A flight deck director marshalls an F-14D Tomcat onto the catapult as final checkers conduct their inspections before launch March 23, 2003. USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) and Carrier Air Wing Fourteen (CVW 14) are conducting combat operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.Operation Iraqi Freedom is the multi-national coalition effort to liberate the Iraqi people, eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and end the regime of Saddam Hussein.