280

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1970-Contin ued

31 January Midway was recommissioned following

a four-year conversion-modernization at the San

Francisco Bay Naval Shipyard, Calif. Other ship devel-

opments that followed were the commissioning of

Inchon on 20 June, completing Ticonderoga's conver-

sion from CVA to CVS in May, and laying the keel of

Dwight D. Eisenhower on 15 August.

10 February As part of the U.S. withdrawal from

Vietnam, two Marine squadrons, VMFA-542 and

VMA-223, returned to Marine Corps Air Station El

Toro, Calif. The same month, VMA-211 and MAG-12

were reassigned to Japan. In September, VMFA-122,

VMFA-314 and VMA(AW)-242, as well as two avia-

tion support units, H&MS-13 and MABS-13, returned

to the U.S. On 13 October, the last Marines left Chu

Lai, a base from which they had been operating

since 1965.

16 March The crash of an EC-121 reconnaissance

plane took the lives of 23 Navy passengers at Da Nang

Air Base, South Vietnam.

28 March The first North Vietnamese MiG kill since

the 1 November 1968 bombing halt occurred when

Lieutenant Jerome E. Beaulier and Lieutenant (jg)

Stephen 1. Barkley in an F-4 Phantom II of VF-142 off

Constellation shot down a MiG-21 while escorting an

unarmed Navy reconnaissance plane on a mission

near Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam.

1 April CVWR-20 and CVWR-30 were established

followed by CVSGR-70 and CVSGR-80 on 1 May. This

was a continuation of a program initiated in July 1968

to give Naval Air Reserve an improved combat readi-

ness. The reorganization placed all carrier-type

squadrons in two reserve carrier air wings and two

carrier ASW groups. Twelve VP and three VR

squadrons joined the carrier squadrons under the con-

trol of Commander Naval Air Reserve Force.

10 April The A-4M Skyhawk made its first flight at the

McDonnell Douglas plant at Palmdale, Calif. This air-

craft was equipped with a high power engine (nearly

50 percent more thrust than that of the Skyhawk from

1954) and brake parachute; these features made it par-

ticularly adaptable for operations from short airfields

in forward areas.

17 April Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Jr.,

USN; John 1. Swigert, Jr., ex-USAF; and Fred W. Haise,

Jr., ex-USMCR, were recovered by HS-4 off Iwo jima

after their abortive moon flight.

2 May A VC-8 helicopter rescued twenty-six persons

from a Dutch Antillean Airlines DC-9 ditched in the

Caribbean. The helicopter was piloted by Lieutenant

Commander James E. Rylee and Lieutenant (jg)

Donald Hartman; crewmen were ADC William Brazzell

and AD Calvin Lindley.

9 May Approximately 30 U.S. Navy craft, helicopters

and OV-I0 Bronco aircraft participated with the com-

bined South Vietnamese/U.S. Riverine Force in opera-

tions into the Mekong River Corridor to neutralize

sanctuary bases in that area. This followed the initial

series of strikes by combined U.S.-RVN ground forces

against enemy sanctuaries in Cambodia during the first

week of May.

31 May Following Peru's earthquake which took

50,000 lives, injured 100,000 and made 800,000 home-

less, Guam and HMM-365 provided victims with over

200 tons of relief supplies and transported over 1,000

evacuees and medical patients on 800 mercy flights.

Before Guam left the Peruvian coast on 21 June, her

crewmen spent two days in Lima at the invitation of a

grateful Peruvian government.

1 June CVW-4 and -12 were disestablished, followed

by the disestablishment of CVSG-51 on 30 June.

9 June Sikorsky pilot James R. Wright and copilot

Colonel Henry Hart, USMC, flying a Marine Corps CH-

53D, established a New York, N.Y., to Washington,

D.C., record for helicopters of 156.43 mph with an

elapsed time of 1 hour, 18 minutes and 41.4 seconds

from downtown to downtown. The following day they

established a New York, N.Y., to Boston, Mass., record

for helicopters of 162.72 mph with a city to city time

of 1 hour, 9 minutes, 23.9 seconds.

30 June As a result of reductions in force levels,

personnel on duty in the naval aeronautical organiza-

tion at the end of the fiscal year, in round numbers,

included a grand total of 162,600 with 25,900 officers

of whom 14,500 were pilots. Enlisted men numbered

135,900 of whom 22 were pilots. Respective figures for

Marine Aviation were: 72,000 total; 9,900 officers of

whom 5,700 were pilots; 62,000 enlisted men and 4

enlisted pilots.

1 July Naval Air Systems Command Liaison Office,

Dayton, Ohio, was disestablished. This marked the end

of an office that had its beginning in October 1920,

when the Navy detailed an aviation officer to McCook

Field to observe and report on experimental work.