But that day heralded the start of a great upending for the U.S. Navy, after Hamas militants streamed into Israel and murdered more than 1,200 people, sparking a war that continues to threaten to engulf the Middle East to this day.

The moment that would change the Navy forever actually took place aboard the Carney 12 days later, on Oct. 19, when it became the first American warship to take out a barrage of Iran-backed Houthi rebel missiles and drones fired from Yemen.

Such intercepts have since become a harrowing, near-daily occurrence for destroyers in those waters, and the year that followed Oct. 19, 2023, has irrevocably changed the Navy for the foreseeable future, Navy leaders and outside analysts say.

On this day one year ago, starting around 4 p.m. local time, Carney took out a Houthi attack the Pentagon later said was headed for Israel, downing 15 drones and four land-attack cruise missiles over 10 hours.

While their pre-deployment training prepared them for anything, the Carney was not expecting to find itself taking on the Houthis in a near-daily battle to keep the claustrophobic Red Sea lanes open for commerce, Cmdr. Jeremy Robertson, the ship’s commanding officer for that cruise, told Navy Times this week.

“None of us really could have known what we were going to get into once Oct. 7 happened,” he said.

Since those fateful 10 hours a year ago, the Red Sea has become the arena for the longest sustained “direct and deliberate attacks at sea” that the fleet has faced since World War II, Fleet Forces Command head Adm. Daryl Caudle said in a statement to Navy Times.

“While I could not have predicted the complexity and interrelationships of all that has transpired since [Oct. 19, 2023], I am not surprised,” said Caudle, who commands the Navy East Coast-based fleet.

“The world is a very tense place right now given the vast range of power-seeking agendas between peer competitors and opportunistic regional proxies. Any small spark can have serious consequences, which is why we take every situation so seriously.”

Since Carney’s first victory, the surface fleet has subsequently honed its tactics and tuned its radars for such a fight, instances when a ship’s Combat Information Center sometimes has mere seconds to ascertain and take out a Houthi attack.

Combat lessons are being routed back to schoolhouses and training centers, giving the Navy real-time knowledge on its combat systems and how to best use them.

Skippers also report that their crews have been galvanized by such experiences, finding meaning to their seemingly endless training in the life-and-death minutes they endure in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

“This really gave our sailors the why,” Robertson said. “Why do we train so hard, why do we do all the reps and sets.”

“The stage was not too big, the lights were not too bright. They were able to draw a connection.”

These successes at sea “validate our readiness to respond, our Sailors’ warfighting spirit and the technological superiority of our exquisite combat systems,” Caudle said.

But despite the tactical successes and demonstrated proficiencies, some question how fast the Navy is burning through munitions, sometimes to take out cheap Houthi drones, and whether a drawdown of missiles could one day impact a long-feared war with China in the West Pacific.

The Houthi menace in the Middle East has also caused the Navy’s aircraft carriers to be run hard, and some have been scrambled to the region when others weren’t ready to go, further raising readiness alarms in some corners.

And while tactical battles have been won, strategic wars have not, according to James Holmes, a retired Navy gunnery officer and professor of maritime strategy at the Naval War College.

“The tacticians have done their work magnificently … and the combination of sensors, fire control and weaponry has performed as advertised against an array of threats similar to what [Iran, Russia and China] field,” Holmes told Navy Times. “Bringing down anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles is no easy feat, but they have done it.”

And while such successes will reverberate on other maritime battlefields, the Navy to date has been unable to stop the Houthis from attacking merchant vessels traveling through the vital economic waterway that is the Red Sea, he said.

“The failure part is that the mission has fallen short of its strategic goal, namely allowing merchant shipping through the Gulf of Aden, Bab el-Mandeb Strait, and Red Sea to resume unmolested,” Holmes said. “We can flip strategic failure to success when shipping firms — and the all-important maritime insurance companies — feel comfortable enough to start using that route again.”

