With the exception of the USS Enterprise, the current the US aircraft carrier fleet is all Nimitz class ships. These are huge and very capable warships; currently the largest in the world. Aircraft carriers are the pinnacle of US naval power projection and are to be found everywhere there is a trouble spot that affects US interests.

In line with other books in the 'On Deck' series, this edition is mostly a photo series of these ships covering the construction, exterior fixtures, and some interior images of the subject.

Since this is a currently active ship, all of the photographs are in full color and have been gleaned from US Navy and Northrop/Grumman (the ship builder) archives. The quality of the images is first rate with generally three or four images per page with captions.

There is a short background history and then the rest of the book is photographs. This covers the construction of the ship, the major external features, some of the internal areas of the ship, and, of course, many images of the aircraft that these ships have carried over the years. I particularly found the interior shots to be of interest as these were places that many of us in the air wing never really had a chance to visit during our deployments. We were too busy keeping our aircraft up and running.

In all, it makes for a fascinating book that many will read with some nostalgia and others with great interest. It is a book I can easily recommend to you.

January 2010

My thanks to Squadron Products for the review copy. Get yours today at your favorite shop or on-line retailer.

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