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USS Enterprise Becomes the First Nuclear-Powered Carrier to Engage in Combat Operations

December 2, 1965

1965-12-02_Enterprise_428-K-31305
1965-12-02_Enterprise_428-K-31305
The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) cruises in the Gulf of Tonkin with A-4 Skyhawk bombers on the bow, May 28, 1966. (National Archives)

The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, stationed at Dixie Station off the coast of southern South Vietnam, launches 21 aircraft in a strike against Viet Cong forces near Bien Hoa. In doing so it becomes the first nuclear-powered carrier in history to engage in combat operations.1

1“History, USS Enterprise” from Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships (Washington, D.C.: Naval History and Heritage Command; http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/e4/enterprise-viiia.htm (link is external) (accessed 4/3/14); James Holloway III, Aircraft Carriers at War: A Personal Retrospective of Korea, Vietnam, and the Soviet Confrontation (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2007), 153, 190–191.