Reuters – The USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier arrived in Souda on Tuesday, giving its 5,500 crew members a Crete island break after seven months at sea and over 2,000 missions launched against Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria.
The U.S. Navy extended the Truman’s deployment by one month to “keep the pressure” on Islamic State until the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower carrier arrived to take over, Vice Admiral James Foggo, commander of the Navy’s Sixth Fleet, told Reuters.
The 1,096-feet (334-metre) Truman, as long as the Empire State Building in New York City is tall and with a 4.5-acre (1.8 hectare) flight deck, is due back home in Norfolk, Virginia in mid-July.
The Truman has used the 72 warplanes on board to drop 1,481 smart bombs and pamphlets on Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since last December when it arrived in the Gulf, the Navy said last Wednesday.
It said jets based on the Truman had launched 68 raids over Iraq and Syria and delivered 52 precision weapons since moving to the Mediterranean from the Gulf last Friday.
Islamic State has lost 45 percent of its territory in Iraq and its oil revenues have been halved in Syria, said Rear Admiral Bret Batchelder, commander of the Truman strike group.
The United States European Command later issued a statement saying the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group had entered the Navy’s Sixth Fleet area of operations, which includes the Mediterranean, taking over USS Truman’s duties on Wednesday “in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe” thus enabling the Truman to sail for Souda.
