Carl Vinson

Reporting from San Diego -- To the tearful joy of military family members and the admiration of civilian onlookers, the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson returned to San Diego on Wednesday after a seven-month deployment that included the at-sea burial of Osama bin Laden. "It's like watching a piece of history float by," said Nicole Palazzolo, 29, of Port Huron, Mich., as she watched from San Diego's Harbor Island. "Those guys and girls, they're the real deal. If you don't believe me, ask Bin Laden.

The Pentagon quietly shifted combat troops and warships to the Middle East after the top American commander in the region warned that he needed additional forces to deal with Iran and other potential threats, U.S. officials said. Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, who heads U.S. Central Command, won White House approval for the deployments late last year after talks with the government in Baghdad broke down over keeping U.S. troops in Iraq, but the extent of the Pentagon moves is only now becoming clear.

The flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is 1,094 feet long and its official use is for fighter jets to load up and take off, leaving the ship at 150 mph as they travel from one end to the other. On Friday, though, it will have a much different use, serving as a staging prop for a college basketball game. This wild idea has been 10 years in the making, the concept of Michigan State Athletic Director Mark Hollis, whose team will play top-ranked North Carolina. Hollis came up with the idea after he was part of a group of coaches and athletic officials who visited troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The flight deck of the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson is 1,094 feet long and its official use is for fighter jets to load up and take off, leaving the ship at 150 mph as they travel from one end to the other. On Friday, though, it will have a much different use, serving as a staging prop for a college basketball game. This wild idea has been 10 years in the making, the concept of Michigan State Athletic Director Mark Hollis, whose team will play top-ranked North Carolina. Hollis came up with the idea after he was part of a group of coaches and athletic officials who visited troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Reporting from Coronado, Calif. -- If the game was a little sloppy, if there was some bad shooting and slipping and sliding along the court, that wasn't the point. Also not the point was that top-ranked North Carolina beat Michigan State, 67-55, in the season opener Friday. The point was that President Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended the game, which was played on the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The point was that service men and women from all five branches of the military stood in proud anticipation of being honored at a basketball game, the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was sent to start  the air assault to topple the Taliban government in Afghanistan and bring Osama bin Laden to justice. Starting Oct. 7, 2001, the carrier launched 4,000 combat sorties, playing a key role in removing the Taliban grip on the Afghan capital, Kabul. Now the Vinson, whose home port is now San Diego, has played another significant role in the Afghanistan war: as the platform from which Bin Laden's body was buried at sea. The burial, Navy officials said, followed Muslim custom, with the body washed and placed in a white sheet.

The Pentagon quietly shifted combat troops and warships to the Middle East after the top American commander in the region warned that he needed additional forces to deal with Iran and other potential threats, U.S. officials said. Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, who heads U.S. Central Command, won White House approval for the deployments late last year after talks with the government in Baghdad broke down over keeping U.S. troops in Iraq, but the extent of the Pentagon moves is only now becoming clear.

As the battle intensifies for the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, U.S. fighter pilots are facing a barrage of antiaircraft fire of surprising intensity, pilots here report. In the first weeks of the U.S. air war, planes from the Carl Vinson and two other aircraft carriers, as well as from land bases, quickly knocked out most of the enemy's air defenses in Afghanistan's northern, more mountainous regions. But as the war has largely shifted to the southern province of Kandahar, U.S.

Some of the most dramatic television images beamed from Haiti's quake-ravaged communities have shown harried doctors frantically tending the wounded with rudimentary tools. "To say it's primitive is an understatement," CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said Saturday on "The Early Show." "This is analogous to Civil War medicine." Ashton would know. As she spoke, the network aired footage of her in scrubs and a face mask, assisting in the nighttime surgery of a 15-year-old girl in shock from a hasty amputation.

President Obama will attend the Veterans Day matchup between the Michigan State and North Carolina men's basketball teams on the USS Carl Vinson, the White House announced Thursday. The so-called "Carrier Classic" will be played in a temporary stadium to be built on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which was the vessel from which the body of Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in May after a special forces raid at his Pakistan compound. George W. Bush was the last president to make such a notable visit to an active carrier, to mark the end of major combat operations in Iraq in 2003 -- the infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech.

