In 1969, Enterprise was the most powerful warship in the world. Built with eight nuclear reactors, distinctive square white island, and beehive top she was the only ship in her class. All subsequent nuclear carriers of the Nimitz class were powered by two large reactors.

The USS Enterprise came within a step of dying on 14 January, 1969. Exploding weapons on the flight deck blew the ship apart all the way down to the waterline. Flaming jet fuel from the thirty two aircraft involved cascaded down through those many great wounds firing the interior of the ship.

Firemains were repeatedly blown through in one place after another and it was only through the most desperate, imaginative and heroic measures taken by engineering and damage control personnel that the means for the BIG E to fight back, salt water, was time and time again, restored. more...