Only hours after departing for its 2010 deployment, Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) diverted from flight operations to assist the U.S. Coast Guard in a rescue at sea the night of Jan. 2, saving the life of a stranded mariner. Responding to a vessel-in-distress call, the U.S. Coast Guard requested Eisenhower's aid in the successful extraction of a man whose sailboat had capsized in rough waters approximately 300 miles off the coast of Elizabeth City, N.C.