America (CV 66) - Naval Cruise Book

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-x ll 4 fl Commander l.C. BREAST lleftl and Commander T.N. FORTENBERRY 2- 5' L- Q' f 7 If Executive Gfficer Captain jerry C. Breast took over duties as AMERlCA's Executive Officer when he re- lieved Commander Thomas N. Fortenberry on 5 june 1976. As nearly everyone knows, the Executive Officer has practically nothing to do, except decide what is to be done, to tell somebody to do it, to listen to reasons why it should not be done, why it should be done by somebody else, or why it should be done in a different wayg to follow up to see if the thing has been done, to discover that it has not, to enquire why, to listen to excuses from the person who should have done it, to follow up again to see if the thing has been done, only to discover that it has been done incorrectlyg to point out how it should have been done, to conclude that as long as it has been done it may as well be left where it isp to wonder if it is not time to chew out a person who cannot do a thing right, to reflect that he probably has a wife and large family, and that any relief would be just as bad and probably worseg to consider how much simpler and better the thing would have been done if one had done it oneself in the first placeg to reflect sadly that one would have done it correctly in twenty minutes, and as things turned out it has taken two days to find out why it has taken three weeks for somebody to do it incorrectly. X . N 1 ' ',, , f' V 'X -Z X l,,. ll L. 1 -, an - 1 ji Y. - -3 . -- . ..--.,, ,..--4.--V 1 f , 5- WJ, WV? 4 .gf A ' ' W' ' A' Y- '- ' 11'+'-1'- ' f- -+11-w-iw--.-.ge.L.,.wL'......4z-.-.W....a.:-L5g , '..z.....,.gt5gj:z:':2f,1Qilg::-:5:.g.gf,1141211:r.'g1:'.Zr2s2-.-1-.1 'g:l:i. gIg'7'

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, ,n:--'nmmum-nmnnzws 11-.V - . . ,g - :,' ...J 3. .1.:.. .z '. '... . : '. , 1 ., :....' Commanding Officer C Capt. Robert B. Fuller Captain Robert B. Fuller became commanding Officer of AMERICA in early September while the ship was at an- chor in Palma de Majorca, Spain. Captain Fuller's experiences have included fighter and attack squadrons on both coasts, Combat Information School, Aide and Flag Lieutenant to Carrier Division Seven, Armed Forces staff college and the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Captain Fuller was serving as C.O. of Attack Squadron 76 when he was shot down in july of 1967. He was held as a prisoner of war until his release in March 1973. On August 6, 1974, Capt. Fuller became Commanding Officer of USS DETROIT KAOE-41 His decorations include the Navy Cross two Silver Stars Legion of Merit four Distinguished Flying Crosses two Bronze Stars eleven Air Medals three Navy Com mendation Medals and two Purple Hearts .fw- 1 N.4n. . ....... . 'sts ttziaez--:w:z 11sft

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4.44. I I ' ' Carrier Air Wing SIX was originally commissioned as Carrier Air Group 17 on 1 Ianuary 1943 at NAS Norfolk, Virginia. CVC-17 participated in combat operations in the Pacific during World War II against Rabaul, the Gilbert Islands, New Ireland, Marshall Islands, Truk, and the Mariannas aboard USS BUNKER HILL. CVG-17 again deployed in 1945, this time aboard USS HORNET and participated in missions against Iwo lima, Tokyo, Chichi Jima, Okinawa, and Kyushu. For actions during World War II, CVO-17 was awarded two Presidential Unit Citations. CVC-17 was redesignated as CVBG-17 and CVGB-5 before finally becoming the present Carrier Air Wing SIX on 27 july 1948. In late 1962, CVW-6 participated in the quarantine of Cuba aboard USS ENTERPRISE and in 1964 took part in Opera- tion Sea Orbit aboard ENTERPRISE. This was the around-the- world cruise of the Navy's three nuclear powered surface ships ENTERPRISE, LONG BEACH and BAINBRIDGE. V1 ' N . .5 ,kj .4-,,, , ., . , , ,f Ta.: -' f 1L1-4. ...if ,af 45.7 aff A I ilh Y 'ini' Commander, Carrier Air Wing Six Commander C.E. Skip Armstrong, Ir. In 1965, CVW-6 was assigned to USS AMERICA and partici- pated in her first cruise, a deployment to the Mediterranean. A second cruise aboard AMERICA in 1967 put CVW-6 in the Med during the Greek Crisis and May-june Middle East Crisis which culminated in the USS LIBERTY affair and the Six Day War. In 1968, CVW-6 again deployed aboard AMERICA, this time to Southeast Asia for combat operations against North Vietnam. During 112 days of combat operations, Air Wing SIX dropped over 18000 tons of ordance logged one MIG-21 kill flew 11 081 combat sorties totaling 22 592 flight hours 40 per cent of which were flown at night. Following their successful combat cruise CVW-6 and USS AMERICA were awarded the Navy Unit Commendation. During their Med cruise of 1973 ROOSEVELT and CVW-6 were in the Mediterranean during the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War. CVW-6 was reassigned to USS AMERICA in Iuly 1975 and the composition of the Air Wing was changed. VA-15 and VA-87 transitioned from the A-7B to the A-7E and VA-176 traded in their A-6 -I s for updated A-6E s. VF-41 and VF-84 were replaced by iff-142 and VE-143 flying the F-14A and VAW-121 was ref l I V QU by VAW-124 and their E-2C s. CVW-6 also gained three ni in gnu orons I-IS-15 flying Sl-I-3H 5 VS-28 flying the new 9 M s and VAO-137 flying the EA-68. CVW-6 departed Pier 12 n I5 April 1976 as one of the newest and mightiest Air Wings -fi r assembled. 27 I I I I I I l l All , f lid 1 I A I X '55 Y- O of ' I ,tn .J Gs. , X 'W I I Q ' C1 , 1 I D Jr , 1 O J . 1 3' S ,1 I 'N' . 12621. ff: - ' 'luv V- 'I .. ?7-517'-il' -i3T'5E6w..b