Medics set down a litter with one of three rescued civilian sailors on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS AMERICA (CV-66). Marc Dupaullion, Edward Provost and Allison Wilcox were rescued by SH-3 Sea King helicopter off the coast of Cape May, N.J., after spending ten days at sea in a life raft. Their sailboat had capsized near Delaware during Hurricane Bob.

Aircraft carriers are warships that act as airbases for carrier-based aircraft. In the United States Navy, these consist of ships commissioned with hull classification symbols CV (aircraft carrier), CVA (attack aircraft carrier), CVB (large aircraft carrier), CVL (light aircraft carrier), CVN (aircraft carrier (nuclear propulsion) and CVAN (attack aircraft carrier (nuclear propulsion). The first aircraft carrier commissioned into the United States Navy was USS Langley (CV-1) on 20 March 1922.