Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) - Naval Cruise Book

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.352 .. USS Abraham Lincoln QCVN 725 is America's fifth Nimitz-class carrier. The ship was named in honor of our nation's 16th president and is the second ship in the U.S. Navy to bear his name. The ballistic missile submarine Abraham Lincoln QSSBN 6021 was in service 1961 thru 1981. Lincoln's keel was laid Nov. 3, 1984 at Newport News, Va. Four years later the ship was christened and began a series of performance trials leading up to com- missioning Nov. 11, 1989 at Norfolk, Va. After completing shakedown and acceptance trials, Lincoln departed Norfolk in September 1990 for an inter- fleet transfer from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The ship completed a transit around South America with the naval forces of several South American countries including Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. , On May 28, 1991, Lincoln made its maiden Western Pacific deployment nearly four months ahead of schedule in response to Operation Desert SheildlDesert Storm. While enroute to the Indian Ocean, the ship was diverted to support evacuation operations following the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo on Luzan Island, Republic of the Philip- pines. Operation Fiery Vigil became the largest peace- time evacuation of active duty military personnel and family members. Lincoln led a 23-ship armada that sealifted 20,000 evacuees. The armada moved nearly 45,000 people from the Subic Bay Naval Station to the Visayas Province port of Cebu. With Operation Fiery Vigil completed, the ship took up station in the Arabian Gulf in support of allied and U.S. troops remaining in the region for Operation Desert Storm. Carrier Air Wing 11 CCVW 115 the embarked Air Wing, provided combat air patrol, recon- naissance and support operations over Kuwait and Iraq. . Lincoln remained in the Gulf for more than three P 1. W months.evacuation of active dutyirrliljtarygpgrggnnel and e The ship spent early 1992 in a Selected Restricted Availability CSRAJ at Naval Air Station Alameda. It deployed again June 15, 1993 for the Western Pacific. After a brief port visit to Hong Kong, it returned to the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch, the U.N. sanctioned enforcement of a no-fly-zone over Southern Iraq. I In October 1993, Lincoln was ordered to the coast of Somalia to assist U.N. humanitarian operations. The carrier spent four weeks flying patrols over the city of Mogadishu and surrounding areas, backing American ground troops during Operation Restore Hope. 1. i A. 1 T 1 I Ji l I 1 1 l 1 1 if I n V 4 'I T 5 w I l I I 4 1 1 f 1 I l 1 l l I 1 n A - ,Q?f:'f' 1 1 Q 1 , I family members, ...P I 4 1 1

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,,,, Lincoln thought secession illegal, and was willing to use force to defend Federal law and the Union. When Confederate batteries fired on Fort Sumter and forced its surrender, he called on the states for 75,000 volunteers. Four more slave states joined the Confederacy but four remained within the Union. The Civil War had begun. The son of a Kentucky frontiersman, Lincoln had to struggle for a living and for leaming. Five months before receiving his party's nomination for president, he sketched his life: I was bom in Hardin County, Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families- -second families, perhaps I should say. My mother who, died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name Hanks...my father removed from Kentucky to...Indiana in my eighth year...it was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There, I grew up...Of course when I came of age, I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher...but that was all. Lincoln made extraordinary efforts to attain knowl- edge while working on a farm, splitting rails for fences, and keeping store as New Salem, Illinois. He was a captain in the Black Hawk War, spent eight years in the Illinois legislature, and rode the circuit courts formany y years. His law partner saidof him, His ambition. wasa As president, he built the Republican party into a strong national organization. Further, he rallied most of the northern Democrats to the union cause. On January 1,1863, he issued the Emancipation Proclamation that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy. Lincoln would never let the world forget that the Civil War involved an even larger issue. This he stated most movingly in dedicating the military cemetery at Gettys- burg. Lincoln won re-election in 1864, as Union military triumphs heralded an end to war. In planning for peace, the President was flexible and generous, encouraging Southerners to lay down their arms and join speedily in reunion. The spirit that guided him was clearly that of second Inaugural Address, now inscribed on one wall of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us the right, let us strive on to finish A the work we are ing to bind up the Nation's wounds... On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassi- nated at Fords's theatre in Washington by John Booth, an actor who somehow thought he was helping the South. The opposite was the result, for with Lincoln's death, the possibility of peace died. A g y little en inethat knew no rest.'7q - f . .r 1 I' V . V V 16111 U-S-PfCSidCI1f He married Mary'Todd,and a one ofwhom Served as 1861 -1. 865 T I 'n n odd L1 col against

