The USS John Stennis is scheduled to arrive in Norfolk, Va., on Thursday after deployment in Asia and as part of a three-ship fleet swap.

The Stennis, which had been based in the Pacific Seventh Fleet, will pull into Naval Station Norfolk for the start of preparations for a scheduled four-year mid-life refueling complex overhaul, U.S. Fleet Forces Command announced Monday.

The aircraft carrier last was in Norfolk, which is the Third Fleet, more than 21 years ago — before many of the nearly 4,500 sailor aboard were born, Navy Times reported.

The Stennis, commanded by Capt. Randy Peck, departed from Bremerton, Wash., ending its deployment.

USS Carl Vinson earlier arrived in Bremerton for a scheduled planned incremental maintenance availability at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.

The Navy sent the USS Abraham Lincoln to the Pacific Fleet from Norfolk. The Lincoln had previously been a Pacific Fleet ship but was on the East Coast following its own upgrades that ended two years ago.

No other ships from the Stennis Carrier Strike Group will be based in Norfolk. The Arleigh Burke guided-missile destroyers USS Stockdale, USS Spruance and USS Chung-Hoon already detached from the strike group to return to their homeports in Hawaii and San Diego.

The Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Mobile Bay is escorting Stennis to Norfolk but will return to San Diego.

Most of the Stennis' embarked air wing also is returning to the West Coast.

The John C. Stennis carrier joined the Abraham Lincoln group on April 22 in the Mediterranean Sea, working with regional allies and partners at sea, as part of the Fifth Fleet. In all, the ship will have been in three fleets in the past year.

The Stennis entered the Persian Gulf just before last Christmas, the first time a nuclear-powered carrier had passed through the Strait of Hormuz since USS Theodore Roosevelt left the region in March 2018.

Early this year, the Stennis participated in the Cobra Gold exercise in Thailand and operated off the coast of Vietnam during President Donald Trump's summit with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un in Hanoi on Feb. 20 and 21.

San Diego became Stennis' home port in early 1998, less than three years after it was commissioned.

Ten Nimitz-class, nuclear carriers are in the naval fleet.

The USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower departed within hours of each other from Norfolk earlier last month.

Keel authenticated for USNS John Lewis replenishment tanker
Washington (UPI) May 14, 2019 –

The keel for the USNS John Lewis, the Navy's first in class replenishment oiler, was ceremonially laid at the shipyard of General Dynamics-National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego.

The ship's namesake, U.S. Rep. John Lewis, and the ship's sponsor, actress Alfre Woodard, etched their initials into the keel plate Monday during a ceremony. The keel laying is the ceremonial recognition of the start of a ship's construction with the joining together of a ship's modular components.

The company began construction of ship on Sept. 20, 2018, with completion scheduled for November 2020.

The contracted cost of the ship is $640.2 million, according to the Navy.

Woodard and Lewis, dressed in protective equipment, took torches in hand and affixed their initials permanently to the ship's keel.

"I tried to promise myself that I would not be overcome, but this is too much," Lewis, 71, said at the ceremony. "We need great ships, like this one, to carry our men and women in our continued work for peace, because we are one world."

Lewis, who has represented Georgia in Congress as a Democratic since 1987, is a civil rights leader and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient.

Then-Secretary of the Navy Raymond E. Mabus Jr. in 2016 announced that T-AO-205 would be named for Lewis.

"We're honored to have Representative Lewis and Ms. Woodard with us today as we lay the foundation for recapitalizing our nation's critical fuel-replenishment-at-sea capabilities," said Mike Kosar, Support Ships, Boats and Craft program manager with Program Executive Office Ships. "These ships are steadfast, reliable and allow our warships to defend our freedoms for which Representative Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting."

Woodard told the guests "as a leader, John Lewis is a bright light in the service of our country. May this ship be a beacon in times of darkness."

After construction and christening, the ship will go through tests and inspections before joining the Military Sealift Command fleet of more than 120 ships.

The John Lewis-class ships will recapitalize the current T-AO 187-class fleet replenishment oilers. In all, 20 perspective ships will be in the Lewis-class as part of the Navy's Combat Logistics Force.