A year in, the Navy is getting more judicious about how it fights Houthi attacks, according to Bryan Clark, a retired submarine officer and analyst at the Hudson Institute think tank.

Navy ships threw the “kitchen sink” at incoming drones and missiles after the Carney’s first intercept a year ago, but the fleet is becoming more adept at using electronic warfare, guns and less-expensive interceptors to counter such Houthi attacks, Clark said.

Questions of sustainability of effort are now arising, he said, noting that the Navy has in some instances used carrier-based fighter jets to shoot down Houthi drones and missiles, an expensive and inefficient approach.

“The challenge going forward will be how to sustain this level of presence in the region,” Clark said. “The Pentagon may need to consider putting missile defense systems on barges or ashore so [destroyers] can deploy elsewhere or return home for maintenance.”

Robertson left the Carney after it returned to Mayport, Florida, in May, and is now the Navy’s Surface Warfare Advanced Tactical Training, or SWATT, director, passing on his hard-earned knowledge.

“It’s certainly surreal,” he said of his time commanding Carney. “I love every one of the sailors and officers and chiefs I worked with. Just a great crew. They’ll remember this for the rest of their lives.”

As the one-year anniversary of Oct. 19 comes and goes with no end in sight for the Navy’s Red Sea fight against the Houthis, Caudle noted that it’s difficult to forecast how the conflict will end.

“While I won’t speculate on how our involvement with the Houthis will culminate, I can tell you that I’m laser-focused on readiness, sustainment and lethality,” he said. “We’re ready for this fight, no matter how long it lasts.”

Army special forces soldiers have joined the mission to locate and find two Navy aviators whose EA-18G Growler jet crashed Tuesday in a remote area east of Mount Rainier in Washington state.

The two-person fighter jet, assigned to Electronic Attack Squadron 130 at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, crashed east of Mount Rainier at approximately 3:20 p.m. local time Tuesday while conducting training, the Navy said.

Wreckage was found Wednesday, but the Navy said Thursday night that it “rests at approximately 6,000 feet altitude in a remote, steep and heavily-wooded area east of Mount Rainier.”

Soldiers from the 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) based at nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord are assisting in the search, the Navy said.

“The unit brings specialized mountaineering, high-angle rescue, medical, and technical communication skills necessary to navigate the difficult terrain associated with the Cascade Mountain Range that is inaccessible by other means,” the Navy said.

Any confirmation of whether either of the aviators survived the crash cannot be done without a debris area site assessment, according to the Navy.

“Our priority is to locate our two aviators as quickly and as safely as possible,” Capt. David Ganci, commanding officer of Electronic Attack Wing, said in a statement. “Adhering to [Pentagon] procedure, we cannot identify or confirm the names of aircrew involved in a mishap until 24-hours after their next of kin have been notified of their status. Please remain patient and limit speculation about the incident. That is one of the best ways we can respect the privacy of the loved ones who are impacted by this tragic event.”

TR was rushed to the Middle East in July, after East Coast carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower was wrapping up its own extended deployment battling missile and drone salvos fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Carrier presence in the Middle East has traditionally been handled by Virginia-based carriers, but none of those carriers were ready to replace Ike, prompting TR’s diversion to the region.

As tensions have ebbed and flowed this year, TR operated alongside fellow West Coast carrier Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East before departing those waters in September and heading home.

“The strike group’s ability to quickly adjust from operations in [the West Pacific to the Middle East] is a testament to both the flexibility of our naval forces as well as the strength and training of our Navy Sailors,” Carrier Strike Group 9 Commander Rear Adm. Christopher Alexander said in a statement.

Theodore Roosevelt’s strike group includes Carrier Air Wing 11, the cruiser Lake Erie and the destroyers Russell, Halsey, John S. McCain and Daniel Inouye.

Lake Erie and McCain remain deployed to the West Pacific, the Navy said, while the other strike group warships have returned to their home ports.