Reporting from Coronado, Calif. -- If the game was a little sloppy, if there was some bad shooting and slipping and sliding along the court, that wasn't the point. Also not the point was that top-ranked North Carolina beat Michigan State, 67-55, in the season opener Friday. The point was that President Obama and his wife, Michelle, attended the game, which was played on the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson. The point was that service men and women from all five branches of the military stood in proud anticipation of being honored at a basketball game, the Quicken Loans Carrier Classic.

President Obama will attend the Veterans Day matchup between the Michigan State and North Carolina men's basketball teams on the USS Carl Vinson, the White House announced Thursday. The so-called "Carrier Classic" will be played in a temporary stadium to be built on the flight deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, which was the vessel from which the body of Osama bin Laden was buried at sea in May after a special forces raid at his Pakistan compound. George W. Bush was the last president to make such a notable visit to an active carrier, to mark the end of major combat operations in Iraq in 2003 -- the infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech.

Reporting from San Diego -- To the tearful joy of military family members and the admiration of civilian onlookers, the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson returned to San Diego on Wednesday after a seven-month deployment that included the at-sea burial of Osama bin Laden. "It's like watching a piece of history float by," said Nicole Palazzolo, 29, of Port Huron, Mich., as she watched from San Diego's Harbor Island. "Those guys and girls, they're the real deal. If you don't believe me, ask Bin Laden.

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson was sent to start  the air assault to topple the Taliban government in Afghanistan and bring Osama bin Laden to justice. Starting Oct. 7, 2001, the carrier launched 4,000 combat sorties, playing a key role in removing the Taliban grip on the Afghan capital, Kabul. Now the Vinson, whose home port is now San Diego, has played another significant role in the Afghanistan war: as the platform from which Bin Laden's body was buried at sea. The burial, Navy officials said, followed Muslim custom, with the body washed and placed in a white sheet.

Some of the most dramatic television images beamed from Haiti's quake-ravaged communities have shown harried doctors frantically tending the wounded with rudimentary tools. "To say it's primitive is an understatement," CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said Saturday on "The Early Show." "This is analogous to Civil War medicine." Ashton would know. As she spoke, the network aired footage of her in scrubs and a face mask, assisting in the nighttime surgery of a 15-year-old girl in shock from a hasty amputation.

The Carl Vinson, the first U.S. aircraft carrier to wage war on the Al Qaeda terrorist network and its Taliban partners, arrived here Saturday to a hero's welcome and the strains of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." "We were the right hand of America to get the job done," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Juan Pineda, 22, of Seattle. "It feels good," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Bridgette Shryock, 23, of Chicago. "My parents are proud."

ON BOARD THE USS CARL VINSON IN THE NORTHERN ARABIAN SEA--Awesome in its monotony, the Afghan countryside spreads beneath the bellies of the jets. A brown, barren wash, scored by infrequent roads, skinny rivers, irrigation ditches. The pilots have stared at this landscape for hours. They cross mountain ranges with trepidation, scan fields for airports, planes and military bases. "It's moon-like," said a 29-year-old Navy pilot from Gaithersburg, Md. He calls himself Buzz.

The Carl Vinson, the first U.S. aircraft carrier to wage war on the Al Qaeda terrorist network and its Taliban partners, arrived here Saturday to a hero's welcome and the strains of Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." "We were the right hand of America to get the job done," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Juan Pineda, 22, of Seattle. "It feels good," said Petty Officer 3rd Class Bridgette Shryock, 23, of Chicago. "My parents are proud."

As the battle intensifies for the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar, U.S. fighter pilots are facing a barrage of antiaircraft fire of surprising intensity, pilots here report. In the first weeks of the U.S. air war, planes from the Carl Vinson and two other aircraft carriers, as well as from land bases, quickly knocked out most of the enemy's air defenses in Afghanistan's northern, more mountainous regions. But as the war has largely shifted to the southern province of Kandahar, U.S.

ON BOARD THE USS CARL VINSON IN THE NORTHERN ARABIAN SEA--Awesome in its monotony, the Afghan countryside spreads beneath the bellies of the jets. A brown, barren wash, scored by infrequent roads, skinny rivers, irrigation ditches. The pilots have stared at this landscape for hours. They cross mountain ranges with trepidation, scan fields for airports, planes and military bases. "It's moon-like," said a 29-year-old Navy pilot from Gaithersburg, Md. He calls himself Buzz.