USS Ronald Reagan Efficiency "E" award for the West Coast, the first Battle "E" ever for the carrier. "Ronald Reagan" returned to Naval Air Station North Island on 20 April 2007, following the three-month deployment in support of operations in the Western Pacific. On 15 December 2007, the carrier answered a distress call from a cruise ship off the coast of Baja California. An Illinois teenager whose appendix had ruptured while on a Mexican cruise was airlifted by an SH-60 helicopter to "Ronald Reagan", where an emergency appendectomy was performed by the ship's surgeon. USS "Ronald Reagan", with CVW-14 embarked, departed San Diego
USS Ronald Reagan island. "Ronald Reagan" was christened by Reagan's wife Nancy on 4 March 2001 at Newport News Shipbuilding, the crew moved aboard on 30 October 2002, and the ship was commissioned on 12 July 2003 at Naval Station Norfolk, with Captain J. W. Goodwin in command. Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney were both present at the ceremony, as well as Nancy Reagan, who gave the ship's crew the traditional first order as an active unit of the Navy: "Man the ship and bring her to life." "Ronald Reagan" made her maiden voyage on 21 July 2003. President Reagan, who