USS George Washington (CVN-73)

USS George Washington (CVN 73) is an American nuclear-powered supercarrier, the sixth ship in the Nimitz class and the fourth United States Navy ship to be named after George Washington, the first President of the United States. It was built by Newport News Shipbuilding and was commissioned 4 July 1992.George Washington (commonly known as GW) is 1,092 ft (333 m) long, 257 ft (78 m) wide and 244 feet (74 m) high. The super carrier can accommodate approximately 80 aircraft and has a flight deck 4.5 acres (18,000 m²) in size, using four elevators that are 3,880 ft² (360 m²) each to move planes between the flight deck and the hangar bay. With a combat load, GW displaces almost 97,000 long tons (99,000 t) and can accommodate 6,250 crewmembers. Its four distilling units can make 400,000 U.S. gallons (1,500,000 L) of potable water a day; its food service divisions serve 18,000 meals per day. There are over 2,500 compartments on board requiring 2,520 refrigeration tons (8.6 MW) of air conditioning capacity (enough to cool over 2,000 homes).The contract for George Washington was awarded to Newport News Shipbuilding on 27 December 1982. The keel was laid on 25 August 1986, it was christened 21 July 1990 by then–First Lady Barbara Bush, and was commissioned at Naval Station Norfolk on 4 July 1992.This ship was one of several participating in disaster relief after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The George Washington, while docked for maintenance in Yokosuka, detected radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents. It then was ordered to leave port before scheduled, with a smaller than normal crew, to avoid the radioactive plume. Because of the lack of crew, the warship was unable to continue to provide aid. While at sea, the carrier made two visits to United States Fleet Activities Sasebo to exchange crewmembers and take on maintenance equipment. The ship returned to its berth at Yokosuka on 20 April 2011.
A plan from Senator Tom Coburn calls for the decommissioning of George Washington in 2016, before it begins its refueling and complex overhaul but after the carrier Gerald R. Ford enters service.[citation needed]
After redeploying on another training cruise, a 25 September 2011 video from the carrier uploaded to YouTube became a viral hit. In the video, two flight deck crewmen are almost hit by a landing F/A-18, which is waved-off shortly before landing on the deck where the crewmen are walking.