SAN DIEGO - The guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59) returned to San Diego Oct. 29 following the completion of an extended deployment to the U.S. 5th and 7th Fleet areas of responsibility.

Deployed since April 3, the ship and her crew of more than 325 Sailors conducted operations with the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group and took part in a number of exercises, theater security cooperation and maritime presence operations with partner nations.

"Throughout this extended deployment Princeton's crew has performed superbly maintaining an incredible work ethic, total commitment to our mission and pride in our ship." said Capt. Charles P. Good, Princeton's commanding officer. "We're all glad to be safe at home and are looking forward to rejoining the San Diego waterfront and once again being part of this great community."

Princeton conducted naval surface fire support with U.S. Marine Corps aircraft assigned to Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11 and the ship's visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) team provided assistance to five distressed Yemeni fisherman who were stranded at sea with no food or water in the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb.

Commissioned in 1989 in Pascagoula, Miss., Princeton is the sixth U.S. Navy ship to carry its name. The name pays honor to battles in and around the city of Princeton, N.J. in 1777 as part of the Revolutionary War.

The ship's motto of "Honor and Glory" is derived from a letter written by Gen. George Washington to the Marquis de Lafayette on Nov. 15, 1781 in which he wrote, "It follows then as certain as night succeeds day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and that with it everything honorable and glorious."

U.S. Third Fleet leads naval forces in the Eastern Pacific from the West Coast of North America to the international date line and provides the realistic, relevant training necessary for an effective global Navy.