America (CV 66) - Naval Cruise Book

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1-E9ll?lll?'f5lllli':fEii1,iii-1? .. Ship Evaluation aboard USS GUAM and introduction of the new F-14 Tomcat fighter, the E-2C Hawkeye early warn- ing aircraft and the all jet S-3A Viking anti-submarine carrier aircraft to the At- lantic Fleet aboard USS JOHN F. KEN- NEDY in 1975. On 1 july 1973 the name of the staff was changed from Carrier Division FOUR to Carrier Group FOUR. At the present time Commander Carrier Group FOUR maintains administrative command of four Atlantic Fleet carriers: USS IN- DEPENDENCE, USS AMERICA, USS IOHN F. KENNEDY and USS NIMITZ. Thus, the commander has at his disposal an extremely potent arsenal to fulfill whatever mission may be assigned to him over, on or under the sea. The aircraft carrier remains the primary element of defense for this country on the high seas throughout the world. Carrier Group FOUR remains today, as it was in 1943, a major element in the total defense pos- ture of the United States. All is not paperwork and decision-Making: an occasional hop in AMERICA aircraft or a light-hearted farewell dinner break the routine g..t, I

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Commander Carrier Group Four I-QQ' Rear Admiral .2222-'7 . V james B. Linder 2 ' ' -,.. In The organization currently known as Commander Carrier Group FOUR was first activated as Carrier Division FOUR on 12 March 1943 as an element of the FIFTH Fleet in the Pacific. The staff saw extensive action throughout the Second World War aboard some of the most famous aircraft carriers to come out of the Pacific Theater: USS BUNKER HILL ICV-171, USS INTREPID ICV-III, USS INDEPENDENCE ICVL-223, USS FRANKLIN, USS CABOT ICVL-281, and USS LAKE CHAMPLAIN ICV-391. Carrier Division FOUR was a major participant in the Marshall Islands campaign, the Battle of Leyte C-ulfg the battle off Cape Engano, in which planes from the USS INTREPID sunk the japanese aircraft car- riers ZUIHO, ZUIKAKO, and CHIYODA: the Doolittle raids on Tokyo, the sinking of the battleship YAMATO: and the battle of Okinawa in the final drive towards the defeat of the japanese. In recent years the staff has concen- trated in two specific areas of carrier op- erations: the training and preparation of Atlantic Fleet aircraft carriers for deploy- ment, and the actual operational employment of the carriers in deploy- ment to the Mediterranean SIXTH Fleet. At one time or another the command has become involved with the training or op- eration of every carrier assigned to the At- lantic Fleet, ranging from the World War II ships USS SHANGRI-LA and USS FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT to the nu- clear carriers ENTERPRISE and NIMITZ. The Commander and his staff partici- pated actively during the Dominican crisis of 1961, the Greek-Turkish tensions of-1967 and the middle-east crises of 1967 and 1972. In the areas of new de- velopments, the command was involved with the introduction of the SH-3 helicop- ter into the fleet, the Interim Sea Control xx I2 2545

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Carrier Group Four ,,,t...N....x,-xww..x+1v'-v+X '4 CHIEF QF STAFF Q2 ...3 Captain E.B. ACKERMAN tstandingl August- present, Captain j.A. LYONS tseatedj january - August. 'i ,, K A Ln- , U ' N f ' X 2 f Gerwien HJ.