Kitty Hawk (CV 63) - Naval Cruise Book

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. prH t 1981 It seemed like only yesterday we had gotten back, and here we are heading west again. It had been 13 months since the Kitty Hawk had returned from WESTPAC and the Indian Ocean. Following a couple months of repair, it was back to sea to make prepara- tions for another cruise. It all built up to April 1st and another tearful farewell. The time was filled with lots of initials — ORE, REFTRA, CARQUALS — each an underway period in the Southern California Operating Area. It was also filled with time for our families or a visit home. March was spent in San Diego, loading tons of supplies and giving equipment a final check-out prior to leaving. Everyone knew that the simple job left undone in San Diego would be a major project underway in the South China Sea or the I.O. We even managed to squeeze in some recreation, for unlike the last cruise we knew in advance that this one would include some extremely long underway periods. Our golf and tennis games would exist only in our memo- ries for the next few months. When Departure Day arrived the supplies were still being loaded, but there was a different scene going on as well. Families were here for the painful farewell scenes that would be our final time together for almost eight months. The good-byes took many forms. There was the quick peck on the cheek to the long, tearful scene that every- one seems to love to hate. Then the time come. The Officer of the Deck shifted his watch from the Quarterdeck to the Bridge and the Kitty Hawk slowly inched away from the quay wall. Families and friends craned their necks for a last look at their sailor. Within minutes, though, it was business as usual aboard the ship as we entered into another adventure, and aimed the pointy end west.

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wm The USS Kitty Hawk had her beginning as o dream come true in the year 1903. Two brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, believing that the airplane could carry a man in flight, set the wheels of destiny in motion on December 17. They successfully launched the first heavier-than-air aircraft in a small field in North Carolina. This historic event took place just outside the small town of Kitty Hawk. Many changes have token place in aviation since that initial voyage of flight 78 years ago. The Wright brothers, as remarkable as their flight was, could only manage a 12-second flight traveling 120 feet at on altitude of three feet. If the brothers had made their maiden flight on today ' s Kitty Hawk they would have to make nine trips just to travel from the bow of the ship to the stern. The gigantic size of Kitty Hawk, along with the im- pressive sight of supersonic air- craft whistling off the flight deck, in- deed tells the sto- ry of just how far aviation technol- ogy has ad- vanced in the past 78 years. The original naval ship named Kitty Hawk was a 498- foot aircraft transport used in World War II. Built in 1932 as a com- mercial ship, she was acquired by the Navy in 1941 and modified to transport aircraft. She was decommissioned in 1946 and returned to her peacetime occupation as a commercial vessel. The second Navy ship to bear the name Kitty Hawk was built in Camden, N.J., at the New York Shipbuilding Cor- poration dock. On May 21, 1960, after three-and-one- half years of construction, Kitty Hawk was launched. Fi- nally in the water, she still hod to face numerous tests before the US. Navy would accept her as port of our nation ' s fleet. On April 29, 1961, USS Kitty Hawk was declared ready for service and commissioned into the U.S. Navy. Kitty Hawk sailed out of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard OS the first aircraft carrier in the world equipped with Terrier guided missiles replacing the conventional anti- aircraft guns. Thus, from the outset, Kitty Hawk estab- lished a precedent of setting the standard for other carri- ers to follow. Traveling the route of many early explorers, Kitty Hawk steamed from the east coast in 1961 on a good will cruse around South America ' s Cope Horn to her new homeport of San Diego, California. New to the fleet and Son Diego waters, Kitty Hawk be- gan the order of the day for this newly-designated CVA as she prepared for her first Western Pacific deployment on September 13, 1962. After returning from her maiden voyage in April 1963, Kitty Hawk became President John F. Kennedy ' s floating White House. From the Hawk, President Kennedy and other top government officials witnessed a fleet weapons demonstration, an event that was covered by more than 100 newsmen. Later in 1963, Kitty Hawk left San Diego for her sec- ond WESTPAC cruise. This sec- ond deployment into the Western Pacific saw Kitty Hawk wearing the coveted Battle E signifying her as the top attack carrier in the Pa- cific Fleet for the period 1962-64. A year and two days after her re- turn to Son Diego waters, USS Kitty Hawk bid farewell to Southern Cali- fornia again as she headed for the Western Pacific on October 19, 1965. During this cruise the Kitty Hawk was awarded her first Meritorious Unit Commendation for actions in the Tonkin Gulf. Seven months passed before the combat-har- dened aircraft carrier made her appearance in home waters off the California coast in May, 1966. Kitty Hawk was not allowed to stay in her homeport for long due to the intensity of the Vietnam conflict. Heeding the call of battle, she left the U.S. on November 5, 1966. On this deployment the Kitty Hawk and Air Wing 1 1 set a record for dropping the most ordnance on enemy tar- gets from a single carrier. For her exceptional perfor- mance, Kitty Hawk was awarded her second Meritorious Unit Commendation for the period of December 1966 to April ' 67. In November 1967, after a brief stateside respite, Kitty Hawk left again for duty in Vietnam. During the 1967-68 deployment, Kitty Hawk set a record for being on the line off the coast of Vietnam for 61 consecutive days. President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded the ship the presti- gious Presidential Unit Citation for her actions on the cruise.