Description
The USS Enterprise (CV-6), colloquially known as “The Big E,” is the most decorated U.S. Navy ship of World War II.
As a Yorktown-class carrier, she was the only ship of her class to survive the war, participating in nearly every major Pacific engagement from the Doolittle Raid to the Battle of Midway, where her aircraft helped destroy three Japanese carriers. Renowned for her incredible resilience against relentless air attacks, she was considered the most successful warship in US history, with a “kill sheet” exceeding 71 enemy vessels.
Following WWII, she was sold for scrap in 1958.
Her legacy was inherited by the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), commissioned in 1961. As the longest naval vessel ever built (1,123 feet), this “Big E” served for over 50 years, playing key roles in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom before being decommissioned in 2017.
