USS Independence

The "Indy," as her crew always called her, was the roving ambassador of American carrier power. Homeported at Yokosuka, Japan during the 1990s as the forward-deployed carrier in the Western Pacific, she carried the flag where it mattered most. A Forrestal-class ship that served from 1959 to 1998, the Independence showed up for every crisis from Vietnam to the Taiwan Strait. To her crew, she was simply home—and a fine home at that.