After 200-plus days abroad, Navy destroyers return to Everett homeport [View all]

EVERETT — Four-year-old Grady got a running start Thursday morning when he saw Commanding Officer Meghan Bodnar make her way off the USS Gridley.

He dropped the sign he and his brother Duncan, 9, were holding for hours, “Welcome home mommy,” as they waited for the 509-foot destroyer to return to its homeport at Naval Station Everett.

The ship, commanded by Bodnar and Executive Officer Katie Whitman, departed Everett in December joining Carrier Strike Group Three, led by the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln.

A ship commanded solely by women in the U.S. Navy is “pretty rare,” Bodnar said. For families sending their daughters on their first deployment, it was pretty special, too.

https://www.heraldnet.com/news/after-200-plus-days-abroad-navy-destroyers-return-to-everett-homeport/