SEATTLE — The Coast Guard icebreaker Healy’s return to its home-port on Sunday, Feb. 5, marked not only the end of a cruise that saw the ship’s crew performing an essential service for one of America’s northernmost cities, but also the homecoming of its three Marysville crew members.

The Healy had left Seattle on May 27 of last year and was originally scheduled to return in time for the holidays, before Alaska’s U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski requested assistance from the Coast Guard to escort a fuel tanker to Nome. For Petty Officer First Class John B. Carter Jr., a kitchen manager and crew-member on board the Healy since 1995 who’s served in the U.S. Coast Guard for 21 years, this made for his longest tour of duty yet.

“Eight months was the longest he was gone before,” said Heidi Carter, John’s wife, with whom he moved to Marysville in 2004. Heidi has been raising their daughter Ashley, a 17-year-old senior at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, and 2-year-old son J.R. in John’s absence. “The fact that this was so last-minute made it especially hard.”

The double-hulled Russian ice class tanker Renda was delivering more than a million gallons of diesel vehicle fuel and 300,000 gallons of gasoline, but in spite of being certified to travel through four feet of ice, the fuel delivery that was expected around Jan. 7 didn’t reach Nome until Jan. 14, even with the Healy clearing the way for the Renda through the Bering Sea ice for 800 miles.

Nome Mayor Denise Michels emphasized the importance of fuel shipments to the city, whose lack of outside road connections makes it dependent on marine vessels or aircraft for its shipments of goods. Nome had already missed a November delivery of 1.6 million gallons of fuel due to a storm last fall, and was increasingly reliant upon vehicles for transportation within the city as winter weather made walking prohibitively difficult.

“We have the option to fly fuel in for $3 a gallon, but we’re already paying $6 a gallon for it now,” Michels said. “That impacts our budget, as city staff have to drive vehicles to get anywhere they’re going and the roads need to be cleared for ambulances. All our budget projections are based on the fuel price staying stable through the winter.”

Michels expressed her gratitude to the crew of the Healy — including John Carter Jr. and his fellow Marysville crew-members, Miguel Uribarri and Nicolas Orozco, both petty officers first class — for sacrificing their holidays with their families. Although the Carters have put the rest of their decorations away, they kept their artificial tree up.

In the meantime, John and Heidi Carter have both reflected on how odd it’s felt for them for his voyage to be making the news around the world.

“It’s kind of weird for me, because this is what the Coast Guard does all the time,” John Carter Jr. said. “We help people, so for me, it’s just part of my job.”

“I’ve had Sunday dinners with the kids at the Buzz Inn and seen his story appear on their TVs,” Heidi Carter said. “I would hear people at the other tables talking about it, so I’d start talking to them.”

The Carters agreed that being apart for so long has been the hardest part of his mission, but beyond that, John expressed his feelings simply.

“It’s been kind of boring for me,” John Carter Jr. said via email, prior to pulling into port at Dutch Harbor in Nome. “I just would like to get this mission done.”

After clearing the ice around the emptied Renda for its return voyage on Jan. 20, the Healy left Nome on Jan. 21, but missed its estimated dock date of Jan. 30 in Seattle, extending its patrol to 254 days after diverting to assist a distressed vessel approximately 520 miles northwest of Puget Sound.

“From marine research in the Arctic, to breaking 800 miles of ice to get fuel to Nome, Alaska, to search and rescue in 30-foot seas, the crew superbly displayed the multi-mission capability of the Coast Guard Cutter Healy,” said Rear Adm. Christopher Colvin, Deputy Commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area. “We ask a lot of our crews, and their families, and they all demonstrate excellence. This is our way.”

“John always feels bad about being away, but he can’t help it,” Heidi Carter said. “He doesn’t have any control over it. I’m proud of him, but I’ve missed him and I just want him home.”