Ayala: Abbott's next reckless disaster begins Wednesday, mark your calendars FacebookTwitterEmail Sign up for our breaking newsletter or download the Express-News app to receive alerts. President George W. Bush looked “Top Gun” confident on that overcast day in May 2003. Sporting a flight suit, he emerged from a Navy fighter jet expertly landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln. The scene was made for TV. Young crewmen gathered around him for pictures, the president looking like a hero home from war. It was a prelude to a speech Bush and others in his administration would live to regret. His declaration of “Mission Accomplished” in Iraq hardly ended operations there.