JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A crew of local sailors are home again after spending the better half of a year away from their families.
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The USS St. Louis returned after leaving on a mission overseas last June, which was unexpectedly extended by a month.
The ship’s commanding officer says the sailors were supposed to return to Naval Station Mayport about a month ago, but confirmed with Action News Jax they were directed to Guantanamo Bay at the start of February.
The Navy shared pictures of the USS St. Louis sailors helping support ‘Joint Task Force Southern Guard’ as part of President Trump’s recent executive order to prepare the navy base on Guantanamo Bay to house 30,000 migrants being deported after entering the country illegally.
The commanding officer of the USS St. Louis says the sailors were helping to set up tents to support the base’s migrant operations center. The first seven months of the deployment were spent making drug busts overseas, preventing $111 million worth of drugs from entering the U.S.
“This is a really exceptional group of Americans,” said USS St. Louis commanding officer TJ Orth, “they’re wonderful sailors and shipmates and I’m just proud to have worked with them.”
Action News Jax’s Finn Carlin spoke with some of the sailors onboard as they were walking onto the ship and into the arms of their loved ones. Some of them have been deployed multiple times before and say leaving becomes no easier but seeing their families again becomes much sweeter.
“It’s the best part of the job, this is what makes it all worth it,” one of the sailors said, “there’s no words to it, it’s the best feeling on Earth.”
Another of the sailors is a mother who just returned home after spending the longest time away from her young son that she ever has. Apart from seeing him again, she says seeing all the people she worked with reunite with their families is its own reward.
“I’m just really happy and grateful to be home, it’s been a long deployment,” she told Action News Jax.
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