USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)

Career
USS Abraham Lincoln conducting combat operations in support of Operation Southern Watch, 28 November 2002 (larger image)
Ordered:	27 December 1982
Laid down:	3 November 1984
Launched:	13 February 1988
Commissioned:	11 November 1989
Fate:	in service
General Characteristics
Displacement:	81208 tons light, 104112 tons full, 22904 tons dead
Length:	1092 feet overall, 1040 feet waterline
Beam:	252 feet extreme, 134 feet waterline
Draft:	42 feet maximum, 41 feet limit
Speed:	30+ knots
Complement:	200 officers, 6075 enlisted
Armament:	3 Sea Sparrow, 4 Phalanx CIWS, 90 Aircraft

The second USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72), is the fifth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in the United States Navy.

The contract to build her was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding on 27 December 1982 and her keel was laid down 3 November 1984 at Newport News, Virginia. She was launched on 13 February 1988, delivered to the Navy on 30 October 1989, and commissioned on 11 November 1989. She is homeported in Everett, Washington.

(need op history here)

The Lincoln was one of the carriers in the Persian Gulf supporting the 2003 Iraq war.

In the 2003 movie The Core, the Lincoln makes an appearance in a search-and-rescue mission; while not mentioned by name, "CVN 72" caps are readily apparent in scenes on the bridge.

On 1 May 2003 President Bush safely landed in an S-3B Viking on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln, which was returning from a nearly ten month deployment for operations in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. The deployment was the longest of an aircraft carrier since the Vietnam War. The President landed while the carrier was underway 100 miles off the coast of San Diego, California. It was the first time a sitting president arrived on the deck of an aircraft carrier by plane. Bush made a primetime address from the flightdeck, surrounded by hundreds of sailors, in which he declared major combat operations in Iraq over.

External link

Abraham Lincoln homepage (https://www.cvn72.navy.mil)

See USS Abraham Lincoln for other Navy ships of the same name.