efforts.

After the tsunami, helicopters from the Lincoln flew hundreds of missions to deliver food, water and other aid along the devastated west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. As the U.S. relief effort subsided, the Lincoln began its journey home in early February.

On Tuesday, the ship stopped for nine hours at San Diego's Naval Air Station North Island to drop off about 2,000 members of its air wing. Then it headed up the coast with some special guests — about 200 "Tigers," family and friends who came aboard for the last leg of the trip.

"Everyone is excited to be almost home, to see their families, friends, and other loved ones, excited just to be back home in the good ol' United States," Lt. Cmdr. John M. Daniels wrote in an e-mail from the Lincoln.

In 2002, the Lincoln was diverted to assist with the war in Iraq as it headed home from operations in support of the war in Afghanistan. It wound up spending 290 days at sea, the longest U.S. carrier deployment since 1973 during the Vietnam War.