ON BOARD THE USS CARL VINSON, November 12, 2011 (AFP) - President Barack Obama hailed US veterans Friday at a unique college basketball game on the deck of the aircraft carrier which sent Osama bin Laden to his underwater grave.

Obama and his wife Michelle sat courtside on the USS Carl Vinson, among 7,000 spectators in San Diego Bay, en route to an Asia-Pacific summit in his native Hawaii, for an open-air game televised on cable sports giant ESPN.

With floodlights highlighting the hulking carrier's bridge, Obama watched North Carolina beat Michigan State 67-55 on a hardwood court laid on the flight deck that catapulted US warplanes to bomb targets in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Marking Veterans Day, Obama noted the vessel's key role in the US wars launched after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

"It was from this aircraft carrier that some of the first assaults on Iraq were launched," Obama said in a short speech on the court before the opening tip-off between two teams wearing camouflage uniforms.

"This ship supports what is happening in Afghanistan."

"To all our veterans, to all our men and women in uniform we say thank you," said Obama, after two fighter jets streaked over the nuclear-powered carrier during patriotic pre-game celebrations.

Later, in an interview with ESPN, Obama noted that the ship will now forever be remembered for a symbolic moment in the US anti-terror campaign.

"This is the last time that Osama bin Laden was on the face of the Earth. And so there's a lot of history on this ship," Obama said.

The Carl Vinson, then believed to be steaming in the Indian Ocean, was the vessel to which the body of Al-Qaeda leader bin Laden was taken after the US special forces raid on his Pakistani hideout in May in which he was killed.

Bin Laden was later buried at sea from the ship with full Muslim rites.

Former National Basketball Association and collegiate stars Magic Johnson and James Worthy served as honorary captains for their former colleges.

Mike Whalen of Morale Entertainment Foundation, which came up with the idea for the game dubbed the Carrier Classic, said it was a coincidence that the Carl Vinson was hosting the event -- with the USS Ronald Reagan originally expected to hold the game.