USS Enterprise 36"

At the launch of ENTERPRISE on September 24, 1960, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was the mightiest warship to ever sail the seas. Enterprise is the longest carrier in the Navy at 1,123 feet. It is also the tallest (250 feet) and fastest (30+ nautical miles per hour) carrier in the fleet. She was built with a distinctive square island supporting phased-array radars and a complex EW system. Aviation facilities include four deck edge lifts, two forward and one each side abaft the island. There are four 295 foot C-13 Mod 1 catapults. Hangars cover 216,000 sq. ft with 25-ft deck head. The Enterprise carries 8,500 tons of aviation fuel (12 days flight operations). Enterprise made its maiden voyage under the command of Capt. Vincent P. DePoix, Jan. 12, 1962. In August, Enterprise joined the Sixth Fleet in the Med-iterranean. Soon after its return to Norfolk, Va., in October, Enterprise was dispatched to its first international crisis. Enterprise and other ships in the Second Fleet set up a "strict quarantine of all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba." The blockade was put in place on Oct. 24, and the first Soviet ship was stopped the next day. On Oct. 28, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles and dismantle the missile bases in Cuba. Enterprise made its second and third deployments to the Mediterranean in 1963 and 1964. During the latter deployment, on May 13, the world's first nuclear-powered task force was formed when USS Long Beach and USS Bainbridge joined Enterprise. On July 31, the ships were designated Task Force One and sent on Operation Sea Orbit, a historic 30,565-mile voyage around the world, accomplished without a single refueling or replenishment. The Big E transferred to the Pacific's Seventh Fleet in November 1965 and became the first nuclear-powered ship to engage in combat when it launched bomb-laden aircraft in a projection of power against the Viet Cong on Dec. 2, 1965. Its hot decks launched 125 sorties on the first day, unleashing 167 tons of bombs and rockets on the enemy's supply lines. The next day it set a record of 165 strike sorties in a single day. In all, Enterprise made six combat deployments to Southeast Asia from 1965 to 1972.