Since commissioning, Dwight D. Eisenhower has participated in deployments including the Gulf War in the 1990s, and more recently in support of U.S. military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was initially assigned to the United States Atlantic Fleet, and, after receiving over a year of training, the ship was visited by President Jimmy Carter with his wife Rosalynn Carter, Defense Secretary Harold Brown and National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzeziński.

During this deployment, while off the coast of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin visited Dwight D. Eisenhower, The carrier returned to Norfolk Naval Station in July of the same year.

During this deployment, 11 passengers and crew were lost when Mamie, her onboard logistics aircraft, crashed near Souda Bay, Crete, on 2 April.

Between 2 and 5 August, the ship's Combat Air Patrol intercepted two MiG-23 Flogger and two Dassault-Breguet Mirage 5 aircraft headed toward the carrier in separate engagements.

[7][14] Dwight D. Eisenhower entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard (Portsmouth, Virginia) in September 1988; she returned to the fleet in April 1989.

The deployment became a commemorative event in the worldwide "Dwight D. Eisenhower Centennial", celebrating the 100th anniversary of the late president's birth.

The division's soldiers and equipment were loaded on board, and the ship's Army/Navy team headed for Port-au-Prince to lead Operation Uphold Democracy, the U.S.-led effort to restore the elected government of Haiti.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Carrier Air Wing Three (CVW-3), and the Commander, Cruiser-Destroyer Group 8 staff team included more than 400 women.

During the deployment, 15 women serving aboard had to be reassigned ashore because of pregnancy, earning the ship the nickname The Love Boat.

[18] Deploying in February 2000 and returning that August on the "Millennium Cruise", for the first time Ike's embarked aircraft dropped ordnance in combat while enforcing Operation Southern Watch's No-Fly Zone over Iraq.

On 3 October 2006 with Carrier Air Wing Seven (CVW-7), Dwight D. Eisenhower returned to sea as flagship of RADM Allen G. Myers, commanding Carrier Strike Group Eight (CSG-8), which included guided-missile cruiser Anzio, guided-missile destroyers Ramage and Mason, and fast-attack submarine Newport News.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was deployed in the Indian Ocean to provide air cover for the operation and, if needed, to evacuate downed airmen and other casualties.

[22] A U.S. spokesperson did not say which particular ships comprised the cordon, but the task force included vessels from Canada, France, Germany, Pakistan, the UK and the US.

[25] On 4 October 2008 Dwight D. Eisenhower Petty Officer 2nd Class Robert Lemar Robinson was killed aboard ship during training exercises off the coast of North Carolina.

She served as the flagship of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group commanded by Rear Admiral Philip S. Davidson.

After pulling into Marseille, France[31] in early March, the German Sachsen-class frigate Hamburg became the first to fully integrate into an American strike group.

On 6 August the ship began an ammunition offload in preparation for an upcoming docked planned incremental availability (DPIA) at Norfolk Naval Shipyard.

[34] On 8 June 2016, Dwight D. Eisenhower and her Carrier Strike Group sailed the Atlantic Ocean into the U.S. 6th Fleet's area of operations (AoR) in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe.

[36] On 18 March 2016, while she was sailing off the coast of Virginia, eight members of her deck crew were injured when the arresting gear cables failed and "came apart", during the routine landing of an E-2 Hawkeye aircraft.

Six of the injured deck crew were flown by helicopter to nearby shore-based hospitals, while the other two remained and were treated aboard ship.

The Hawkeye immediately resumed flight and landed safely at Chambers Field, Norfolk Naval Station, with no reports of injuries to her crew or damage to the aircraft.

This new mark is attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ship's operational commitment to "remain clean" by avoiding any contact with ports that carried the potential of introducing the novel coronavirus into the crew.

[44] On 14 October 2023, Lloyd Austin directed Dwight D. Eisenhower and her carrier strike group, which includes the cruiser Philippine Sea, and destroyers Laboon, Mason and Gravely, to the eastern Mediterranean in response to Israel's war with Hamas.

In the process of responding to the distress call, Gravely shot down two anti-ship ballistic missiles fired from Yemen.

[53][54] On 12 January, aircraft from Carrier Air Wing Three embarked on Dwight D. Eisenhower, participated in the 2024 missile strikes in Yemen against Houthi rebels.

Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired by the cruiser Philippine Sea as well as the destroyers Mason and Gravely, and the submarine Florida.

[55][56] Dwight D. Eisenhower continued supporting Operation Prosperity Guardian and the 2024 missile strikes in Yemen until 26 April when she passed through the Suez Canal and entered the Eastern Mediterranean.

[63] Dwight D. Eisenhower is scheduled to be replaced around 2029 by the new USS Enterprise (CVN-80), a Gerald R. Ford-class carrier, that as of fall 2018, is in the steel cutting and fabrication stages of construction.

[65] The exact date of the ship's inactivation and decommissioning will likely depend on many factors, including Defense Department funding considerations.