The air wing can engage enemy aircraft, submarines, and land targets, or lay mines hundreds of miles from the ship.

John C. Stennis's two nuclear reactors give her virtually unlimited range and endurance and a top speed in excess of 30 knots (56 km/h, 34.5 mph).

The ship carries approximately 3 million US gallons (11,000 m3) of fuel for her aircraft and escorts, and enough weapons and stores for extended operations without replenishment.

John C. Stennis was commissioned on 9 December 1995 at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, and she conducted flight deck certification in January 1996.

The ship traveled 8,020 nmi (14,850 km; 9,230 mi) in 274 hours, an average speed of 29.4 knots (54.4 km/h; 33.8 mph) to relieve USS George Washington in conducting Operation Southern Watch missions.

John C. Stennis departed the Persian Gulf on 19 July 1998 for her new home port of Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California, arriving on 26 August 1998.

During the deployment, the ship made port visits to South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, Tasmania and Pearl Harbor, before returning to San Diego on 3 July 2000.

More than 2,000 people attended the premiere on the ship, which had special grandstand seating and one of the world's largest movie screens assembled on the flight deck.

On 12 November 2001, two months earlier than scheduled, the ship left on her third deployment to the U.S. Fifth Fleet area of responsibility in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, returning to San Diego on 28 May 2002.

Shortly after returning from deployment to San Diego, JCS changed her home port to Naval Station Bremerton, Washington, on 19 January 2005.

Once at Bremerton, John C. Stennis underwent an 11-month docking planned incremental availability (DPIA), the first time she had been dry-docked since commissioning.

On 23 May 2007, John C. Stennis, along with eight other warships including the aircraft carrier Nimitz and amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard, passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

That same day, one of the ship's sailors was crushed and killed while working from a small harbor boat to secure a drain that discharges oily water from the aircraft catapults.

[16] On 29 April, the ship's executive officer, Commander David L. Burnham, was relieved by Rear Admiral Mark A. Vance over unspecified personal conduct.

Crew from the destroyer USS Kidd then boarded the fishing vessel (upon permission in Urdu from the captain), and arrested all of the pirates with no casualties.

On 7 July 2012, crew members were informed that John C. Stennis would be returning to the Middle East in August, much sooner than expected.

[28] Following that the ship sailed to Pearl Harbor, where she performed a week long tiger cruise [clarification needed] to San Diego [29] At 12:45 on 3 May 2013, John C. Stennis arrived at her home port of Naval Base Kitsap in Bremerton, Washington, the completion of a ten-month, 66,000 miles (106,000 km) deployment to the western Pacific Ocean.

[34] On 19 April she arrived to Singapore for a regularly scheduled port visit after completing an annual bilateral training exercise in the Philippines.

[35] On 26 April 2016, China denied John C. Stennis, and her escort ships, permission to make a port visit to Hong Kong.

On 14 August, John C. Stennis arrived back to homeport, Naval Base Kitsap, finishing a Western Pacific deployment and RIMPAC exercise.

On 2 August 2018, the Navy announced that John C. Stennis would change homeport to Norfolk, Virginia in advance of her refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) at Newport News Shipbuilding.

[38] On 16 May 2019, John C. Stennis arrived in her new home port of Norfolk, Virginia in preparation for her refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) in 2020.

The circular shape signifies the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier's unique capability to circle the world without refueling while providing a forward presence from the sea.

The seven stars in the blue border represent his seven terms in the Senate and characterize John C. Stennis as the seventh Nimitz-class aircraft carrier.

The burst of light emanating from the shield, representative of the emergence of a new nation in the United States Senate Seal, portrays the birth of over 25 major Naval Aviation programs under Senator Stennis' leadership, including all aircraft carriers from USS Forrestal to USS Harry S. Truman, and aircraft from the F-4 Phantom to the F/A-18 Hornet.