CVN-70 USS Carl Vinson Patch

The eagle on this patch flies in the shape of a V, one letter that stands for Carl Vinson and for the hull of CVN-70 seen bow on. In the ship's crest the eagle stands for the nation and for the striking power of the air wing, and it carries the motto banner, Vis Per Mare, Strength from the Sea. The ship is named for Carl Vinson of Georgia, the congressman who chaired the House Naval Affairs Committee and pushed the Two-Ocean Navy Act through before World War II. She was the third Nimitz-class carrier to join the fleet. Her sailors have been flying that eagle for more than forty years.

Carl Vinson's keel was laid at Newport News Shipbuilding on 11 October 1975, she was launched on 15 March 1980 and commissioned on 13 March 1982, with Molly Snead, the congressman's longtime nurse, as sponsor. She left Norfolk on 1 March 1983 with Carrier Air Wing 15 for an eight-month cruise around the world. In 1996 she flew Operation Southern Watch and Operation Desert Strike with Carrier Air Wing 14, and on 7 October 2001 she launched the first strikes of Operation Enduring Freedom from the North Arabian Sea, with Carrier Air Wing 11 flying more than 4,000 combat sorties in 72 days. In January 2010 she arrived off Port-au-Prince for Operation Unified Response after the Haiti earthquake. In August 2021 she deployed with Carrier Air Wing 2 and VFA-147, the first operational deployment of a Navy F-35C squadron.

This is a 4 inch round with a gray field and a twisted gold rope running all the way around the outside. USS CARL VINSON arches across the top in navy blue and CVN 70 sits at the bottom, with a small anchor on each side. In the center a navy blue V spreads behind a brown and white bald eagle, talons out, holding a gold banner that reads VIS PER MARE. The edge is cut close to the rope border, and the backing is iron-on, ready for a jacket, or sew it on.

Carl Vinson has called a lot of piers home: Alameda from 1983 until that base closed, Bremerton from 1997, San Diego from 2010, Kitsap for maintenance in 2018 and San Diego again in 2020. Between November 2005 and July 2009 she went through her mid-life refueling and complex overhaul at Newport News. On 2 May 2011 the body of Osama bin Laden was buried at sea from her deck in the Northern Arabian Sea. That November, on Veterans Day, North Carolina beat Michigan State 67 to 55 on her flight deck in the first Carrier Classic. It was quite a year for one ship.

It fits a shadow box with a cruise book, a set of dog tags and a photo from the flight deck, or rides on a vest at a Carl Vinson reunion. It is also a natural gift for a son or daughter who wants to know what a parent did out there for months at a time. Four inches, one eagle, Strength from the Sea.