Bainbridge (DLGN 25) - Naval Cruise Book

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WORLD ' S FIRST NUCLEAR POWER TASK FORCE At 0928, 28 April 1964 BAINBRIDGE got underway for what was to be a long, sometimes trying but in the end, a very successful and satisfying deployment in the Mediterranean with the Sixth Fleet. By the time this deployment was over we had added much to our reputation as one of the finest ships in the fleet, earned the esteem of other ships in company, as well as the personal satisfaction of having done a job just OS well as we possibly could. The trip across the Atlantic is remembered for drills, drills and more drills in preparation for the exacting schedule awaiting us with the Sixth Fleet. The morning of 12 May found us at Pollensa Bay, Mollorco, where we relieved two ships and became a port of the United States Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean Sea. Number 13 would havemost definitely been an unlucky number for any would be agressor, shortly after the 13th hour of 13 May, when the 13 nuclear reactors of the United States Ships BAINBRIDGE, ENTERPRISE, LONG BEACH and the Submarine SEAWOLF, propelled into fomiation the most powerful striking force the world has ever known. The four vessels, dubbed Task Group 60.1 later proved, beyond any doubt, their superiority in all forms of naval warfare, through mock attacks on other units of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, and units of the navies of other friendly countries. By the time we hod returned to Charleston, the box-like island on the ENTERPRISE and the unusual superstructure of the LONG BEACH were so familiar that we really failed to notice them, but on that day back in May when we all joined for the first time one got the feeling that something special had happened.

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s Ceamg Charleston 0928 ■ 28 APRIL 1964 f. - ' ¥,■ if —

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