 as Geronar forward, relationships with allies and partners, exercise opportunities, demonstrated at newest capabilities, as well as our nation and our Navy's commitment in the Atlantic. Second Fleet's primary goal is to contribute to peaceful, stable, conflict-free, Atlantic region to combine naval operations with our allies and partners. Together we are an agile, flexible force prepared to respond and to protect our national security interests throughout the Atlantic. This deployment was another example of how the U.S., alongside many allies and partners, are increasing our naval presence across the Atlantic and throughout the theater. Strengthening our interoperability and interchangeability through combined exercises and operations. On this deployment, we were proud to work with Navy's from Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden. This was also an opportunity to deploy our most advanced first-in-class aircraft carrier the USS Gerald R. Ford, demonstrating high-end naval capabilities and integrating NATO allies and partners into the Ford carrier strike group. I am extremely proud of the hard work that went into preparing and executing this deployment. And I am even more proud of the Ford sailors and the strike group team who are leading the charge on this first-in-class state-of-the-art aircraft carrier. Joining me at the podium this morning are Rear Admiral Craig Hoffman, the commander of carrier strike group 12 and commander and speaking captain Paul Lanzolana, the commanding officer of the Ford. They led their crew and strike group throughout this evolution. First off, I just want to say thank you all for being here with us and for the spectacular weather you brought today. I will say that the entire strike group is extremely excited to back home in Norfolk after completing the inaugural deployment of the Gerald R. Ford and the Gerald R. Ford strike group. This was a tremendous opportunity for us to take Gerald R. Ford and all of those new technologies and incorporate them into a strike group setting working with our cruisers and destroyers and also working with our allies and partners holding those allies and partners seamlessly into the strike group concept as we operate it throughout the environment. I'll also highlight that it's extremely exciting to complete this deployment during the centennial of the operations of the US naval aircraft carriers. 1922, USS Langley operated out of Norfolk and so I retook Gerald R. Ford outwards first deployment in 2022. It's a fitting combination of taking the first-in-class ship and bringing it out on its own for deployment. The last thing I'll highlight is how proud I am of the sailors of the Gerald R. Ford strike group. Throughout the entire evolution, their hard work, dedication, and professionalism enabled the successes that we enjoyed in the last several months. It's really exciting to see all the work that they did and the foundations that they laid that would give us the cornerstone of future operations of the Gerald R. Ford strike group. So again, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. Thank you for joining us and I will turn it over to Captain Paul Lanzolana. I'll only add to Admiral Huffman's comments in terms of our extreme happiness with how happy our families are or to have us back home here right before the rest of the holidays. We've sailed all the way across the Atlantic impact up and down the Eastern seaboard. We've been lucky enough to celebrate with our first international port call and our first overseas port call in Portsmouth, England. All of our sailors are back home safely. We're really happy about that. Carrier Air Wing 8 and destroyer Squadron 2 helped us in our mission of bringing our allies and partners together, exercising together with NATO. Really just had a fantastic time on the high seas bringing foreign technology to the forefront, showing that these technologies are relevant, that they work pretty darn well, and just allowing us to learn more about how our systems work and how we're gonna continue to make them even better. For John F. Kennedy, USS Enterprise, and USS Darius Miller, once those ships are finally built.