{"id":367618,"date":"2026-08-10T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367618\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T17:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T17:22:12","slug":"nearly-300-navy-sailors-return-to-florida-after-9-months-at-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367618\/","title":{"rendered":"Nearly 300 Navy sailors return to Florida after 9 months at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

MAYPORT, Fla. \u2014 Nearly 300 Navy sailors returned home to Florida over the weekend after spending nine months at sea.<\/p>\n

The sailors aboard the USS Thomas Hudner left Naval Station Mayport on Dec. 1, beginning a deployment that took them across multiple fleet areas.<\/p>\n

For the families waiting along the pier, the homecoming was a moment months in the making.<\/p>\n

Among those waiting was Dawn Moore, who joined other family members as they watched for the ship and their loved ones to return.<\/p>\n

After months apart, the reunion brought an emotional end to a long deployment for the sailors and their families.<\/p>\n

The commander of the USS Thomas Hudner said that support from family members is a critical part of making it through a deployment.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies are the foundation,\u201d the commander said, describing them as the \u201crocks\u201d that help sailors get through the tough times.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

TOP STORIES FROM WFTV CHANNEL 9<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MAYPORT, Fla. \u2014 Nearly 300 Navy sailors returned home to Florida over the weekend after spending nine months…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,3192,148978,7342,148980,148984,148979,148981,148977,148983,148976,148982],"class_list":["post-367618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-james-tutten","tag-mayport-homecoming","tag-naval-station-mayport","tag-navy-deployment","tag-navy-families-reunion","tag-navy-homecoming","tag-navy-sailors-florida","tag-navy-sailors-return","tag-sailors-return-home","tag-uss-thomas-hudner","tag-uss-thomas-hudner-homecoming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}