A maritime marvel docking on Guam’s shores today, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, a nimitz-class aircraft carrier, arriving at the U.S. Naval base today for its scheduled port visit.

The fleet, deploying from San Diego, conducted routine operations in the region.

Rear Admiral Christopher Alexander is the Commander of Carrier Strike group nine.

He said, “This is a planned deployment for us to the Western Pacific so that we will be operating with our allies and partners.”

The CVN 71’s visit to the island comes off the heels of drilling with the Japanese maritime defense force in the Philippine sea and falls in line with COPE North 2024 exercises underway this week.

Commanding Officer Cpt Brian T. Shrum said, “There’s gonna be a number of operations and things that we’re gonna be part of–leaving port here kind of in the future… to help promote the partnerships that we have here throughout the Pacific. But right now, we expect to be here for a few days and just enjoy time off.”

Among those sailors slated to bask in their time on land include a handful native to the island.

Some of them spoke with Lieutenant Governor Josh Tenorio, who was among other dignitaries invited on board for an overnight stay.

“It really is an engineering marvel–you have this big of a vessel that performs such an important job, and it was such a nice pleasure to meet about eight Guamanians-Chamorus that are on board. A lot of them are looking forward to seeing their family and just so proud of them and what they do for our country,” said Tenorio.

Meantime, two destroyers, the USS Daniel Inouye and USS Kidd, are slated to join the port visit, contributing to a total of 6,000 sailors on the island over the next few days