Carrier Ike heads out on its second deployment in a year February 19 Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower prepare for a replenishment-at-sea during a pre-deployment exercise on Feb. 4, 2021. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Apprentice Mo Bourdi/Navy) The aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower and its strike group left Norfolk Thursday for the carrier’s second deployment in a year. The carrier headed over the horizon after a last-minute push to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to strike group sailors last week. About 80 percent of sailors opted to get the voluntary vaccine, with a second shot to follow at an overseas location, officials said.
Chafee returns to sea following COVID outbreak February 18 The destroyer Chafee launches a Block V Tomahawk, the weapon’s newest variant, during a missile exercise in 2020. (Navy) The U.S. guided-missile destroyer Chafee has returned to sea following a COVID-19 outbreak that saw most of the vessel’s crew taken off the ship and moved into quarantine for two weeks. While a skeleton crew had been left onboard, roughly 200 shipmates were moved back on to the ship last Friday, and the Chafee has since gotten back underway off San Diego, U.S. 3rd Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Sean Robertson said in an email.
As the vaccines roll out across the fleet, things will loosen up for immunized sailors and fully immunized crews, according to the Navy s latest COVID guidance.