BREMERTON — A ceremony was held in Newport News, Virginia, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74) entering service.
Two decades is a significant amount of time in any life cycle. The ship’s life during that time includes a rich history.
The ship was named after Sen. John Cornelius Stennis, born Aug. 3, 1901, in Kipling County, Mississippi. As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (1969-1980), Stennis stood firm for U.S. military superiority and consistently supported American service members. A strong Navy, second to none in the world, was always the top of Stennis’ agenda, earning him the “Father of America’s Modern Navy” moniker from President Ronald Reagan.
While conducting sea trials in January 1997, Stennis recovered and launched an F/A-18F Super Hornet, becoming the first aircraft carrier to qualify the airframe. After completing that workup cycle, Stennis left Norfolk for its maiden deployment to the Arabian Gulf on Feb. 26, 1998.
After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, five-year-old Stennis began conducting missions in support of Operation Noble Eagle off the U.S. West Coast. As the first carrier to launch strikes against Al-Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, it was at the forefront of military activity during her deployment to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility (AOR).
Three years later, in 2004, Stennis proved that it could operate anywhere in the world, participating in exercises Northern Edge in the Gulf of Alaska and Rim of the Pacific in U.S. 3rd Fleet’s AOR with the now-decommissioned aircraft carrier USS Kitty hawk (CV 63) before deploying to the U.S. 7th Fleet AOR.
On another deployment in 2007, Stennis joined Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) and seven other ships as they passed through the Strait of Hormuz as part of the largest movement of U.S. Naval ships since 2003.
The intervening years provided Stennis the opportunity to show how versatile it and its crew are. In 2012, Stennis faced pirates and led a rescue operation of the Iranian fishing vessel Al Mulahi and its crew. All 13 hostages were freed, and all 15 pirates were captures without any casualties.
Stennis completed a 16-month docking-planned incremental availability in November 2014 and began a very busy workup cycle in 2015, where its crew earned a Board of Inspection and Survey figure of merit score of 88 percent — the highest achieved by an aircraft carrier in five years.
Currently, Stennis is in port conducting training and maintenance in preparation for an upcoming deployment. As always, the sailors aboard Stennis will be ready for any challenge thrown at them, or any adventure over the horizon.
For more news from USS John C. Stennis, visit www.stennis.navy.mil.
— Edited by Michelle Beahm
