USS Abraham Lincoln

USS Abraham Lincoln, The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the Arabian Sea on Thursday, Navy officials said, a likely prelude to testing Iran’s recent warning against sending a U.S. carrier through the Strait of Hormuz.

The Lincoln joins the USS Carl Vinson, already in the region, returning the U.S. Navy its standard two-carrier presence there. The carrier USS John Stennis left in the past few days and is now traveling back through the western Pacific.

The Lincoln’s arrival puts into place all the elements for a U.S. carrier to travel back into the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz for the first time since recent tensions with Iran escalated.

U.S. military officials have told CNN the United States will continue its long-standing military commitment to having an aircraft carrier in the Gulf, but will not say when the transit will take place in light of security concerns about Iran.

Several weeks ago, as the Stennis left the Gulf, Iranian officials warned the United States not to send in another carrier. In recent years, the United States has kept one carrier in the Gulf and one in the North Arabian Sea for much of the time.

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said that the U.S. naval and military presence in the region will not change and the current level is sufficient to deal with any situation that could arise.

“We have always maintained a very strong presence in that region,” Panetta said Wednesday. “We have a Navy fleet located there. We have a military presence in that region. And … we have continually maintained a strong presence in the region to make very clear that we were going to do everything possible to help secure the peace in that part of the world.”

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln, After 15 years at Naval Station Everett, the USS Abraham Lincoln, No. 72, pulls away from its homeport for the final time early next month.

For some of the warship’s 3,000 crew members and their families, the departure means a move to Norfolk, Va. There the Lincoln is scheduled for a four-year overhaul and refueling of its nuclear reactors to prepare the ship for another 25 years of service.

Sailors on the Abe have become tied to the local landscape and woven into the fabric of the community, Capt. John Alexander, the commander of the aircraft carrier, told the Daily Herald newspaper.

“We’re embedded in the schools, the soccer teams, the churches,” said Capt. Alexander. “The Lincoln has been a fixture in Everett for 15 years – 15 of the 22 years since the ship was commissioned. That’s a long time. We will leave a footprint.”

Alexander, like many other Lincoln crew members, must wait to see what happens after the Lincoln’s upcoming deployment in the Middle East and them the trip to Virginia. They’ll get new assignments next year. Some could return to work in Everett.

The idea of leaving Everett to move to Virginia is heartbreaking for Tracie Holley.

“I’m from the desert, so I fell in love with the Northwest. Even the rain,” said Holley, 28, the wife of Navy Airman Jeremiah Holley and mother of their toddler Miah Holley. “Anybody who gets stationed here is lucky.”

As the Lincoln makes its way to the Middle East, the carrier USS Nimitz, No. 68, is scheduled to tie up in January at its new Everett homeport, joining the current carrier group of frigates and destroyers based here.

For many, the Lincoln is an icon of the city.