1970-Contin ued

17 July The P-3C began deployed operations as VP-

49 took over patrol responsibilities at Keflavik,

Iceland. This ASW aircraft, which was described in an

unveiling ceremony 14 months earlier as "two or three

times as effective as anything we now have," featured

the latest antisubmarine warfare equipment including

directional sonobuoys, a high capacity computer and

related displays.

8 September The Department of Defense modified

its basic space policy (established in March 1961) by

providing that functional responsibilities of the ser-

vices would be considered in assigning programs for

development and acquisition of space systems. In

addition, the Director of Defense, Research and

Engineering would assure that specific space programs

administered by one service would be broad enough

to meet the related needs of other services.

25 September A Condor television-guided air-to-

surface missile was launched by an A-6A at a standoff

distance from its target. The aircraft was 56 miles from

the target when the missile made a direct impact. The

test was conducted at the Naval Weapons Center,

China Lake, Calif.

25 September As a result of the Jordanian crisis

caused by Palestinian commando attempts to unseat

the monarchy in Amman, John F Kennedy joined

Saratoga and Independence in the Mediterranean, fol-

lowed by seven other U.S. Navy ships, including

Guam on 27 September. This strengthened the Sixth

Fleet to some 55 ships which served as a standby

force in case U.S. military protection was needed for

the evacuation of Americans and as a counterbalance

to the Soviet Union's Mediterranean fleet.

25 October Sailors and Marines completed four

days of assistance and relief to thousands of Filipinos

left homeless, hungry and injured by Typhoon Joan

which had struck southern Luzon and Catanduanes

Island in the Republic of the Philippines, leaving 600

dead and 80,000 without shelter. Over 300 tons of rice,

flour, blankets and fuel were air-lifted by HMM-164,

while galleymen aboard Okinawa worked round-the-

clock baking over 5,000 loaves of bread, and inland,

medics groped by flashlight to aid the injured.

29 October Following the ravages of Typhoon Kate

and flood waters that inundated some 140 square

miles of Vietnam south of Da Nang, the helicopter

forces of 1 st Marine Aircraft Wing performed rescue

and relief operations for over 9,000 South Vietnamese.

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

281

Initial rescue operations began when MAG-16 evacuat-

ed some 900 people the first day during floods termed

the worst since 1964.

21 November Navy planes dropped flares along the

coast of North Vietnam to divert attention from an

Army-Air Force search and rescue team that searched

a vacated prisoner-of-war compound at Son Tay, 20

miles west of Hanoi.

21-22 November In response to attacks on

unarmed U.S. reconnaissance aircraft, 200 U.S. aircraft

conducted protective reaction air strikes against North

Vietnamese missile and antiaircraft sites south of the

19th parallel. The strike forces included Marine Corps

and Navy aircraft from Hancock, Ranger, and

Oriskany.

24 November The Senate Preparedness Investigat-

ing Subcommittee completed a three-day "Investi-

gation into Electronic Battlefield Program," which

dealt with the development and use of sensor

surveillance to locate hostile forces in South Vietnam

and thus take the night away from the enemy. As

representatives of the Services and OSD explained to

the committee, the program had its beginnings in

1966 when the Navy sought to adapt the air-dropped

radio so no buoy to ground use by replacing the

hydrophone with a microphone. In the initial phase,

the project was called ALARS (for Air Launched

Acoustical Reconnaissance) which was a part of the

TRIM (Trail Road Interdiction Mission) Project. In

August 1966 a scientific study group proposed a

broader air-supported barrier system, and in

September, the Secretary of Defense established the

Defense Communications Planning Group to imple-

ment the concept and later expanded the mission to

cover a variety of tactical applications with a variety

of sensors. Although the air-supported sensor respon-

sibility was eventually assigned to the Air Force

(under the code name Igloo White), the initial com-

bat mission was carried out from November 1967 to

June 1968 by a newly established Navy squadron,

VO-67, equipped with 12 OP-2E aircraft.

24 November A T-2C modified by North American

Rockwell to a super-critical wing configuration was

test flown by North American test pilot Edward A.

Gillespie at Columbus, Ohio. The supercritical wing,

based upon theoretical development by Dr. Richard

Whitcomb of NASA, promised to delay the onset of

transonic shock separation, buffeting, and other unde-

sirable aerodynamic phenomena and thus give greater

flexibility to aircraft intended for operation in the sonic

speed regimen.