The Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group launched its first sorties in support of Operation Enduring Freedom Jan. 28 and also assumed duties as Commander, Task Force (CTF) 50. Aircraft from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7 departed the decks of the strike group's flagship, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69) bound for the skies over Afghanistan to support coalition ground forces. "We are the first strike group to deploy in this historic year," said Capt. Roy J. Kelley, commander, Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 7.

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.

The Norfolk-based aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) responded to a distress signal from a civilian vessel in the early morning of Nov. 7, resulting in the rescue of three Canadian civilian mariners from an overturned sailboat, approximately 300 miles off the coast of Cape Hatteras, N.C. Coordination between the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S.