New Carrier Reagan Gets Warm Welcome

Amid considerable civic hoopla, the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, the Ronald Reagan, arrived Friday to make San Diego its home port.

At a pier-side ceremony at the North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado, officials told a cheering crowd of Navy families and other well-wishers that it was appropriate that the mammoth warship should come to San Diego rather than Bremerton, Wash., where Navy officials initially thought it should be based.

“She is the newest, the largest, the most advanced carrier in the world,” said San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy. “It is only fitting that she should be berthed in San Diego, the largest military complex in America.”

Nancy Reagan, making her first public appearance since her husband’s funeral six weeks ago, said the former president would have loved seeing the ship arrive in California.

“In my heart, I know he’s looking down on us today and smiling,” she said.

Dozens of private boats greeted the 1,096-foot-long carrier as it rounded Ballast Point and entered San Diego Bay after a 57-day, 18,000-mile trip from Norfolk, Va., that took the ship through the Straits of Magellan at the tip of South America.

Built by the Newport News Shipbuilding Co. for $4.5 billion, the Ronald Reagan will need at least a year to prepare for its first forward deployment.

When the carrier does deploy, Vice Adm. Michael Malone, commander of Naval Air Forces, told the crowd, its four-acre flight deck and 80-plus warplanes would provide “precise, persistent striking power anywhere, anytime.”