The Normandy, commissioned in 1989, carries the name of the French coastline where the Allied liberation of Western Europe began on June 6, 1944. As a Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, she has served as the AEGIS air defense platform for carrier strike groups across the Atlantic and Mediterranean—defending the force the same way her namesake was approached: with everything she had. She has fired Tomahawks in combat and stood the watch in every crisis her country faced.