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USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)



Commissioned at 11:11am on 11 Oct 1975 at Shipway 11 by Mamie Eisenhower, The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) had the ceremonial bottle of champagne smashed over the bow.
"Ike", as is called the Eisenhower, is a Nuclear Powered Aircraft Carrier that was always on the move (second of Nimitz class). S
Ike carried 5,500 men when underway on a major deployment. The actual ship's company comprised only about 3,000 men. The other 2,500 men came from the Air Wing personnel. The ship was a virtual city complete with restaurants (mess halls, actually ...4 of them), a large library, a hospital complete with doctors, eye doctors ...and NO nurses....several stores, soda fountains, movies, closed circuit TV studio, radio station, 2 complete ham radio setups (for phone patches back home for the crew) plus many more conviences of a community....except!!!... there were NO women!!
On one of the deployments, IKE enjoyed being the second ship in U.S.Naval history to serve alcoholic beverages for a special occasion. It was deployed an especially long time without a portcall during the Iranian hostage crises during 1980 and men gained SECNAV approval to serve 2 beers to every man aboard. USS Nimitz was the first to do this only a couple of months ahead of us.

General characteristics
Builder Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va.
Keel laid 1975
Commissioned October 18, 1977
Power plant Two nuclear reactors
Planned crew size 6,287 (including airwing)
Length of flight deck 1,092 ft 333 m
Width of flight deck 252 ft 76.8 m
Height keel to mast 244 ft 73.8 m
Area of flight deck 4.5 acres 18,211 sq. m
Displacement 95,000 tons
Max. speed More than 30 knots 55.6 km/h
Number of screws Four (5-blades, bronze)
Diameter of screws 25 ft 7.62 m
Weight of screws 66,200 lb each 3,028 kg
Number of rudders Two
Dimensions of rudder 29 x 22 ft 8.8 x 6.7 m
Weight of rudders 60,000 lb 27,216 kg
Number of anchors Two
Weight of anchors 60,000 lb each 27,216 kg
Length of anchor chain 1,082 ft 330 m
Weight of chain links 365 lb each 111 kg
Weight anchor + chain 735,000 lb 333,390 kg
Number of catapults Four
Aircraft elevators Four
Area of aircraft elevator 3,880 sq. ft 360.5 sq. m
Aircrafts Approximately 75 (Air Wing 17)
Air Wing 17 VF-103 12 F-14 Tomcat
VAW-125 4 E-2C Hawkeye
VFA-81 12 F/A-18 Hornet
VFA-83 12 F/A-18 Hornet
VFA-34 12 F/A-18 Hornet
VAQ-32 4 EA-6B Prowler
HS-15 6 H-60 Seahawk
VS-30 8 S-3B Viking
Armament Three Sea Sparrow missiles launchers (eight missiles each), three Phalanx CWIS mounts.
Meals served daily 18,600 
Distillation plant capacity 400,000 gallons 15,142 hl  
Number of light fixtures 29,000



Jirka Wagner

 

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