SEOUL — The USS Carl Vinson — the Navy's
massive nuclear-powered aircraft carrier — arrived in Vietnam on
Monday, marking the first time such a ship has docked in the country
since the Vietnam War.
The
Nimitz-class supercarrier, accompanied by another carrier and a
destroyer, anchored off the coast of Da Nang, the city where 3,500
Marines landed in March 1965 as the war's first American ground troops.
The Carl
Vinson carries 6,000 crew members, stretches more than 1,000 feet and
weighs more than 100,000 tons. The port call will mark the largest U.S.
military presence in Vietnam since the almost two decade-long war ended
in 1975. The war killed 58,000 Americans and more than 3
million Vietnamese.
The Carl Vinson's sailors
will visit a treatment center for victims affected by the chemical
defoliant Agent Orange during the war, and a Navy band will perform a
concert in Da Nang.
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