US Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class (HM3) Shane Latimer applies a bandage to the leg of a wounded crew member during a mass casualty training exercise aboard the conventional aircraft carrier USS INDEPENDENCE (CV 62). The INDEPENDENCE and it's embarked Carrier Air Wing Five (CVW-5) are forward deployed to the Persian Gulf to enforce UN sanctions against Iraq. Operation SOUTHRN WATCH, 21 February 1998

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.