Ingersoll (DD 990) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 15 text:

Upon leaving San Diego, we joined up with the other escort units of Battle Group Charlie, the task group with whom we would be associated for most of our deployment. On the third day at sea we were joined by the Battle Group flagship, the USS Coral Sea (CV-43) coming down from her homeport in San Francisco, in company with the fleet oiler USS Kansas City (AOR-3) , with whom we traveled during our entire deployment. Coral Sea, one of the truly venerable ships in our Navy, was commissioned in 1946. From the carrier, our Officer in Tactical Com- mand, Rear Admiral McCarthy, Carrier Group One, could observe a task group which consisted of two guided missile cruisers, nine destroyers and two replenishment ships carrying our beans, bullets, and black oil. Also in the group for the first two months of the deployment were four Canadian destroyers and one Canadian oiler. We provided a very impressive concentration of sea power as Battle Group Charlie entered Pearl Harbor on 3 1 March.

Page 14 text:

On the morning of 22 March 1983. INGERSOLL departed on the first leg of her second Western Pacific and Indian Ocean deployment. The wet and windy weather provided an unfortunately suitable setting for an always difficult event, with the pro- spect of several month ' s separation from family and friends. 10

Page 16 text:

After a one-day port call to take on supplies and to plan tuture operations, our Battle Group departed Pearl Harbor and steamed Northwest on a patrol which turned out to be the most memorable of our deployment After a week at sea. in progressively stormier weather, our Battle Group rendezvoued with two other groups. Including the aircraft carriers Enterprise and Midway, to form Battle Force 177, the largest U.S. Navy task force to conduct a peacetime patrol in the post-World War Two era. The Battle Force consisted of 42 ships and operated south of the Aleutian Islands for approximately one week.