USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75)

History

USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) is the eighth Nimitz-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy, and is named after the 33rd President of the United States, Harry S. Truman. She is homeported at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia.

Harry S. Truman was launched on 7 September 1996 by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Virginia, and commissioned on 25 July 1998 with Captain Thomas Otterbein in command.

Built at a cost of more than $4.5 billion in 2007 dollars ($6.54 billion today), Harry S. Truman (also known as HST within the Navy) is 1,092 feet (333 m) long and 257 feet (78 m) wide, and is as high as a 24-story building, at 244 feet (74 m). The supercarrier can accommodate 6,250 crewmembers and around 90 aircraft. Aircraft move between the hangar bay and the 4.5-acre (1.8 ha) flight deck on four 3,880 ft2 (360 m2) elevators. With a combat load, HST displaces almost 97,000 tons, including two 30-ton Mark II stockless anchors taken from USS Forrestal; each link of the anchor chain weighs 360 pounds (160 kg). She is armed with three 20 mm Phalanx CIWS mounts and two Sea Sparrow SAM launchers. The ship is powered by two Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors that can propel the ship more than three million miles before refueling. The ship's quartet of five-bladed, 66,220-pound (30.04 t) propellers that can produce speeds over 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph).

Since 2001, Harry S. Truman has been deployed in support of many conflicts and operations, including Operation Joint Endeavor, Operation Deny Flight, Operation Enduring Freedom – Afghanistan, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Inherent Resolve. In 2025, the aircraft carrier was attacked six times by ballistic missiles fired by the Houthis.

Text from Wikipedia: USS Harry S. Truman, CC BY-SA 4.0, lightly trimmed.

Wars and campaigns

From Wikidata (CC0).

Key dates

1. 1993
   Her keel was laid by Newport News Shipbuilding on 29 November 1993 as USS United States, but her name was changed in February 1995 at the direction of then-Secretary of the Navy John H. Dalton.
2. 1998
   Harry S. Truman was commissioned on 25 July 1998 at Naval Station Norfolk.
3. 2002
   On 5 December 2002, HST left for her second deployment, again with CVW-3 embarked, visiting Marseille, France; Souda Bay, Crete; and Koper, Slovenia.
4. 2003
   This was the sixth award in the ship's 12-year history, having previously won the Battle "E" award in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, and 2009.
5. 2004
   On 2 June 2004, the ship "surged" for Exercise Summer Pulse, deploying to the Mediterranean Sea.
6. 2005
   On 1 September 2005, Harry S. Truman set sail for to help the U.S. Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
7. 2016
   By mid-April 2016, aircraft of Carrier Air Wing Seven operating from the carrier had dropped 1,118 pieces of ordnance in operations against the group, surpassing a record of 1,085 pieces that was set by aircraft assigned to USS Theodore Roosevelt in 2015.
8. 2018
   Carrier Strike Group 8 began a further scheduled deployment to the Middle East and Europe on 11 April 2018.
9. 2022
   On 8 August 2022, the United States Sixth Fleet announced the lost aircraft had been recovered from a depth of 9,500 feet (2,900 m) using a remotely operated CURV-21 recovery vehicle.

Dates and events quoted from the same Wikipedia article (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Records that place someone aboard this ship

A ship history doesn't name everyone who served. These records do:

• Navy muster rolls, 1939–1949 (National Archives guide)
• Deck logs: how to get them (Naval History and Heritage Command)
• Crew lists research guide (NHHC)
• Search the National Archives Catalog for “USS Harry S. Truman”

More history

• Wikipedia: USS Harry S. Truman