Forrestal enters service as a diplomatic presence

Although USS Forrestal was still working up and less than a year from commissioning during the Suez Crisis, it was positioned outside the Mediterranean for possible use. Its first deployment soon took it into the Sixth Fleet. The ships had a deliberately visible role in presence missions and diplomacy. Visits and demonstrations introduced politicians and senior officers from many countries to the scale of American naval aviation. Their ability to show strike, fighter, reconnaissance, anti-submarine, and delivery aircraft helped define what a modern carrier meant to outside observers.