The USS Independence CV-62 was an Forrestal Class Aircraft Carrier of the US Navy that operated between 1959 and 1998. Between 1959 and 1985, it was assigned to the US Atlantic Fleet, seeing action in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, as a deterrence during the Yom Kippur/October War of 1973 and the Lebanon Crisis in 1983.
After being modernized, the carrier deployed to the Indian Ocean with CVW-14 in June 1990 before being involved in Operation Desert Shield as a result of the Invasion of Kuwait in August 1990. In August 1991, the Independence replaced the Midway as the forward deployed carrier in Japan. It then took part in Operation Southern Watch, the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis and the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis.