The keel for the ship named for the “Father of America’s modern Navy”, an eight-term senator from the great State of Mississippi, was laid on 13 March 1991, launched on 13 November 1993, and commissioned on 11 November 1995. The Stennis departed NAS Norfolk in February 1998 on it’s inaugural cruise with CVW-7 aboard, subsequently completed a World Cruise, and sailed to her new home-port at San Diego, CA in August 1998. She bid farewell to CVW-7 and welcomed aboard CVW-9.
