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Story Number: NNS090108-11
Release Date: 1/8/2009 5:41:00 PM
US Navy

By Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Barrie Barber, U.S. Fleet Forces Command Public Affairs

NORFOLK (NNS) — Former President George H.W. Bush took an emotional journey into his past with an eye to the future as he toured his namesake aircraft carrier Jan. 8, two days before it’s commissioned in the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.

The World War II naval aviator took a first tour of a tribute room aboard the Nimitz-class Pre-Commissioning Unit George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) and he addressed hundreds of Sailors in the hangar bay as he stood near a giant bronze statue of him running in flight gear.

“It is very amazing to me, it’s wonderful and it’s a highlight of my life,” he told the Sailors and an entourage of about 50 who accompanied the former commander-in-chief, including former first lady Barbara Bush.

In an interview aboard the carrier, the former president tearfully said it was “very emotional” to have the massive nuclear-powered warship carry his name.

“It’s a great honor,” he said. “It’s incredible technology, so different than what I flew on years and years ago. It’s just amazing.”

Bush served aboard USS San Jacinto (CVL 30) as the youngest pilot in the Navy during World War II. Japanese anti-aircraft fire brought down his TBM Avenger with two other crewmen Sept. 2, 1944. After the plane was hit, Bush was able to drop bombs on the target before bailing out over the Pacific Ocean. The submarine USS Finback (SS 230) rescued him at sea. The two crew members did not survive. Bush earned a Distinguished Flying Cross for courage during the attack and three air medals for duty in the Pacific Theater.

The one-time naval officer who led a coalition of nations to war in 1991 to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation in Operation Desert storm recounted how his time in uniform made him a better commander-in-chief.

“I made a lot of mistakes as president, but I think I was a better president because I served in the Navy,” he said. “You value the lives of people you have to put in harm’s way. You value them more.

“It made me realize combat was tough,” he said. “I’ve always felt the toughest decision, by far, any president has to make is when he commits somebody else’s son or daughter into harm’s way.”

Bush said his seagoing service met challenges around the globe while he served in the White House.

“I was always proud when the Navy responded when I had to make a few tough decisions,” he said.

He paid tribute to his namesake ship’s crew and its leadership as dedicated, bright and highly trained.

“It’s an all-volunteer force and that says something about the dedication already,” Bush said.

Rear Adm. Bill Goodwin, commander, Naval Air Force Atlantic, called it a “tremendous honor for the crew to have the [ship’s] namesake aboard.”

The tribute room, with a theme of “Man of the World,” has a color photo-like map of the Earth that covers all of the deck. Bush’s service in World War II and as president, among other events, are highlighted in interactive displays. Among the memorabilia, the compartment holds a model of the carrier and a life-size bronze statue of him standing in flight gear. Bush and his presidential library and museum in College Station, Texas, were among the exhibit donors.

“I didn’t have a tribute room on the San Jacinto,” he joked. “I was lucky to have a room at all on there.”

Former first lady Barbara Bush said it reminded her of “very, very happy years” she and the president shared.

“It was beautifully done,” she said after her tour. “It’s a great tribute to what I think is a great man.”

Sculptor Chas Fagan of Charlotte, N.C., designed the statute, one of the centerpieces of the tribute.

“His story is so fantastic,” Fagan said. “I was just eager to have a chance to tell it.

“My goal was to create something engaging enough people would want to meet it,” added Fagan, who designed a bronze sculpture of a piece of the Berlin Wall aboard USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). “If you get up there and touch it and interact with it, you’re touching history.”

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Related Article:
Bushes gather as USS George H.W. Bush commissioned

USA Today

NORFOLK, Virginia (AP) — President Bush landed Saturday on the USS George H.W. Bush, a new aircraft carrier named after his father — the ultimate honor for a decorated Navy pilot from World War II.
“So what do you give a guy who has been blessed and has just about everything he has ever needed?” the president asked the estimated 20,000 gathered for the commissioning at Naval Station Norfolk. “Well, an aircraft carrier.”

The steel-gray vessel is more than three football fields long, one in the Nimitz class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers that are the largest warships on the world. Its price tag is just as hefty: $6.2 billion.

“Laura and I are thrilled to be here to help commission an awesome ship and to honor an awesome man,” Bush said.

The elder Bush, 84, told the ship’s crew, his voice quavering at times with emotion, that they will form “an unbroken line of patriots protecting this special piece of American territory.”

“As someone who has stood that watch and remembers the quiet solitude of that experience, I know you will find comfort and inspiration,” he said, “particularly in the night sky, where it is basking in the splendor of the night stars that you will truly understand the majesty of creation and bear witness to the certain hand of God.”

Doro Bush Koch, the president’s sister and ship’s sponsor, had the honor of bringing the carrier to life. With the words, “Man our ship. Bring her to life,” hundreds of sailors charged up gangplanks as a band played “Anchors Aweigh,” the song of the Navy.

Four F-18s flew overhead, followed by a solo World War II torpedo bomber similar to the one the elder Bush flew during the war.

The mood was celebratory aboard the ship, spit and polished for its unveiling. The Marine One presidential helicopter ferried the president, his father and their wives to its deck. It was sunny, but a chilly breeze greeted the president, his father and their wives got off the helicopter with their wives.

George H.W. Bush, sporting a purple scarf inside his overcoat, walked with a cane to a golf cart. He got in the back seat with former first lady Barbara Bush; the president grinned and waved as he took the driver’s seat with his wife by his side.

Unexpectedly to onlookers, the entire section of the deck — actually an elevator — dropped slowly to the floor below. They drove to the ceremony site that overlooked thousands of guests attending the ceremony on the carrier, decorated in red-white-and-blue bunting.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, one of the first speakers, said there is no one more worthy than the former president to have the last ship of the Nimitz class to bear his name — “the last of the World War II generation to serve as commander in chief.”

The president’s daughters, Jenna Hager and Barbara Bush, and Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, were among the estimated 20,000 people who attended the event. Also on hand were Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

The Nimitz class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers was first launched in 1972. The USS George H.W. Bush is the 10th and final vessel of its type.

A bronze statue on the hangar bay deck of the 1,092-foot warship depicts the former president as a youthful, smiling pilot in his flight suit. On an upper deck, a “tribute room” presents Bush’s life from his days in the Navy to his four years in the White House.

Bush joined the Navy on June 12, 1942, his 18th birthday and six months after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During the war he flew torpedo bombers off the converted aircraft carrier USS San Jacinto. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for his service.

On a mission over the Pacific in September 1944, Bush’s plane crashed into the ocean after being hit by Japanese anti-aircraft fire. The future president parachuted into the sea and was rescued by a Navy submarine. He returned to combat and served until the end of the war.

No other former president has visited a carrier named after him. Ronald Reagan was the first living ex-president to have a carrier named in his honor, but Reagan was unable to visit the vessel before he died.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.