YOKOSUKA, Japan — The flagship of a U.S. Navy strike group left its Japanese homeport on Thursday, wrapping up a nearly nine-year deployment in the Indo-Pacific, where it played a key role in U.S. efforts to strengthen defense ties with Japan and other partners in the region . region.
The departure of the USS Ronald Reagan – one of America’s largest warships and a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier – comes at a time of increasing tension in the face of an increasingly assertive China in the Indo-Pacific.
It will be replaced later this year by the USS George Washington, another Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Japan has accelerated the build-up of its military capabilities and significantly expanded joint naval operations with the United States.
Family members and friends of the crew were on hand to wave the aircraft carrier off from Yokosuka Naval Base after its final patrol mission earlier in the day.
Hundreds of sailors lined the rails, while others in the cockpit formed the Japanese saying “dewa mata,” or “see you later.” The aircraft carrier was accompanied by two guided missile destroyers, the USS Robert Smalls and the USS Howard.
During the ceremony, US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel ensured a “seamless transition.”
“The USS Ronald Reagan and her crew have enabled millions of people in the Indo-Pacific to live their lives free from coercion, aggression and oppression,” Emanuel later told reporters.
USS Ronald Reagan first arrived in Yokosuka in 2015. Previously, during its deployment near the Korean Peninsula, the aircraft carrier contributed to Operation Tomodachi, following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster in northeastern Japan.
USS Ronald Reagan was the only American aircraft carrier deployed as flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5 under the US Navy’s 7th Fleet, to a homeport outside the US.
During his tenure, the country has participated in dozens of multilateral exercises and visited more than a dozen foreign ports, including the historic port call to Da Nang, Vietnam, last year.
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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
