50 Years of USS Enterprise (CVN 65)
USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was commissioned on Nov. 25, 1961. Happy Anniversary to “Big E,” the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
USS Enterprise (CVN 65) was commissioned on Nov. 25, 1961. Happy Anniversary to “Big E,” the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Aboard the country’s oldest aircraft carrier, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta vowed that he will maintain the Navy’s fleet of 11 carriers, despite budget pressures.
Panetta’s Saturday announcement aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) served as reassurance and encouragement to the 1,700 sailors heading to the Gulf this spring for the ship’s final deployment, in light of recent tensions with Iran.
“You’re part of what keeps our force agile and flexible and quickly deploy-able and capable of taking on any enemy, anywhere in the world,” Panetta told the crowd. “It’s for that reason that the President of the United States and all of us working at the Department of Defense have decided that it is important to maintain our carrier force at full strength and that means we’ll be keeping 11 carriers in our force.”
What do you think about SecDef Panetta’s decision to keep an 11 carrier fleet?
Sunday marks the beginning of USS Enterprise (CVN 65) 22nd, and final, deployment.
The carrier and its strike group, comprised of nearly 5,500 sailors and Marines, will set sail eastward, where it will focus on operations in the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf regions.
The 50 year old flattop, and world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, is set to be decommissioned this fall, and later deactivated.

Illuminated only by red lights, the deck of an aircraft carrier is arguably one of the darkest places in the world. Yet here, a Navy pilot flawlessly lands a F/A 18 Hornet on USS Enterprise in the black of night. Talk about impressive.
The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN 65) leads the formation as the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group, comprised of guided-missle cruiser USS Vicksburg (CG 69) and Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Porter (DDG 78), USS Nitze (DDG 94) and USS James E. Williams (DDG 95), transit the Atlantic March 18. US Navy Video/Released
It was announced this morning that the U.S. Navy is deploying a second aircraft carrier to Persian Gulf amid rising tensions with Iran. USS Enterprise (CVN 65) and her strike group will join USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), marking one of the few times that the Navy has had more than one carrier in the waters near the Gulf.
The deployment of the second aircraft carrier is “routine and not specific to any threat,” said Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

Life aboard USS Enterprise (CVN 65) is more complex and busy than many of us realize. It takes a lot of hard work from the sailors aboard USS Enterprise to keep things runnings up to the U.S. Navy’s high standards.
It was an event that changed the course of history.
70 years ago Monday, American Naval forces began the most pivotal naval battle in the Pacific war: the Battle of Midway. Where, despite being largely outnumbered, by nightfall of the first day of a three-day battle, the Japanese had last four carriers: Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu. The U.S., only one: USS Yorktown (CV 5).
It was the Battle at Midway that ultimately turned the tide of World War II and brought American victory.
The Midway anniversary also marks the beginning of the revolution of Naval aviation, marking the aircraft carrier over the battleship as the mainstay of the U.S. Navy – a position it still holds.
The scene on board USS Yorktown (CV 5), shortly after she was hit by three Japanese bombs on 4 June 1942.