Strike group sailors flew more than 9,000 sorties and logged 21,000 flight hours, while steaming more than 71,000 nautical miles and conducting 28 at-sea resupplies, according to the Navy.

Those sailors also did port calls in Bahrain, Diego Garcia, Guam, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Thailand.

“The crew worked incredibly hard and maintained mission focus this entire deployment,” Capt. Brian Schrum, Theodore Roosevelt’s commanding officer, said in a statement. “I am extremely proud of our Sailors and the work accomplished across the world’s oceans to keep our nation safe at home.”

Those deployments represent the most sustained combat that any sailor has faced since World War II. And we want to tell your story.

What is your day-to-day life like over there? How different was it from your past cruises? Were you exhilarated by it all? Terrified? A bit of both?

If you’d like to share your thoughts, email geoffz@militarytimes.com. Anonymity can be granted upon request.

Thanks for your help, and for your service.

Hamas marked the anniversary of its Oct. 7, 2023, attack by firing a barrage of rockets at Tel Aviv, underscoring its resilience after a year of war and devastation in Gaza. Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which began firing rockets at Israel on Oct. 8 in support of its ally Hamas, fired more than 170 rockets despite its recent losses.

The conflict soon drew in the United States military as well, and troops levels there remain higher than normal in order to prevent a bigger war from breaking out.

A few weeks after Hamas’ attack, on Oct. 19, the Navy destroyer Carney became the first American warship to take out a salvo of drones and missiles fired by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

That back-and-forth between the Houthis and the Navy has continued on a near-daily clip for the past year in the Red Sea and Gulf of Oman, and Navy ships have also played a role in shooting down Iranian missiles fired at Israel on two occasions.

U.S. ground forces have also endured months of attacks by Iran-backed militias in Syria and Iraq, although the frequency of such attacks has lessened.

Still, a January attack on the Tower 22 base on Jordan’s border with Syria killed three U.S. troops.

They are Sgt. Kennedy Sanders, Sgt. Breonna Moffett and Staff Sgt. William Rivers.

Questions have also emerged about how long the U.S. military — and the Navy in particular — can keep expending finite resources in the region.

As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press Israel’s campaigns on all sides, the military bombarded southern Lebanon with more than 120 strikes in an hour Monday, saying it was targeting Hezbollah positions. An earlier strike killed at least 10 Lebanese firefighters, the latest of dozens of first responders killed in recent weeks, according to Lebanon ‘s Health Ministry.

In a possible sign of the expansion of its campaign, the military said it would soon launch operations on Lebanon’s southern coast, telling residents to stay off the beaches and the sea for a 36-mile stretch along the Mediterranean.

In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Israeli troops shot and killed a 12-year-old Palestinian boy in a refugee camp, Palestinian health officials said. The military said it opened fire on Palestinians throwing stones at its forces.

A year since Hamas’ surprise cross-border attack, the war in Gaza rages on even as Israel is fighting a new war against Hezbollah, escalating its bombing campaign in Lebanon the past three weeks. There is also a mounting conflict with Iran — which backs both Hamas and Hezbollah — that threatens to drag the region into an even more dangerous conflagration.

And within Israel, two main commemorations for the day underscored the country’s divisions. One was held by the government, the other in Tel Aviv by families of those killed on Oct. 7 and of hostages still held in Gaza who refused to join the official ceremony.

It was a sign of how Israelis’ faith in their leaders and military were shaken when the militants stormed out of Gaza, catching the country unprepared on a major Jewish holiday. The militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Around 100 hostages have not been returned, a third of whom are believed to be dead, and cease-fire efforts have ground to a halt.

No formal commemorative event is planned in Gaza, where Israel’s assault since Oct. 7 has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, huge areas have been completely destroyed, most of the population have been driven from their homes and hunger is widespread.

At 6:31 a.m., four projectiles were launched from Gaza toward the same communities that came under attack last year, without disrupting ceremonies there.

The military said another five rockets were launched from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis toward central Israel, setting off air raid sirens in Tel Aviv. Two women were lightly wounded, according to first responders, and there was minor damage. The military said it struck the launch sites.

