On the morning of April 11, Capt. Brent Gaut, the commander of the USS George Washington -- an aircraft carrier undergoing major shipyard work at Newport News, Virginia -- got on the ship's intercom.

See the ex-USS John F. Kennedy, the Navy's last conventionally powered aircraft carrier, which was in a class of its own.

The George Washington remained pierside at ... according to a website that records the U.S. aircraft carrier fleet's deployment history. USS Nimitz: Eastern Pacific Ocean U.S. Naval Institute ...