World | USA
Aircraft carrier perfect gift for Bush Senior
Creates history by becoming the first living ex-president to visit vessel named after him.
- AP
- Published: 23:41 January 11, 2009
Norfolk, Virginia: It's the perfect gift for an old Navy flier and former president: a brand new aircraft carrier bearing your name.
"What do you give a guy who has been blessed and has just about everything he has ever needed?" asked President George W. Bush from aboard the Navy's newest ship. "Well, an aircraft carrier." The USS George H.W. Bush, a steel-grey vessel longer than three football fields and built at a cost of $6.2 billion, was commissioned last Saturday with its namesake, the 41st president, and other members of the Bush family on hand for the ceremonies at Naval Station Norfolk.
Adorned for the day with red, white and blue bunting, the USS George H.W. Bush is a Nimitz class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the largest warships in the world.
"The ship that bears our dad's name is more than 95,000 tonnes of aluminium and steel," Bush said from a podium tucked under the flight deck. "She will carry nearly 6,000 of the finest sailors and Marines in the world. She represents the craftsmanship of many skilled builders, and thousands of hours of preparation."
Bush, who took his last scheduled flight aboard Air Force One to get to Norfolk, added: "Laura and I are thrilled to be here to help commission an awesome ship and to honour an awesome man." It was the ultimate honour for former President George H.W. Bush, a decorated Second World War pilot.
The former president recalled the day 65 years ago in Philadelphia when he attended the commissioning of the USS San Jacinto, a light carrier on which he served during the war. It was during that trip, he said, that he gave his fiancee, Barbara, an engagement ring. No other former president has visited a carrier named after him. Ronald Reagan was the first living ex-president to have a carrier named in his honour, but he was unable to visit the vessel before he died
The Nimitz class of nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was first launched in 1972.
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