"We are Legend; Ready on Arrival; The First, the Finest; Eight Reactors, None Faster."
- Motto of USS Enterprise (CVN-65)

USS Enterprise (CVN-65), formerly CVA(N)-65, is a retired US Navy aircraft carrier. She was the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the eighth United States naval vessel to bear the name. Like her predecessor of World War II fame, she is nicknamed "Big E". At 1,123 ft (342 m), she is the longest naval vessel in the world. Her 93,284 long tons (94,781 t) displacement ranks her as the 11th-heaviest supercarrier, after the 10 carriers of the Nimitz class. Enterprise had a crew of some 4,600 people.

The only ship of her class, Enterprise, at the time of her decommissioning, was the second oldest commissioned vessel in the United States Navy after the wooden-hulled USS Constitution. She was originally scheduled for decommissioning in 2014 or 2015, depending on the life of her reactors and completion of her replacement, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), but the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 slated the ship's retirement for 2013, when she would have served for 51 consecutive years, longer than any other U.S. aircraft carrier.

Enterprise's home port was Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia as of September 2012. Her final deployment, the last before her decommissioning, began on March 10th, 2012, and ended November 4th, 2012. She was inactivated on December 1st, 2012, with her official decommissioning taking place sometime after the completion of an extensive terminal offload program currently underway. The name has been adopted by the future Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-80).

Enterprise is a commissioned navy ship, but is inactive. She has undergone enough of the four-year long inactivation process to render her unfit for further service. Inactivation removes fuel, fluids, furnishings, tools, fittings, oil, and de-energizes the electrical system. Enterprise has already been cut open to allow the removal of usable systems.

Pictured here is a 1:700 scale waterline replica of the aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), as it sortied into the Mediterranean Sea during 2001. Pre-order! Ship Date: 2025.

Diorama Dimensions:
Length: 19-1/4-inches
Width: 4-1/4-inches

Release Date: ?

Historical Account: "1962 Cuban Missile Crisis" - In October 1962, Enterprise was dispatched to her first international crisis. Following revelations that the Soviet Union was constructing nuclear missile launch sites on Cuba, President John F. Kennedy ordered the United States Department of Defense to conduct a large-scale buildup. Among the preparations, the U.S. Atlantic Fleet readied large numbers of its ships. On October 22nd, President Kennedy ordered a naval and air "quarantine" (blockade) on shipment of offensive military equipment to Cuba, and demanded the Soviets dismantle the missile sites there. Five United States Second Fleet carriers participated in the blockade Enterprise (as part of Task Force 135), Independence, Essex, USS Lake Champlain CVS39, and Randolph, backed by shore-based aircraft. By October 28th, the crisis was averted, after the US secretly agreed to remove nuclear missiles from Italy and Turkey.