Sirens blared a second time in central Israel hours later when Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile. The military said the missile was intercepted.

Israel responded to the Oct. 7 attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive military campaigns in recent history.

“We lost everything we have,” said Liyala al-Shanar, who fled her home in Gaza City. “We live in a tent that doesn’t protect us from the winter cold or the summer heat.”

Hamas’ fighters have repeatedly regrouped in areas where Israel carried out major operations. On Sunday, Israeli forces encircled the northern town of Jabaliya and launched another major operation there that the military says is aimed at rooting out militants.

The past year has seen a surge of violence in the West Bank, including Israeli raids on towns targeting armed groups, increased attacks by Palestinian militants and Jewish settler attacks on Palestinians.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah has kept up its fire even after intensified Israeli strikes have killed many in its top command — including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah — and pounded large areas of Lebanon.

Israel’s strikes have killed at least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, and 1.2 million have been driven from their homes. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said Monday’s strike that killed the 10 firefighters hit the municipality of the southern town of Baraachit just as they prepared for a mission. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

Israel launched what has so far been a limited ground operation across the border last week. It says it aims to drive the militant group from its border so tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return home.

Israel has also vowed to respond to a ballistic missile attack last week that Iran said was in response to the killings of Nasrallah, top Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and one of its own Revolutionary Guard generals.

Hezbollah said Monday it would continue its attacks until there is a cease-fire in Gaza, saying Israel “was and will remain a deadly, aggressive, cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes.”

Navy leaders this week identified an aircraft carrier and two submarines affected by faulty weld issues during work at the Newport News Shipyard in Virginia, but say that the substandard work did not take place on components that affect ship safety or operations.

In a letter to House and Senate armed services committee members Thursday, Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said impacted ships include the recently-revamped aircraft carrier George Washington and the brand-new attack submarines Hyman G. Rickover and New Jersey.

Citing shipyard officials, Del Toro wrote that the issue involved “welders who did not follow welding procedures properly.”

“Importantly, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) has assessed that the welds were not on components or systems that affect ship safety or operations,” he wrote. “NAVSEA, as the technical warrant holder, has determined the ships are safe to operate.”

Del Toro wrote that he first became aware of the issue on Sept. 24.

The Navy had identified those three vessels as having been impacted as of Thursday, and Del Toro’s memo states that the sea service is examining welds on 23 ships under construction or in maintenance to see if faulty welds there may impact future operations.

Last week, officials with HII, the company that owns Newport News Shipbuilding, acknowledged that “some welders knowingly circumvented certain welding procedures” while working on military vessels.

“Malicious intent” was ruled out as a the source of the problem, HII said in a statement.

“Upon discovery of some welders not consistently following procedures, we followed our protocol, took action to communicate with our customers and regulators in a timely manner and began working the issue with the Navy,” the company said in an additional statement Friday.

The Department of Justice is investigating the matter, lawmakers confirmed this week.

Del Toro promised to cooperate with that probe and wrote Thursday that the Navy “is evaluating all legal options, and reserving our rights accordingly.”

Congressional leaders have pushed the Navy this week for more answers on the scope of the problem and how it was allowed to happen.

“These vessels are critical to U.S. defense,” House Armed Services Committee members wrote to Del Toro this week. “We must ensure that these vessels are protected against any bad actors seeking to put U.S. national security or our service members at risk.”

The Newport News yard is one of two in the United States focused on the nuclear fleet. The yard constructs parts of several submarine classes, as well as Ford-class aircraft carriers.

While the timeframe of the faulty welds has not been disclosed, George Washington left the Newport News yard in May 2023 following its midlife maintenance overhaul that began in 2017 and was originally supposed to wrap in 2021. Officials blamed the delays on extra unanticipated work during the so-called refueling and complex overhaul, or RCOH.

The carrier is currently underway in the Pacific Ocean and on its way to its new home port in Japan.

