HUGHESVILLE, Pa. — Matthew Heinrich is a 24-year-old U.S. Navy Sailor from Hughesville.
He is currently stationed on the USS San Jacinto, a guided-missile cruiser.
Because of the ongoing global pandemic, the USS San Jacinto surpassed 160 days at sea without porting once.
It is the first Navy ship to ever accomplish that feat.
"It is very impressive, this is in the history of the Navy that a cruiser has been out to sea for more than 160 days, there has been places and times where cruisers have been out 150 or 140 days but never this long," said his father Matthew Heinrich Sr.
Back in Hughesville, Lt. Heinrich's parents could not be prouder of their son.
"Words really can't say how proud I am of him. I tell it to him whenever I get the chance to talk to him," said his mother Shelly Heinrich.
"He made a choice in his life and his choice may not bring him home but that is his choice and I am so proud of the boy," said Matthew Heinrich Sr.
Lt. Heinrich is third generation Navy, but he is the first in the family to become an officer.
"He promised my dad, while my dad was dying, that he would become an officer and he did," said Matthew Heinrich Sr.
The Heinrich family says their son has been at sea since January.
Normally, cruise missions only last six months but because of the pandemic, the family doesn't know when he will come home.
"With his father having been at sea, too, through Desert Storm, as a veteran, I've dealt with that so it kind of already got me prepared," said Shelly Heinrich.
The family says they will go see him whenever he finally does return to port.