Admiral Brad Cooper, the highest responsible for the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), has concluded this Saturday a ten-day tour of the Middle East, during which he has visited six countries and inspected the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed in the Arabian Sea.
The trip, concluded on August 15, has taken the commander to Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, where he has held meetings with high-ranking civilian officials and military commanders from each country.
During the journey, Cooper has also met with U.S. military personnel stationed in the area, where more than 50,000 U.S. troops are currently operating on different missions.
In his stops on land, the head of CENTCOM has paid tribute to the work of various military personnel, has participated in troop re-enlistment ceremonies, and has supervised the change of command of the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR), according to the command itself in a statement released on social media.
The agenda of the tour has also included a stop at the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), where Cooper has met with sailors and Marines deployed on board. This is the second time this year that the commander has visited the aircraft carrier, following the trip made in February alongside U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump's advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
On this new visit, Cooper addressed the entire crew of the ship to emphasize their commitment during the deployment, in addition to having conversations with lower-ranking military personnel and granting recognitions to several of them.
"The Lincoln Carrier Strike Group is a solid team of high-performing Americans who stand firm, with enormous and justified pride in all that they have accomplished," Cooper stated. "History will record this deployment as one of the most intense from an operational standpoint and of greater significance in the modern era," he continued.
Based in San Diego (California), the USS Abraham Lincoln began its current mission in November and reached the Middle East in January. Since then, its strike group has conducted thousands of combat sorties in support of Operation 'Epic Fury', in addition to engaging in actions to reinforce regional security and in the naval blockade that the United States maintains against Iran.