Aircraft carriers not exclusive to Bush

While President Bush has taken often vitriolic criticism about making a tailhook landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier to make a speech, records show 25 congressional personnel, including 12 lawmakers, have landed on U.S. aircraft carriers since the beginning of the year, reports The Hill newspaper.

Many Democratic officials and media commentators have scolded Bush for what they believe was a concocted media event created chiefly to bolster the president's wartime image.

As WorldNetDaily reported, Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., blasted Bush on the floor of the U.S. Senate for his "flamboyant showmanship."

"I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan, and yet that is what I saw,'' Byrd told his colleagues. "To me, it is an affront to the Americans killed or injured in Iraq for the president to exploit the trappings of war for the momentary spectacle of a speech."

On May 1, Bush was flown onto the carrier, which was returning to San Diego after duty in the Persian Gulf, aboard an S-3B Viking jet to make an address declaring an end to major combat in Iraq. It was the first time a president has made a tailhook landing on such a vessel. He emerged from the jet dressed in a flight suit, enthusiastically pumping the hands of crewmen.

According to Navy records reviewed by The Hill, six congressional aides made a tailhook landing aboard the USS Nimitz in Southern California on Jan. 24. They stayed overnight before returning to the mainland. The staffers were from the offices of Republican Sens. Sam Brownback, Kan., Michael Crapo, Idaho, Thad Cochran, Miss., and Jeff Sessions, Ala., as well as the office of Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J.

In April, the USS Carl Vinson hosted aides from the offices of Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-Texas, and Del. Madeleine Bordallo, D-Guam, along with various committee staff, according to The Hill.

Also last month, the Navy facilitated a visit by Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and seven other members of Congress to the USS Harry S Truman, deployed in the Mediterranean Sea. The lawmakers included Reps. Judy Biggert, Ill., Anne Northup, Ky., Mike Pence, Ind., John Portman, Ohio, John Shadegg, Ariz., and Todd Tiahrt, Kan., all Republicans, and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash. Like Bush, the lawmakers made a tailhook landing on the carrier.

On May 6, Washington state Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray traveled by helicopter to the same vessel Bush visited, the Abraham Lincoln, as it was approaching its home port in Everett, Wash.

"Aircraft carrier embarks, like other ship, submarine and military installation visits, provide members of Congress and their staff with a better understanding of the military, our equipment, and most importantly, the dedicated men and women who train, deploy, and face the challenges that threaten our national security every day," a Navy official told The Hill. "We try to accommodate every request."

In the wake of Bush's visit to the Lincoln, several Democratic lawmakers demanded a cost accounting of the trip, saying the event was a carefully orchestrated political stunt pulled off at taxpayer expense.

Terry McAuliffe, Democratic National Committee chairman, also hammered the president on the issue.

"Considering the expense to the American taxpayer and use of American military men and women as 'extras' for this media stunt, the president should pledge that his landing not appear in any presidential campaign commercials and videos," McAuliffe stated, according to Fox News.

In the wake of the event, a White House reporter asked spokesman Ari Fleischer about the appearance of the president in a flight suit and whether it somehow blurred the distinction between civilian leadership and the military. The donning of such garb, however, is not atypical for election officials. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., boasts a photo on his website wearing a flight suit and posing in front of a fighter jet.

President John Tyler was the first to make such a trip, boarding the steam sloop Princeton in 1844. In President Bill Clinton's eight years in office, he visited four ships, all carriers: the Carl Vinson, the George Washington, the Independence and the Harry S Truman.

President John Tyler was the first to make such a trip, boarding the steam sloop Princeton in 1844.

That was actually a much more dangerous visit than President Bush's tailhook landing. A cannon on the Princeton exploded killing the Secretary of the Navy and the Secretary of State and several other people.

USS Princeton (1843-1849)
USS Princeton, a 1046-ton screw steamer built at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, was commissioned in September 1843. Her designers, John Ericsson, Captain Robert F. Stockton and John Lenthall, fitted her with the Navy's first screw machinery and two very heavy shell guns. On 28 February 1844, while demonstrating one of these guns for distinguished visitors during a cruise near Washington, D.C., the cannon exploded, killing Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur, Secretary of the Navy Thomas Gilmer and several others.
Following this accident, Princeton operated off Mexico and along the Atlantic seaboard until 1847, when she went to the Mediterranean for two years. Upon her return in mid-1849, her timbers were found to be rotten, and she was broken up. Her engines were used in constructing a new USS Princeton a few years later.
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