San Diego — The USS Carl Vinson, the first U.S. aircraft carrier to wage war on the al-Qaida terrorist network and its Taliban partners, arrived here Saturday to a hero's welcome and the strains of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A."
"We were the right hand of America to get the job done," said Petty Officer Third-Class Juan Pineda, 22, of Seattle.
"It feels good," said Petty Officer Third-Class Bridgette Shryock, 23, of Chicago. "My parents are proud."
The tale of the Vinson's role in the war in Afghanistan is in the numbers: 4,200 combat sorties, 2 million pounds of ordnance dropped, 16,152 launches and retrievals of aircraft, 111 days of operations, and only four "down" days for maintenance of its 70-plus warplanes.
Other carriers have also played key roles Theodore Roosevelt, Kitty Hawk, Enterprise and John C. Stennis but none can claim the numbers of the Vinson or the designation of having launched the first U.S. airstrikes in the war on Oct. 7.
The Vinson was in the first weeks of a planned six-month deployment enforcing the "no-fly" zone in Iraq when terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11.
By Oct. 7, the carrier and several of its supporting ships were in the northern Arabian Sea, within striking distance of Afghanistan.
"We were there when everybody else was trying to get there," said Command Master Chief Mike Williams, 42, of Lawrence, Mass., a Navy veteran of 24 years and 19 deployments.
By any measure, the war numbers are impressive 18 million gallons of jet fuel used, 1,421 briefings by meteorologists about weather conditions, 37 under way replenishment operations (no time to go to port for more bombs or beans), and no major injuries or aircraft accidents.
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