Shortly before 1 a.m. on May 2, 2011, USS Carl Vinson received the body of Osama bin Laden. Within hours, in accordance with Islamic burial customs and after a brief ceremony, he was committed to the North Arabian Sea. The ship that carried out that final act of the decade-long manhunt was on a routine deployment in the region — but nothing about that deployment would be remembered as routine. For the sailors of Carl Vinson, 2010-11 was the cruise of a lifetime, marked by one of the most consequential moments in modern American history.
The Ship
USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) is the third ship of the Nimitz class, commissioned on March 13, 1982. She is named for Carl Vinson, the Georgia congressman known as the "Father of the Two-Ocean Navy" for his decades of work building American naval power before and during World War II. CVN-70 is homeported at Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado, California, and has deployed repeatedly to the Western Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf throughout her career. At over 100,000 tons and 1,092 feet, she is one of the most capable warships ever built.
The Deployment
USS Carl Vinson departed on her 2010-11 deployment with Carrier Air Wing Seventeen (CVW-17) embarked. Her deployment took her through the Western Pacific and into the Arabian Sea, where she conducted operations in support of ongoing missions in Afghanistan and the broader counterterrorism effort in the region. The ship operated under the command of the carrier strike group, conducting flight operations and presence missions that are the day-to-day work of forward-deployed naval power — unglamorous, essential, and largely invisible to the American public.
That changed on the night of May 1-2, 2011.
Operation Neptune Spear
On the night of May 1, 2011, a team of U.S. Navy SEALs from the Naval Special Warfare Development Group raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden, the founder of al-Qaeda and the mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The raid, code-named Operation Neptune Spear, lasted less than 40 minutes on the ground. Bin Laden was positively identified, and his body was flown by U.S. forces to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, then transported to USS Carl Vinson in the North Arabian Sea.
The decision to bury bin Laden at sea was deliberate: a land burial would risk creating a shrine or a cause for ongoing conflict over the grave site. Islamic law calls for burial within 24 hours of death, and no country had agreed to accept his remains. The sea was the answer. A brief ceremony was held aboard Carl Vinson. Muslim crew members were present. Religious rites were observed. Then, less than 24 hours after the raid, his body was placed in a weighted bag and lowered into the North Arabian Sea at a location that has not been publicly disclosed.
The Weight of the Moment
For the crew of Carl Vinson, the news arrived the way much shipboard news does — through rumor first, then official word, then the reality of what they were being asked to do. Sailors who had joined the Navy in the years after 9/11 found themselves part of the final chapter of the story that had defined their generation's military service. Older sailors thought of friends lost in the towers, in Shanksville, at the Pentagon, and in the years of war that followed. The ship's commanding officer addressed the crew. Then they got back to work — because a Navy ship at sea is always working, even on the most extraordinary nights.
President Obama announced bin Laden's death to the nation late on the night of May 1 (Eastern time). By the time most Americans woke up on May 2, the burial at sea from USS Carl Vinson had already been completed.
Life Aboard
Beyond the history-making moment, the 2010-11 deployment was a full carrier cruise with all that entails. CVW-17 flew combat support missions over Afghanistan, contributing to the air campaign that was the daily work of the war. Sailors maintained aircraft, stood watches, ate in the mess decks, slept in their racks, and counted the days until homecoming. The Arabian Sea is not the Mediterranean — it is hot, humid, and the ports are fewer and farther between. The crew of Carl Vinson did what carrier sailors always do: they adapted, they served, and they came home.
If you served aboard USS Carl Vinson or want to honor someone who did, browse the Carl Vinson 2010–11 cruise collection. The full Carl Vinson ship collection covers every deployment year in the store.
Legacy
USS Carl Vinson's role in Operation Neptune Spear is unique in naval history. No other warship has ever received, processed, and committed to the deep the remains of the world's most wanted terrorist. It was a mission assigned to the Navy because the Navy is always there — forward-deployed, capable, and ready for whatever history demands. For the sailors who were aboard that night, the memory is permanent. They were there when it ended.