NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — The United States Navy protects America at sea.
10 On Your Side shows you just one of the ways thousands of sailors defend our freedom on the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.
Reaching a length of 1,092 feet, the USS George H.W. Bush is a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the 10th and last Nimitz class in the Navy.
Traveling through the waves in the Atlantic Ocean, this multi-leveled warship encapsulates its motto, “Freedom at Work,” and has every sailor on board training and assisting one another.
“I work in a hangar bay, and we move aircraft, starting out from the flight deck, pushing down out here to the hangar bay,” said Ryan Britton. “We get it rocking and rolling.”
Four thousand sailors call this aircraft carrier home for days, weeks and months at a time when deployed.
“I wake up in the morning, and I smell jet fuel. It’s a real thing,” said Lavone Bennett. “And it’s like, wait a minute, something’s not right. I don’t smell metal. I don’t smell steel. It’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re home,’ because you spend so much time on board as well.”
Commissioned in 2009, its mission is to deliver decisive combat capability across all domains. An aircraft carrier supports and operates aircraft that engages in attacks on airborne, afloat, and ashore targets that threaten free use of the sea.
