The Largest US Military Aircraft Carrier Ship Flight Operations

USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) is the United States Navy’s third Nimitz-class supercarrier and is named after Carl Vinson, a Congressman from Georgia, in recognition of his contributions to the US Navy. The ship was launched in 1980, undertook her maiden voyage in 1983, and underwent refueling and overhaul between 2005 and 2009. Carl Vinson’s call sign is “Gold Eagle”.

Besides deployments in Operation Desert Strike, Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Southern Watch, and Operation Enduring Freedom, Carl Vinson was involved in a number of notable events. The body of Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in 2011 from the deck of Carl Vinson, and that same year, on Veterans Day, she played host to the first NCAA basketball game on an aircraft carrier, between North Carolina and Michigan State.

A member of the United States House of Representatives for 50 years, Carl Vinson was, for 29 years, the Chairman of the House Naval Affairs and Armed Services Committee; Vinson was the principal sponsor of the so-called “Vinson Acts”, culminating in the Two-Ocean Navy Act of 1940, which provided for the massive naval shipbuilding effort in World War II.