NORFOLK, Va. — On Friday, June 7, Pat Sajak will spin the wheel for the final time.
The host of "Wheel of Fortune" is retiring after more than 40 years. He's been a staple of the game show since 1981, which features contestants guessing letters to try to fill out words and phrases to win money and prizes. His co-host, Vanna White, has been on the show since 1982.
Looking back at Sajak's long career reminded us of a very special time in the show's history: in 1995, "Wheel of Fortune" came to Norfolk, and featured two weeks of episodes on board an aircraft carrier!
It took a monumental effort to build and recreate the set inside the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower's hangar bay, and much of Hampton Roads got excited to see Pat and Vanna's arrival.
The shows were recorded to coincide with Armed Forces Week in May, and feature service members from all branches of the military as contestants. Pat Sajak himself is a U.S. Army veteran.
"This area just seemed to be all excited about our being here, we got caught up in the excitement," Sajak told us in 1995. "We couldn't have been treated better and everything aboard the carrier. It's been great."
We went into our archives and found these stories about the weeks leading up to and during the show's visit to Virginia. Enjoy this look back at the time Wheel of Fortune came to Norfolk:
"Wheel of Fortune" airs weeknights at 7 p.m. on WVEC 13News Now and you can watch Pat's final episode on Friday.