George Washington (CVN 73) - Naval Cruise Book

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Iflnoj) Transport, USS Georg? Washington made IX round trip voyages in support of the American European limes during World War I. commissioned, George Washington became the first submarine to match its hull number. 598. in dives. By this time, the submarine had traveled over 10.000 miles. Three years later, the 22-year-old vessel made its 55 ' and final patrol before heading back to Bangor. Washington, to be disarmed of its Polaris missiles. In June. 1984. it switched homeports to Bremerton, Washington, where the ship was decommissioned the following year. USS George Washington (CVN 73) became the sixth commissioned Nimitz- class aircraft carrier July 4, 1992 in a ceremony in Norfolk. Virginia. The 1,094 feet, 97.000 ton vessel completed its maiden deployment on May 20. 1994. George Washington also made successfully launched the first Polaris Eisenhower the following message, “Polaris deployments in 1996,1998 and 2000, often missile while it was submerged. The from out of the deep to target. Perfect” in support of enforcing no-fly zones over commanding officer sent President In 1978. nineteen years after it was Iraq.

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 V 2 nr b p '777 our ships have been Ur . named and commissioned in honor of “the Father of our Country. The first ship named after our first president was built as a merchant vessel in Providence. Rhode Island, in 1793. On October 12. 1798. one day shy of the Navy’s 23,J birthday, the vessel was purchased by Congress. Commanded by Captain Patrick Fletcher, the Navy transformed the vessel into a warship mainly used in the quasi-war with France to protect American trade routes. Lacking a strong Navy and trying to protect its commerce, the United States reluctantly agreed to pay tribute to the Barbary pirates. In April 1800, George Washington set sail for the Mediterranean Sea with stores and timber for the Dey of Algiers and in September became the first American warship to enter the Mediterranean. Captain William Bainbridge, however, had to accede to threats and carry the Dey s presents to the Sultan at Constantinople. Me protested vigorously; but in the face of concentrated guns ashore and the threat of retaliation on American shipping he departed on October 20. The ship would return to the Mediterranean one more time before being sold by the Philadelphia Navy Agent. George Harrison, in May 1802. The second ship was built in Germany in 1908 and operated for commercial shipping until 1914 when it sought refuge in New York after the outbreak of World War I. In 1917 America entered World War I. On September 6, the ship was commissioned for the United States Navy as a troop transport and was placed under the command of Captain Edward Pollock. Making its initial departure in December, USS George Washington would make eighteen round trips in support of the American Expeditionary Force. One year after its initial voyage to Europe, the ship carried President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference. In March 1919 it returned with the president, only to bring him back to France that July. During its brief World War I service, the ship transported more than 48,000 passengers to Europe and 34.000 back to the States. The ship was decommissioned in 1919; only to be reacquired by the Navy in 1941 as the transport ship USS Catlin (AP 19). It did not take long, however, to realize that the ship’s engines were not fast enough to protect itself from German submarines. In September 1941. the ship was decommissioned and then given to Britain as part of the Lend-Lease Act. The English also found the ship’s engine speed inadequate and returned the ship to America. In the midst of World War II, the United States Army chartered the ship to serve a familiar role — to transport troops overseas. In 1943 the ship carried troops from New York to Casablanca. George Washington finished the war making several trips to Britain with troops. In April 1947, the vessel was decommissioned again. This time the reliable and well-traveled troop transport ship was put to rest in Baltimore until it was sold for scrap in 1951. While the first two ships of the George Washington name sailed atop open waters, the third vessel did its duty below the sea. USS George Washington (SSBN 598) became the first licet ballistic missile submarine when the vessel was commissioned in 1959. George Washington made monumental history again on July 20. 1960 when it USS Washington, a 74-fnin ship-of-tke-Unc, leaves a Mediterranean port for New York in ISIS.

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f' ') f hen USS George ' -fl Washington (C W 73) was commissioned on Independence Day in 1992. the ship became the sixth Nimitz-class carrier to come out of Newport News Shipbuilding. But it didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it was nearly ten years before the commissioning when the contract to build GW was signed by Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). An aircraft carrier truly is a city at sea. Building a ship that will eventually be home to 6.000 Sailors takes highly skilled labor and the equipment to operate it. At the time GW was nearing completion, NNS employed roughly 28,000 men and women, many of whom helped build CVN 73. (? officially began construction in 1986 after her keel was laid down within an NNS dry dock slip. To provide the muscle for moving around the large sections of GW, the shipyard used powerful 900-ton capacity cranes. But construction was hardly all brawn. Employing computers to map and organize, George Washington was made at the shipyard with modular construction. This method allowed yard employees to design and use the cranes to place large sections onto GW's hull. Since building upward, each modular section was laid next to another where piping, wiring, ventilation and interior equipment became easy to install for shipyard workers. Using the computer-aided design and manufacturing (CADAM) system, NNS employees designed the majority of GW’s interior from a computer program instead of a drawing board. That design equipment allowed CADAM to send specific information to pipe, sheet metal and machine shop equipment. Upon command, the machines manufactured the exact number of ship pieces every time, precisely cutting and placing pieces which were eventually laid into a hull that after some welding and riveting began to assume the inward appearance of the ship GW Sailors see each day. By the ship's christening in July 1990. GW was complete with 2,000 telephones, 30,000 light fixtures, 600.000 pens and the ship was capable of serving 18.150 meals and producing 400.000 gallons of water daily. On July 4, 1992, after 40 million man hours and nearly six years of team work were expended, the United States celebrated the birth of a nation by recognizing the dawn of “America's Carrier.”