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Posted on 12/31/2008 3:42:45 PM PST by SandRat
The Navy’s newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush will be commissioned Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009, during an 11 a.m. EST ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
President George W. Bush will deliver the principal address. Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch, daughter of the ship’s namesake, is the ship’s sponsor. In the time-honored Navy tradition, she will give the order to "man our ship and bring her to life!"
The lastNimitz-class aircraft carrier is named to honor World War II naval aviator and America’s 41st president George H. W. Bush. Born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Mass., Bush began a lifetime of service to America when he joined the Navy on his 18th birthday as a seaman. He became the youngest pilot in the Navy at the time, receiving his commission and naval aviator wings before his 19th birthday.
Bush flew the Avenger torpedo bomber in combat from the carrier USS San Jacinto. During an attack on enemy installations near Chichi Jima in September 1944, his plane was hit by enemy fire while making a bombing run. Although the plane was on fire and heavily damaged, he completed a strafing run on the target before bailing out of the doomed aircraft. Bush parachuted into the sea and was later rescued by the Navy submarine USS Finback. He was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for his Navy service in the Pacific theater during World War II.
After his time in the Navy ended in September 1945, Bush held a number of public service roles that included two terms as a U.S. congressman from Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to China and director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He then served two terms as vice president under the late President Ronald Reagan before being elected himself as President of the United States in 1988. As commander-in-chief, Bush led the United States and a coalition of nearly 30 other nations during Operation Desert Storm, which ended Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and liberated the people of the Persian Gulf nation.
Capt. Kevin O'Flaherty, from Los Angeles, Calif., and a 1981 Naval Academy graduate, will become the ship’s first commanding officer, leading a crew of more than 5,500 men and women, including embarked air wing personnel. George H. W. Bush will be initially homeported in Norfolk, Va., assigned to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
Construction of the tenth Nimitz-class ship took place at Northrop Grumman-Newport News, Va., starting with the ship’s keel laying Sept. 6, 2003, and christening Oct. 7, 2006. George H. W. Bush towers 20 stories above the waterline, displaces approximately 95,000 tons of water, has a flight deck width of 252 feet, and at 1,092 feet long, is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall. This floating airfield has a flight deck that covers 4.5 acres. Bush’s two nuclear reactors are capable of more than 20 years of continuous service without refueling, providing virtually unlimited range and endurance, and a top speed in excess of 30 knots.
The ship will support a wide variety of aircraft, including the F/A-18C Hornet and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters, the E-2C/D Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning aircraft, the C-2 Greyhound logistics aircraft, the EA-6B Prowler and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, multi-role SH-60 and MH-60 helicopters, and other future carrier-based aircraft.
I think Reagan has quite enough. He has a carrier that is in California and a building in Washington D.C. and other things I am sure.
“Given enough time, a ship will be named after Bill Clinton.”
Yes a small Zodiac inflatable with a 30 horse Evinrude. Something like a sea going condom to commemorate his time in the White House.
No way on Clinton. Impeachment and no military service (not to mention draft dodging) killed it for him. Johnson and Nixon have nothing named, and they were both Naval Officers. They were also disgraced Presidents.
Carter has a Seawolf class attack submarine named after him.
I sincerely hope you are right.
Too much is never enough when it's Reagan. The country would have been toast (possibly literally) in a second Carter term.
I wish I wasn't about Carter ;-)
Then you're going to flip for the USS Barack Hussein Obama (CV-??).
True and I was not being nasty just glad that he has what he does have. I am so excited when I hear Sailors with proudness that they are part of the Reagan crew. I 100 percent agree with your setiments about the second Carter term. I was in 5th grade when Reagan came to office and even I was glad to see him, so I did not have to sit in my dad’s car waiting for the family to get gas!!!!
Mid-70's. USS Carl Vinson.
Me too. I heard he was not even that great of an officer either, but that could be folklore as I am not sure the source is true or not. Although his actions as President makes me think that the rumors or stories are true.
President Carter was a nuclear engineering officer and a submariner during his navy service, so wanting an attack sub named after himself was kind of natural. He said as much at the naming ceremony a couple of years ago on C-SPAN.
Capital ships should not be named after politicians, not ever.
Capital ships should not be named after politicians, not ever.
The movies,"The Day After" and "Threads" were to me, a plausible look at what a second Carter term might have resulted in.
Agreed. And to name an entire new class of carriers after Ford is really wrong. Especially since after 2011 there will be no more USS Enterprise in the fleet.
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The sonar dome needs to lean a little to the left.
There’s a submarine christened the “Lewinsky”.
Why would Bubba be mad? He and Bush Sr. are good buds remember?
I’m sure Zero will get a submraine named after him. What is long and black and full of seamen?
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