ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- On Nov. 18, 1973, President Richard Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon arrived at Robins AFB on Air Force One. They visited Macon and Mercer University to honor the 90th birthday of former Georgia Congressman Carl Vinson and to pay tribute to the 100th anniversary of Mercer’s Walter F. Georgia School of Law. Nixon announced that the next American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier would be named the USS Carl Vinson.