USS Lincoln sailor returns home to ransacked apartment, stolen car

A US Navy sailor who finally returned home after 10 grueling months aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was greeted by a ransacked apartment and stolen car. Connor Nelson was looking forward to relaxing inside his Lemoore, Calif., apartment on Sept.20 after the extended deployment in the Middle East. “I look into the parking lot and I see my car is gone,” Nelson recalled in a video posted by GoFundMe. He then went to unlock his front door — but he was able to open it with just a light push. “Several thousands of dollars worth of belongings were taken, and the apartment was left trashed,” his distraught father and 22-year Navy Veteran Justin Nelson wrote on the fundraiser website.His television, laptop, shoes and fishing equipment were among the stolen items, CBS News reported.

Police are investigating the harrowing incident. “There’s not much else to feel then just upset.You spend the last 10 months of your life away from home, looking forward to the day you get to go home,” the younger Nelson said. The fundraiser to help him get back on his feet has raised over $35,000. The USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carrier named after the 16th US president, left its San Diego homeport in November. It was stationed in the Middle East for a record-breaking nine months with roughly 250 days straight at sea while conducting combat operations amid the war in Iran. The vessel was relieved from the Middle East by the USS George Washington in late August, and is still traveling through the Pacific Ocean back to San Diego. Nelson was part of an early detachment crew that returned earlier, he explained.  There were 6,000 to 7,000 sailors deployed as part of the Lincoln strike group across about half a dozen ships. There have been eight suicide attempts onboard since deployment, a chilling letter from Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao to Sen.

Kirsten Gillibrand revealed. “This number includes the Lincoln crew and sailors from the c...