The submarine Hyman G. Rickover was commissioned in October 2023, while New Jersey was just commissioned on Sept. 14.

In the memo, Del Toro promised a full review of operations at the shipyard to ensure the welding problems do not occur again.

“The safety of our sailors and ships is of paramount importance,” he wrote. “We have given top priority to the task of defining and examining the scope of improper welds conducted on operational in-service ships, and I have directed my Navy technical experts to co-locate with the shipyard immediately to support a thorough review.”

Lawmakers demanded answers from the U.S. Navy on Friday over news reports that faulty welds may have been knowingly made to American submarines and aircraft carriers under construction at Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

The revelations were first reported by U.S. Naval Institute News.

Few details about the matter were made public Friday, including the potential risks to sailors serving aboard the impacted ships, or whether those ships would become unavailable for operations due to the bad welds.

In a statement late Friday, HII, the company that owns the shipyard, said it had discovered “through internal reporting that some welders knowingly circumvented certain welding procedures.”

“Based on our initial investigation, there is no indication of malicious intent,” the company said. “Upon discovery, we took action to communicate with our customers and regulators, investigate, determine root causes, bound the issue, and put in place immediate corrective actions as we work through longer-term solutions.”

The company’s statement did not include further information on the corrective actions or longer-term solutions taken.

Earlier Friday, in a joint statement, the Republican and Democrat heads of the House Armed Services Committee called reports of the faulty welds “deeply concerning.”

“The Department of Defense needs to immediately provide our committee with answers and a plan for how they will protect U.S. Navy vessels against tampering,” the statement by committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., states. “Absolute transparency with Congress is essential.”

The ranking member of the committee’s Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee said in a statement that members were “already in close contact with Navy leadership to ascertain the scope and severity of the weld quality issue.”

“Anytime there is a weld defect on Navy ships and submarines, the safety of the crews that serve aboard are put at risk, and the availability of these platforms are impeded,” subcommittee ranking member Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., said. “It is imperative that Navy leadership disclose its investigation in a timely manner in the coming weeks.”

The Navy said Friday that it was “aware of the issue and a thorough evaluation is underway to determine the scope.”

“The safety of our Sailors and our ships is of paramount importance,” the sea service said. “We are working closely with industry partners to address this situation and will provide additional information when available.”

The Newport News yard is one of two in the United States focused on the nuclear fleet.

The yard constructs parts of several submarine classes, as well as Ford-class aircraft carriers.

HII did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Military Times, but USNI News reported that the company had reported the matter to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Cmdr. Stacey O’Neal was fired as head of Navy Talent Acquisition Group San Antonio “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to perform her duties,” the Navy said in a brief statement.

No other reason was provided for O’Neal’s firing, and the Navy regularly uses the “loss of confidence” line when announcing such CO firings.

O’Neal was regularly featured on the unit’s social media profiles noting that it is “time to get up and get after it.”

A motivational video featuring the officer shouting out her sailors was posted to the unit’s Instagram on Friday.

O’Neal has been reassigned to Naval Medical Forces Development Command out of Joint Base San Antonio.

Capt. Tommy L. Edgeworth, Navy Recruiting Region West’s deputy commander, has temporarily assumed command of the unit, the Navy said.

The prior-enlisted O’Neal has served for more than 30 years and assumed command of the recruiting unit that oversees dozens of recruiting stations in the area.

She served as the unit’s second-in-command before that, and began her career as a machinist’s mate.

The service’s statement announcing the firing did not note a reason for Cmdr. Cameron Yaste’s relief, stating only that it occurred “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command the guided-missile destroyer.”

Yaste had been in command of the ship since October.

Capt. Allison Christy, deputy commodore of Destroyer Squadron 21, has temporarily assumed command of the warship.

The Everett, Washington-based McCain arrived in the Middle East in April as part of a scheduled deployment.

Yaste has been temporarily reassigned to Naval Surface Group Northwest.