The Carl Vinson is a nuclear-powered, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier was commissioned in 1982 and cost $3.8 billion to construct.

The ship was the first to launch air strikes in Operation Enduring Freedom on October 7, 2001 and spent 10 weeks providing aid following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

During the Haiti operation, the ship’s surgeon performed 40 hours straight at one point of surgery.

Carl Vinson delivered more than 2,970,000 pounds of aid, 1,095,442 pounds of food, 147,591 gallons of water and 40,000 pounds of medical supplies.

Plane director Jonathon Howard said the ship has been all over the world in his seven years in service: Greece, China, Spain, Hawaii, Guam, Malaysia, Singapore, Portugal, and his favorite place Brazil.

“I like it a lot,” Howard said. “Sometimes it gets a little hectic, a little like Groundhog’s day, do the same thing everyday. But as long as you stay positive, you’re good to go.”

The carrier is the same that carried Osama bin Laden’s body to his burial at sea after his death in early May.

The crew was advised not to talk about the event, and responded to questions with a roundabout answer of what they were doing when it happened, commonly, “I was asleep.”

Lindsey told his crew prior to today’s interaction with the media to say one of three things: “I don’t know,” “They didn’t tell me,” or “I can’t talk about that.”

Facts:

- The ship weighs in at a hefty 95,000 tons at a height of a 24-story building.

- The two nuclear reactors and four propellors — each at 25 feet wide — power the ship along at more than 30 knots.

- The two anchors on the ship weigh 60,000 pounds each, held by 367.5 pound chains.

- The flight deck is an expansive 4.5 acres and can hold 75 aircraft.

- The crew of the Carl Vinson is made up of 2,941 sailors. The average age of those on the flight deck is 24.

- On top the almost 3,000 sailors, another 1,500 people from the air wing live on the ship during deployment.

- The carrier is a essentially a city. An on-board post office processes more than one million pounds of mail each year. The ship also has a dentist office with five dentists and an oral surgeon and a 63-bed hospital staffed by five doctors. Three chaplains conduct daily religious services. A distillation plant provides more than 400,000 gallons of fresh water daily. The ship also has a newspaper and a television station. And more than 20,000 meals on served on the ship everyday.

The crew
A basketball court has disrupted the daily routines of the stationed sailors.

Generally, the flight deck is full of aircraft, fuel spilt on the ground and steam rising off the deck, Flight Deck Director Issac Paddock said.

“That’s exactly where the aircraft lands,” Paddock said. “Exactly where they catch a wire and go from doing 200 miles per hour to zero in seconds.”

The daily duties he does while deployed continue to amaze even an experienced crewmember such as Paddock.

“Coming to work still amazes here, how is that possible” he said. “We do it day-in, day-out; minimum injuries to zero injuries, no loss of aircraft, we execute our mission everyday safely and efficiently. And that goes to supporting the troops on the ground, in the real battle. In a sense, we’re far away from it, but we’re there supporting the army.”