Flying Bush to Carrier 'Just Awesome'
May 2, 2003 07:45 AM EDT  

President Bush shakes hands with S-3 Viking pilot
Cmdr. John "Skip" Lussier, who flew the president
onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft
carrier from Naval Air Station North Island, San 
Diego, Thursday, May 1, 2003.
(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)		 Navy pilot John "Skip" Lussier has made hundreds of aircraft carrier landings but none to compare with his latest, a picture-perfect touchdown that could have come from the movie "Top Gun." 

"The pressure was ratcheted up just a little bit, but I tried not to think about it," Lussier said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I just wanted to focus on it as a mission and make sure I got the president aboard safely." 

Lussier was at the controls of the Navy S-3B Viking jet that ferried President Bush to the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln for his speech to the nation Thursday in which he called the defeat of Saddam Hussein a victory in the war on terrorism. 

Lussier said Bush, a former National Guard pilot, took the controls and flew about a third of the flight from San Diego to the carrier, about 30 miles off the California coast. 
"He was great," said Lussier. "Once he got into the brief he just started remembering. It was a bonding of aviators. When we got into the plane, I gave him the stick and it was like he hadn't left the cockpit." 

Lussier said the carrier landing was a historic first that put naval aviation in the national spotlight. 

"That was certainly the first time for him, the first time for a sitting president, the first time an aircraft has been designated Navy One," the pilot said. "It was just awesome."