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The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, will be heading home following a record-setting deployment of more than 300 days that included participating in the war against Iran and capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, two US officials said Wednesday.

The Ford will be leaving the Middle East in the coming days and returning to its home port in Virginia in mid-May, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive military movements. The Washington Post reported the development earlier.

The arrival of the USS George HW Bush to the region last week meant three American aircraft carriers were deployed to the Middle East – a number not seen since 2003 – during a tenuous ceasefire in the Iran war. The USS Abraham Lincoln also has been in the region since January as tensions with Tehran ramped up.

This month, the Ford broke the US record for the longest post Vietnam-war deployment, a nearly 10-month span after leaving Naval Station Norfolk in June.

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Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth is putting his stamp on religion and its role in the military.

He tossed out the Army's spiritual fitness guide in December, lamenting its lack of explicit references to God in favor of broader spirituality. He's held Christian prayer services at the Pentagon with controversial pastors and framed elements of the war in Iran in biblical terms.

He announced in March that the Pentagon would reduce the number of recognized religious affiliation codes, which are used in part to connect service members with necessary faith resources, and that military chaplains would no longer display, but still retain, their rank insignia.

The shakeups continued in April..

On the same day Hegseth asked Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George to step down and immediately retire, two other high-ranking officials were ousted, including Maj. Gen. William Green Jr., the Army’s chief of chaplains.

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When Kevin Benderman learned that the U.S. had entered a war with Iran, his mind teleported back about 20 years to Fort Hood, Texas — the day he received orders to deploy to Iraq. 

That deployment profoundly changed Benderman, an Army veteran now living in Augusta, Ga. Despite coming from a long line of military service, he said nothing prepared him for the trauma and loss that he endured.

" I'm just nervous and upset about what I know the young service members are going to be facing when they are in Iran and what they're already facing," he said.

That worry led him to drive to Washington D.C. earlier this week. He was joined by over 150 veterans and military families who occupied the Cannon House Office Building to call for an end to the war. The demonstration on Monday was abruptly ended by Capitol Police, who arrested a total of 66 people. About Face, a veteran group who helped organize the protest, said everyone arrested has been released.

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A US soldier who played a role in the January capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro is now in custody after allegedly cashing in over $400,000 on wagers about the politician’s removal from office, federal authorities announced on Thursday.

Prosecutors say beginning in early December the soldier, Gannon Ken Van Dyke, was involved in planning for the military operation to capture and depose Maduro.

Between early December and early January, Van Dyke allegedly placed 13 bets on Polymarket, a popular prediction market, related to American forces invading Venezuela and taking its head of state.

Van Dyke has been charged with commodities and wire fraud in addition to unlawful use of confidential government information for personal gain, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ). He is facing up to 60 years in prison.

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Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is holding up hundreds of Coast Guard promotions over an issue with Eastern Shipbuilding Group, a Florida shipbuilder.

In a statement to The Hill on Wednesday, Scott said he has questions about what happened with contracts with the company since President Trump took office and “they haven’t been answered yet.”

Eastern Shipbuilding Group, based in Panama City, in 2016 won a multibillion-dollar deal with the Coast Guard to deliver four new Offshore Patrol Cutters (OPC).

But the company, which was supposed to deliver the first such ship in June 2023, hit several snags in production. Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last year decided to cut the order from four down to two vessels, citing “failing to meet delivery agreements.”

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Dozens of US military veterans, some with visible disabilities, were arrested on Monday during a protest against the ongoing US-Israeli war against Iran. Approximately 60 veterans and family members gathered in the rotunda of the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, many wearing military fatigues. They unfurled banners reading “End the War on Iran” and “We Can’t Afford Another War” while standing stoically at attention.

The group held a flag-folding ceremony to honor American service members who have died in the conflict and those who might be killed if fighting resumes. Several protesters held red tulip flowers in memory of Iranians killed since the war began on Feb. 28.

Mike Prysner, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War (CCW), was among those arrested. Before his detention, he said: “This war is already deeply unpopular, and it is already a crisis for the Trump administration.” Prysner noted that more than 100 service members have already filed as conscientious objectors, adding: “If even more stand up, and some speak out, we have a real chance of deepening this crisis for Trump in a way that forces them to pull back from this war.” According to the center, roughly five dozen protesters were arrested by US Capitol Police for civil disobedience.

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