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 Japan in 2015. In 2015 the "Ronald Reagan" replaced in Japan as the US Navy's only forward deployed aircraft carrier and took her new place as the flagship of Carrier Strike Group Five and Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5). On 1 October 2015, "Ronald Reagan" arrived in her newest home port, Yokosuka in Kanagawa Prefecture. CVW-5 was based at Naval Air Facility Atsugi, which is also located in Kanagawa Prefecture. The ship was open for the public to tour on 12 October. On 29 October two Russian Tupolev Tu-142 bombers flew within one mile of the ship at low altitude.