Named for Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Nimitz has been the backbone of American naval power since her commissioning in 1975. From the Iranian Hostage Crisis to Operations Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, and Enduring Freedom, her crew answered every call. For more than four decades, her flight deck launched and recovered thousands of missions, each one a testament to the men and women who served aboard the world's first nuclear-powered fleet carrier of her class. To those who called her home, she is simply "The Boat."