Planes line the decks of the aircraft carriers USS MIDWAY (CV-41) and the USS INDEPENDENCE (CV-62) as the two vessels are moored beside each other at a pier. The MIDWAY is en route from Naval Station, Yokosuka, Japan, to Naval Air Station, North Island, Calif., where it will be decommissioned in the spring of 1992. The INDEPENDENCE will travel to Yokosuka to take over as the Navy's forward-based aircraft carrier

Aircraft carriers are warships that act as airbases for carrier-based aircraft. In the United States Navy, these consist of ships commissioned with hull classification symbols CV (aircraft carrier), CVA (attack aircraft carrier), CVB (large aircraft carrier), CVL (light aircraft carrier), CVN (aircraft carrier (nuclear propulsion) and CVAN (attack aircraft carrier (nuclear propulsion). The first aircraft carrier commissioned into the United States Navy was USS Langley (CV-1) on 20 March 1922.