The Navy says Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will visit Bremerton on Wednesday to speak to the sailors on the USS Stennis before the aircraft carrier returns to the Mideast. The Navy says he'll thank the sailors for their effort to deploy in late summer, four months earlier than previously planned. The carrier returned from a Mideast deployment in March to Puget Sound. After maintenance in May and June the Stennis had a month of training off the California coast. The Kitsap Sun reported the Pentagon wants to keep two carriers in the Mideast. The Stennis will relieve the Enterprise and the Eisenhower will relieve the Lincoln.