page_title: USS George H.W. Bush
section_title: Naming
hierarchical_section_title: USS George H.W. Bush / Naming
caption_attribution_description: English: The later U.S. president George Herbert Walker Bush as a pilot, seated in a Grumman TBM Avenger aircraft.
context_page_description: USS George H.W. Bush is the tenth and final Nimitz-class supercarrier of the United States Navy. She is named for the 41st President of the United States and former Director of Central Intelligence George H. W. Bush, who was a naval aviator during World War II. The vessel's callsign is Avenger, after the TBM Avenger aircraft flown by then-Lieutenant George H.W. Bush in World War II. Construction began in 2003 at the Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard's Dry Dock 12, the largest in the western hemisphere. She was completed in 2009 at a cost of $6.2 billion and her home port is Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.
context_section_description: George H. W. Bush became the U.S. Navy's youngest pilot when he received his Naval Aviator wings and naval commission on 9 June 1943, three days before turning 19. He flew torpedo bombers off USS San Jacinto on active duty from August 1943 to September 1945 during World War II.  On 2 September 1944, during a mission over the Pacific, Japanese anti-aircraft fire hit his plane. The Navy submarine USS Finback rescued him. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for courageous service in the Pacific Theater.
  USS George H.W. Bush is the second United States aircraft carrier to be named after a naval aviator (Forrestal was the first) and the second, following Ronald Reagan, to be named after a then living former president (Ronald Reagan was christened in 2001 while Reagan was still alive).
caption: George H. W. Bush in a Grumman TBM Avenger during World War II
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