JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The USS Taylor and about 250 sailors returned to Naval Station on Mayport Monday morning after a seven-month deployment.
"They were gone for seven months patrolling around the horn of Africa, Somali basin, certainly conducting some piracy operations, maritime security operations with foreign navies. It's a constant mode of training. I can tell you last night, probably wasn't any sleep on the ship. Everybody's excited to reunite with their families," said Bill Austin with Naval Station Mayport.
SLIDESHOW: Homecoming photos
The deployment was a great success, according to Austin. The ship docked about 8:15 a.m., but families are begin lining up much earlier.
"I go to all these homecomings and it's always something different but one thing that remains the same, there's always a lot of excitement in the air. As you can imagine, seven months is a long time, so there's a lot of happy folks out here today waiting for their loved ones to return from sea," Austin said.