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2000 a prepared ' In April 1 Pacific and Singapore OIT Gulf, Lincoln lent supportto in reponse to renewed Iraqi Inilitary ipqsturing, -The 9 Lincoln Battle Groupalsoparticipatedl in Operation Vigilant Sentinel. Upon returning from deployment, I 1 i A Lincoln left Alameda, Calif., for the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wash. There the ship underwent a one-year comprehensive overhaul including a period in dry dockg Following completion of the project, the ship moved to its current homeport of Everett, Wash., January 8, 1997. n In June 1998, Abraham commenced her fourth deploy- ment, spending three months in the Arabian Gulf during the hottest summer on record. Apparent temperatures on the flight deck at midday sometimes reached 150 degrees Fahrenheit! Port visits enroute to the Gulf included Hong Kong and Singapore. After several visits to Jebel Ali, UAE, between Operation Southem Watch missions, Abe headed home by way of Perth, Australia, Hobart, Tasmania and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, arriving in Everett before the Christmas Holiday. ,. 4 ? v f v . f .., '93 ' 'i - 5El23,?!5 f51:?17 .,.,D- Y , -3 Z 'f:vf2 V M?-f 5, if ' ' , By - 9954 LJ like . 4 , -L+-we A -. N- X A . Following a break, the ship visited Santa Barbara, Calif., then commenced a six-month Planned Incremental Availability CPIAJ in Bremerton, Wash., in April 1999. A After completion of the PIA in September 1999, Abe par- ticipated in Fleet Week '99 in San Francisco, Calif. The crew then began nine-month Inter-DeploymentTraining me CIDTCD during' w ' . ' . i t A hich the ship revisited if f ' QQ.-fi,,.,-dw 1 ily August 17, 2000, for a scheduled six-month Western Pacific and Arabian Gulf deployment. The carrier was joined the following week off the coast of Southem California by Carrier Air Wing 14 CCVW 1 l4j. The carrier and nine squadrons spent the majority rf of the deployment in the Arabian Gulf supporting Operation Southern Watch which included the enforce- ment of the no fly zone over South Iraq. The Lincoln Battle Group, under the command of , Rear Adm. Phillip Balisle, was comprised of the , carrier, which served as the command ship for the r battle group, and eight other vessels. I 1 On February 10, 2001, Lincoln brought their six- Vt month deployment to an end as the carrier arrived in its homeport of Everett, Wash. During the initial transit phase, port visits to Hong 1 1 Kong, Singapore, and Thailand were scheduled. Weather diverts, causing the delay of numerous flying days, resulted in the cancellation of stops in Hong Kong and Singapore, National Command Authority tasking to relieve the on-station carrier battle group in p the Arabian Gulf resulted in the by-passing of I Thailand. Relieving the USS GeorgeWashington Battle Group ahead of schedule, Lincoln assumed the duties as the tip of the spear carrier, read to fight and maintain vigilance over the air space in the no-fly , zone over Iraq. Only two port visits were made while the carrier was in the Arabian Gulf. The primary r factor for this was the terrorist attack on USS Cole and the subsequent elevation in threat condition in the region. Meanwhile, Sailors concetrated on providing the services necessary to fly nearly 1,500 sorties over Iraq. Following 100 days in the Arabian Gulf, the 1 carrier headed for some much needed liberty in Aus- tralia. After taking in the sights down under the carrieribegan its transit across .the Pacific.. ' In April of 2001, the ship,mOVCd t Puget Soun i i for ai scheduled d. n 9 Barbara and