Coral Sea (CVA 43) - Naval Cruise Book

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The morning is still young when Coral Sea ' s flight deck becomes alive with her flight deck crews checking each piece of gear. Above, the shuttle of number one catapult is greased as an F-8D Crusader is positioned for launching.

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9»i v.vixBs- vmaeiaevmi!»fsiSiivpn A plane captain wipes the salt mist from the canopy of an F-48 Phantom hours before the pilots man their air- craft . An A-3B Skywarrior receives a full load of fuel to carry out her mission as a tanker for aircraft returning to the ship low on fuel. nuBim As the early morning sun slips over the horizon, the flight deck of Coral Sea is peaceful. Aircraft sit ready for their daily pre- flight check prior to the first launch.

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Flight deck scene early in the morning before a strike. At 12:40 p.m., February 7, the word was go! Pilots had been thoroughly briefed and their aircraft were posi- tioned in their launch sequence on the flight deck. For the first time in her 18 years of commissioned naval service, Coral Sea was about to fire her first shots in anger. Precisely at 3:00 p.m., little more than eight hours after the first word of trouble, planes shot from Coral Sea ' s flight deck to join forces with aircraf ' from Ranger and Hancock. Comprising one-half of the airborne striking force Coral Sea ' s aircraft led the reprisaJ strike in a bombing run over the Dong Hoi military barracks, one of the stag- ing areas for Viet Cong infiltrators into South Viet Nam. It was the largest, single U.S. Navy air effort since the Korean War.