USS Constellation (CV-64)
A Kitty Hawk–class supercarrier, the third U.S. Navy ship named for the “new constellation of stars” on the flag of the United States — and the only carrier to carry the title “America’s Flagship.”
For more than four decades, Constellation stood watch across the Pacific and Indian Oceans — from the opening strikes of the Vietnam War to the no-fly zone over Iraq. The crew called her Connie. This is her story, and the deployment this archive was built to remember sits near the end of it.
Building a Flagship
The contract to build Constellation went to the New York Naval Shipyard in Brooklyn on 1 July 1956. Her keel was laid in September 1957, and she was launched on 8 October 1960. She would be the last U.S. aircraft carrier built at a yard other than Newport News.
In the final weeks of construction, on 19 December 1960, fire broke out on the hangar deck when a forklift punctured a tank of diesel fuel. It burned for seventeen hours. Fifty shipyard workers lost their lives, and the damage delayed her commissioning by seven months. Constellation was finally commissioned on 27 October 1961, having cost roughly $264.5 million to build.
Gulf of Tonkin & Vietnam
In August 1964, in the days of the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Constellation launched some of the first U.S. air strikes of the Vietnam War in Operation Pierce Arrow. Over five combat deployments she flew tens of thousands of sorties from Yankee and Dixie Stations, and in July 1966 her aircraft scored the ship’s first MiG kill of the war.
On 10 May 1972, flying from her deck, LT Randy “Duke” Cunningham and LTJG William Driscoll downed three MiG-17s in a single engagement to become the first American aces of the Vietnam War — one of seven MiGs Constellation’s fliers shot down that day. For her service in Southeast Asia, the ship and her air wings earned the Presidential Unit Citation and multiple Navy Unit Commendations.
“America’s Flagship”
On 20 August 1981, President Reagan visited Constellation, presented her crew a presidential flag, and proclaimed the carrier “America’s Flagship” — telling the crew, “Let friend and foe alike know that America has the muscle to back up its words.”
In 1985 she made the first operational deployment of the F/A-18 Hornet, and earned her unofficial motto — “Go Ahead, Make My Day” — painted on the island. In 1987, during Operation Earnest Will, her aircraft escorted reflagged Kuwaiti tankers through a dangerous Persian Gulf.
A Second Life: SLEP
In 1990 Constellation entered the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for an $800-million, three-year Service Life Extension Program — a rebuild designed to add fifteen years to her life, down to replacing her massive main steam turbines. She emerged in 1993, was assigned Carrier Air Wing Two, and arrived at her San Diego homeport on 22 July 1993, ready for the years still ahead of her.
WESTPAC ’94–95
After RIMPAC exercises in the summer of 1994, Constellation stood out of San Diego on 10 November 1994 for her first extended deployment in six years. She exercised off Okinawa and Korea as the North Korean nuclear crisis drew the world’s attention, then entered the Persian Gulf on 11 January 1995 to take station for Operation Southern Watch over southern Iraq. The six-month cruise ended back in San Diego on 10 May 1995. That deployment — and the cruise book made aboard her — is what this archive preserves.
Final Years & Legacy
Constellation returned to the Gulf for Southern Watch in 1997 and again in 1999, and made her final deployment in 2001–02 — steaming home from Pearl Harbor on a Tiger Cruise when the September 11 attacks struck. On her last deployment she flew night-strike missions in the opening of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003.
On 1 June 2003 she recorded her 395,710th and final arrested landing. After 41 years of commissioned service, USS Constellation was decommissioned at Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego on 7 August 2003, and was replaced in the fleet by USS Ronald Reagan. Towed around Cape Horn on her last voyage, she arrived at Brownsville, Texas, where scrapping was completed in 2017.
Ship history on this page draws on the published record of the USS Constellation (CVA/CV 64) Association — the shipmates who keep her story.
Questions & Answers
When was USS Constellation (CV-64) commissioned and decommissioned?
USS Constellation (CV-64) was commissioned on 27 October 1961 and decommissioned on 7 August 2003 at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, after 41 years of service.
Why was USS Constellation called “America’s Flagship”?
On 20 August 1981 President Ronald Reagan visited the ship, presented her crew a presidential flag, and proclaimed Constellation “America’s Flagship” — a title no other U.S. carrier has held.
What class of aircraft carrier was USS Constellation?
She was a Kitty Hawk-class conventionally powered (oil-fired) aircraft carrier — among the last U.S. carriers built before the nuclear-powered fleet.
When was USS Constellation’s 1994–95 WESTPAC deployment?
Constellation departed San Diego on 10 November 1994 and returned on 10 May 1995 — a roughly six-month Western Pacific and Persian Gulf deployment with Carrier Air Wing Two embarked.