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"We have found the nuclear wessel...and Admiral...it is the Enterprise."

The USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was an American aircraft carrier that was in service with the United States Navy.

History

The Enterprise was the successor to the previous carrier named Enterprise. This Enterprise was one of the most powerful ships of its time and was powered by nuclear fission reactors.

In 1986, Enterprise was docked at the Alameda Naval Base in Alameda, California when it was breached by an apparent Soviet spy. The "spy" was Starfleet Commander Pavel Chekov, who had been collecting high energy photons from one of the ship's nuclear fission reactors to recrystallize dilithium for a captured Klingon Bird-of-Prey that had traveled back in time. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

Personnel

Legacy

Over a century later, the ready room of Enterprise NX-01 featured a drawing of the carrier as well as other early vessels named Enterprise. (Star Trek: Enterprise)

A sculpture of the carrier adorned the wall of the observation lounge on the USS Enterprise-D during the first few years of that vessel's service. The sculpture, like the older pencil sketch, depicted the ship in her pre-1975 configuration. (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

In 2364, a model of this carrier appeared in Admiral Gregory Quinn's guest quarters on the USS Enterprise-D. (TNG: "Coming of Age")

Appendices

Background information

Enterprise legacy

Featured in a display (bottom, right) of ships named Enterprise prior to 2365

In Star Trek IV, the "part" of USS Enterprise was actually filled by the conventionally-powered USS Ranger (CV-61, Forrestal-class), because Enterprise was on deployment at the time of the movie's filming. (Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 245)) At the time of the filming, the reactor arrangement of all American nuclear aircraft carriers was tightly classified. Ranger also stood in for Enterprise in the 1986 aviation thriller Top Gun. Ranger differed from Enterprise in the shape of the ship's command "island" superstructure (which was longer, rectangular and possessed smokestacks for the ship's oil-fired boilers) and the placement of the side elevators, with two abaft of the island instead of two before it. Both differences were visible in Star Trek IV.

In the real world, and being the sole member of the Enterprise-class aircraft carrier, Enterprise was nicknamed "the Starship," after her fictional namesake. She was in commission from 1961 to 2012.

In April 1983, the Enterprise, half a mile from shore after a 14-month, 46,000-mile cruise, ran aground in San Francisco Bay; George Takei was aboard the ship during this incident. [1](X)

In 1993 and 1994, the Star Trek Association of Towson, a fan club in Towson, Maryland, sponsored "The Big E Con," a convention held while the ship was at its home port of Norfolk, Virginia. The events featured tours of the ship and appearances by Star Trek notables. The fan club also donated Star Trek memorabilia for display in the ship's recreation room.

Daniel Davis played her captain in The Hunt For Red October. Her radio call sign in the film was "Starbase".

During the run of Star Trek: Enterprise, Paramount Pictures sent copies of the episodes to the sailors of the Enterprise when it was on patrol in the Mediterranean. (Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 245))

The Enterprise was retired in 2012 after 51 years of service. US Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus announced at the time of the retiring that the aircraft carrier CVN-80, scheduled for operation by 2025, would be the next American ship named Enterprise. (Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 245))

The emblem of the Enterprise is displayed, along with other symbols, in the Star Trek Encyclopedia (4th ed., vol. 2, p. 350).

Sailors of the Year

Two times the "Sailors of the Year" of the Enterprise were given walk-on roles in episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. In 2002 three sailors of the year portrayed Enterprise NX-01 engineers in the first season episode "Desert Crossing" for which they filmed their scenes on 7 March 2002. Later they presented a dedication plaque to Rick Berman and Brannon Braga and thanked them for their support. [2]

The following year three sailors of the year appeared as NX Project spectators in the second season episode "First Flight". They also presented an American flag from the Enterprise CVN-65 to the show's stars Scott Bakula and Connor Trinneer and director LeVar Burton. [3]

Apocrypha

In the novel Debtors' Planet, this Enterprise was a casualty of the Eugenics Wars, lost with all hands in the Sea of Japan in 1995 during the pivotal battle of the wars (the book was published in 1994, seven years before Greg Cox' novel trilogy retconned them as a collection of shadow conflicts rather than open warfare), from which Khan and his forces never recovered. Ralph Offenhouse's son Peter was one of the sailors killed in the sinking - ironically, in Cox' works, his father was an early financial backer of the Chrysalis Project, from which the Augments were created.

External links

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