Today the US Navy (USN) formally deactivates the Nuclear Aircraft Carrier USS Enterprise (CVN-65) after 51 years of active service. The 8th Navy ship to bear the name "Enterprise" (ironically the first Enterprise was a British ship until captured by Benedict Arnold on May 18, 1775) she was the world's first nuclear powered aircraft carrier.
In 1954 Congress authorized construction to begin on the newest edition of the Enterprise (her famous WWII era predecessor had been decommissioned in 1947). Once construction began everything about the new Enterprise quickly became superlative.
Following Hitler's December 1941 declaration of war upon the United States German Admiral Karl Doenitz sought to take advantage of the weakly guarded sea-lanes near the American coast and pick off the highly vulnerable, solitary, merchant ships plying these waters. Hitler approved Doenitz's plan, code named Operation Paukenschlag, or drumbeat/roll the drums. Doenitz' U-boats would carry Hitler's war to America and if successful deliver the first blows designed to cripple American shipping and industry.
