The aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt will leave Virginia on Monday in a voyage that will eventually bring the nuclear flattop to its new home in San Diego.

The Roosevelt’s departure is the first move in a three-part maneuver that will take the San Diego-based carrier Ronald Reagan to Japan and the flattop George Washington, now based in Japan, to a shipyard in Virginia.

The Roosevelt sails with four other ships for a standard at least six-month deployment to the Arabian and Mediterranean seas.

At the end of that tour, in late fall, the carrier will come to San Diego as its new home port.

The Reagan, nearing the end of a maintenance period, is expected to leave San Diego in late summer.

The George Washington is scheduled to leave its home of Yokosuka, Japan, headed for San Diego in late summer. By late fall, it should arrive at Newport News, Va., where it will undergo a roughly five-year refueling process for its nuclear power plant.

Making Navy history, a large group of Reagan sailors will serve on all three carriers in the coming year. They’ll take ownership of the George Washington for what’s been described as a “short cruise,” then switch to the Roosevelt.

Some wags on the San Diego carrier have created a logo for the occasion, calling the group the “Three Presidents Crew.”