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12, 2012 Aging U.S. Carrier Enterprise Heads For Final
Deployment USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered
aircraft carrier, is beginning the last deployment in her
storied 50-year career on the frontlines of American sea power.
Known as the "Big E", she was among the vessels dispatched to
the waters off Cuba during the October 1962 missile crisis with
orders from President Kennedy to enforce an air and sea blockade
of the island nation. Subsequently, Enterprise served in support
of the war in Vietnam and played a key role in the evacuation of
Saigon in 1975. She was also made famous by the 1986 film Top
Gun starring Tom Cruise. But, five decades of steaming to the
world's hotspots has taken its toll on Enterprise, which suffers
from such mundane malfunctions as stuck valves and decaying
electrical equipment, Capt. William Hamilton, the ship's
commander, told Stars and Stripes: "Something that was working a
month ago and you turn it on – y