USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)
History of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Aircraft Carrier
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was ordered for the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Her keel was laid down by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company in Virginia on Aug. 15, 1970. She was launched on Oct. 11, 1975 and commissioned on Oct. 18, 1977 under the command of Capt. William E. Ramsey.
After training as a member of the Atlantic Fleet, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was paid a visit by President Jimmy Carter in the spring of 1978, when the President hit a golf ball off her flight deck into the ocean. The following January, she got underway for her first deployment to the Mediterranean Sea. During this time, she gave an air show demonstration of her capabilities and firepower to Israeli Prime Minister Manachem Begin. She headed home for Norfolk Naval Station in Virginia in July.
In 1980, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower was deployed to the Indian Ocean in response to the Iran hostage crisis. The carrier remained on station for more than eight months for a total of 254 days at sea. During this time, she spent a record 152 days at sea without a port call. Her crew was permitted two beers on each of three separate occasions, the first legal consumption of alcohol by U.S. Navy sailors while onboard a Navy vessel in decades. The carrier returned to Norfolk on Dec. 22, and the hostages were freed 29 days later.
Over the next few years, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to the Mediterranean and underwent a major overhaul that included an upgrade of her weapons and missile systems. After her yard work was finished, she rejoined the Atlantic Fleet in April 1987. That fall, she cruised to the Caribbean, making port calls at Venezuela, St. Thomas and Jamaica.
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to the Mediterranean for her fifth deployment from February to August 1988. Upon her return home, she collided with a Spanish coal ship when strong winds and currents pushed her off course. Both ships sustained minor damage, and her commanding officer was relieved of duty the following month.
When the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower sailed for her sixth Mediterranean deployment in 1990, it became a commemorative event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the late President Eisenhower’s birth. The president’s son, John Eisenhower, embarked the carrier along with D-Day veterans during D-Day anniversary ceremonies off the coast of Normandy. Carrier Air Wing Seven made a memorial flyover of the American cemetery on Omaha Beach.
After Iraq invaded Kuwait, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first aircraft carrier to conduct sustained operations in the Red Sea and the second nuclear-powered carrier to transit the Suez Canal. Upon her return home, she underwent a period of overhaul before being deployed to the Persian Gulf in September 1991 to support Operation Desert Storm.
In September 1994, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the U.S. 10th Mountain Division headed to Port-au-Prince for Operation Uphold Democracy to restore the elected government of Haiti. In October, she returned to the Persian Gulf to support Operation Southern Watch and Operation Deny Flight. This was the first time women crew members had been deployed on a U.S. Navy combatant.
Upon her return home to Virginia, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower began an 18-month complex overhaul that lasted from July 1995 until January 1997. The TV game show Wheel of Fortune taped several weeks’ worth of episodes for its 12th season onboard the carrier.
The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower made several more deployments over the next few years. When she returned to the Persian Gulf from February to August 2000, her embarked aircraft dropped ordnance in combat for the first time in support of Operation Southern Watch in Iraq.
After a four year overhaul from May 2001 until January 2005, USS Dwight D. Eisenhower sailed for the Mediterranean in October 2006 as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 8. She visited Italy and Cyprus before entering the Persian Gulf in December. In January 2007, she provided air cover for operations in the Indian Ocean and Somalia. The carrier spent March and April off the coast of Iran before she was relieved by the USS Nimitz. She then proceeded to Portugal to conduct charity work organized by the U.S. Embassy in Lisbon.
On Oct. 4, 2008, a sailor was killed when he was struck by an airplane on the flight deck during training exercises off the coast of North Carolina.
In January 2009, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower headed for the Arabian Sea as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 8. Her operations there included maritime security, anti-piracy operations and supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom. The aircraft carrier still serves with the U.S. Navy on active duty as of July 2009.
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has earned numerous awards, including the Battle E, the Marjorie Sterrett Battleship Fund Award, the Navy unit Commendation, the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation, the Navy Expeditionary Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, the Southwest Asia Service Medal and the Atlantic Fleet Retention Excellence Award, also known as the Golden Anchor Award.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, many veterans are at risk for developing asbestos cancers, such as mesothelioma .
Sources include:
John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed, “Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences,” Ulster Med. J. 77(3):191-200 (Sep 2008) Naval Historical Center, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships—USS Dwight D. Eisenhower
