Coral Sea (CV 43) - Naval Cruise Book

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Coral Sea returns a hero Sea undergoing refresher training and short cruises designed to prepare her for her next Mediterranean deployment. Coral Sea departed Norfolk September 28, 1987 on her tenth Mediterranean deployment. As Coral Sea turned 40 on October 1, 1987 she spent her birthday in the fashion for which she was built - at sea, her engines humming, her flight deck busy with the launch and recovery of aircraft as she steamed across the ocean toward the Mediterranean Sea and her 24th deployment. During the crossing the carrier battle group joined the 22nd Marine Amphibious Ready Group KMARG 223 to mark the first time a carrier battle group and a MARG deployed simultaneously. The two groups, fifteen ships and 13,000 men conducted training exercises on the Translant. The two groups passed through Gibraltar and participated in exercise National Week 88 with ships of the Saratoga Battlegroup, USS Iowa Surface Action Group and MARG 3-87. In all, 35 U.S. ships and 25,000 sailors and Marines honed their skills. As during her first Med Cruise 40 years earlier, Coral Sea reaffirmed its role as an ambassador of goodwill when it hosted 1,700 NATO and Italian guests for a Sunset Parade in Gaeta, and Naples, Italy. The two days of fanfare included buffet-style feasts prepared by popular that almost every port visited in the Mediterranean wished to receive the ship's hospitality. Rough sea's delayed liberty boats in Cannes, but the focus was on the ship, not the shore. With the French Riviera as a backdrop, NBC's TODAY show was launched live via satellite from Coral Sea's flight deck to take America on a stem-to- stern tour of the carrier. Virtually every department on board the ship was involved with the production. The next evening the crew jammed the hangar bay to watch singerfentertainer Wayne Newton rock the ship with classic tunes from the 60's and 70's. Throughout this phase of the cruise there was a decided French flavor with port visits to Marseille and Cannes. Between visits, the battle group held training exercises with the French Navy and Air Force to test the air defense structure of France's Mediterranean coast. An arduous at-sea period, coupled with the approaching holidays made mail service a priority. Letters flooded the Sixth Fleet in response to a Dear Abby column that solicited pen pals for deployed sailors and Marines. As Coral Sea prepared to anchor in Naples for the holidays the fan mail kept flowing, as did 10,000 dozen cookies sent to the carrier's 4,300 men by the Association of Virginia Baptist Churches. The coming of January the ship's galley, close-order meant more than just ringing rifle drills by the Marine in the new year. It also meant detachment, weapons they were over the hump. exhibitions and an air power With the holidays past, the demonstration by the air wing. Mid-cruise Corrosion Control The Sunset Parade was so Audit on January 18th was a major concern. Aircrews scrubbed aircraft between flight operations, ridding them of the sea's corrosive salt. Meanwhile, in the bowels of the Ageless Warrior, engineers stoked the boilers to make the fresh water needed to clean the planes. The effort was a major success as the ship recorded one of the most successful audits ever aboard an aircraft carrier. Team spirit continued beyond the call of duty during a three-day visit to Augusta Bay, Sicily. Coral Sea's arrival during Naval Air Station Sigone1la's Orange Festival pitted her football, basketball, soccer and boxing teams against their hosts'. The ship's rugby team played diplomat while scrimmaging with Sicily's top amateur team, loosing gracefully. The ship's ambassadorial role continued as more than 1,000 local citizens toured the ship each day. 1 Having established herself as an ambassador of goodwill in the Western and central Mediterranean Sea, Coral Sea steamed for ports in the eastern Mediterranean. A five- day anchorage at Alexandria, Egypt in early February marked the carrier's return to the region where more than 30 years earlier it assisted in the evacuation of U.S. citizens during the Suez Crisis. She spent February visiting Alexandria and the eastern Mediterranean ports of Izmir, Turkey and Haifa, Israel. She' I then steamed westward fora ,T final port call at Benidorm, I Spain. I 4 After a final exercise .1 4 . iffy conducted by Commander Task Force 60 involving dual battlefr group operations with USSr,,f,i3ff, Dwight D. Eisenhower CCVNQ, i,,ri , I-Al .. aL-,9f:s?1.,.r. 3.1 .N f I i - . iww- he ehwszisafs-f-I1+?IilfI1'i' -- 1 gnng.. --4.2.L.. ' A ,,,, -,n,.,.,r.Q,.- 1 .l..--,.,,...n-rL4 ff- f f3Zi'aL..m . K rl.. - , ..4, .-.. ' ' A 5 A?

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massac es, on Libya, in Turkey. W1th mid-air refuelings, the jet returned to the shipsssafely after the six- ihour smissioni demonstrating the 4 . . . S ref long range capabilities of rCora1VSea!Air Wing 13 S s The qulet uneventful salteredon December In response to airport atfthe Rome and' airports that killed American citizens, Coral USS Saratoga CCV recalled from the steaming 1n ans The U.S. blamed r 'e posterings leader, Colonel Ghadafi. Backed he of USS America 661 March 1986, the began Freedom of in the Gulf of off the Libyan coast. A by Ghadafi Intruders from Cor Saratoga attackin four Libyan attacking on the d no grou Sea Went to by th an , D be

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7 'HWY' - ---- -A--Q.,-f-QQ.,-4 1 , D, .tm 2 -5- I . -.1-1-,f L-4 L-ww: Cb ia1eSea'sfCO1i1manding Officer, Captain f Stanley Arthur, b1owswout candles on a cake celebrating the ageless warriofs 31st birthday.