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
Presidency of Ronald Reagan During Ronald Reagan's presidency South Africa continued to use a non-democratic system of government based on racial discrimination, known as apartheid, in which the minority of white South Africans exerted nearly complete legal control over the lives of the non-white majority of the citizens. In the early 1980s the issue had moved to the center of international attention as a result of events in the townships and outcry at the death of Stephen Biko. Reagan administration policy called for "constructive engagement" with the apartheid government of South Africa. In opposition to the condemnations issued by the US Congress and public