306

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1973-Contin ued

29 October The Defense Department announced

that a naval task force centering around Hancock had

been ordered to the Indian Ocean. This was prompted

by the Middle East war and the consequent Arab oil

embargo and was the first of four task groups

deployed into the Indian Ocean in 1974 to focus on

such areas as the entrance to the Persian Gulf and the

entrance to the Red Sea.

16 November Skylab IV, commanded by Lieutenant

Colonel Gerald P. Carr, USMC, and with a crew con-

sisting of Lieutenant Colonel William R. Pogue, USAF,

Bow view of Tarawa,

the first ship in the

new class of

Amphibious Assault

Ships, undelway

L.. _

and Edward G. Gibson, civilian, was launched at the

Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The scheduled 56-day

"open-ended" space flight had among its aims study of

the Comet Kohoutek, earth resources and the sun.

21 November In the first test of its full arsenal of

Phoenix missiles, an F-14 operating over the Pacific

Missile Sea Test Range, Calif., fired six Phoenix mis-

siles and guided them simultaneously at six separate

targets 50 miles away, obtaining four direct hits.

1 December The Blue Angels became the Navy Flight

Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels) and was desig-

nated a shore activity located at NAS Pensacola, Fla.

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