NORFOLK, Va. - The guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul (DDG 74) has deployed from Naval Station Norfolk carrying roughly 300 Sailors.
The ship maritime security operations and also participate in training exercises.
Kathy Garcia's son, 21-year-old Julian, was already aboard the USS McFaul when she arrived to see him off this morning. With tears in her eyes, she watched as the ship carried her son away.
“It’s bittersweet you know? Proud of him, but I’m just gonna miss him terribly," said Garcia.
Garcia's son is one of many sailors aboard the ship who are on their first deployment. The last time the USS McFaul was deployed? 2015.
It is Commander Janet Days' sixth deployment, but first as the commanding officer of a ship.
"(It's) a tremendous amount of responsibility the Navy has placed in me but I’m ready for the challenge, my crew is ready for the challenge," she said.
As for where they'll be going...Commander Days wouldn't give specifics.
"We're just going east," she said with a laugh.
The USS McFaul was commissioned in April of 1998 and had its maiden deployment later that year.
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