1965-Contin ued

18 May Members of the Naval Air Reserve began a

volunteer airlift supporting operations in Vietnam. On

weekend and other training flights from their home

stations to the west coast, Hawaii, and Southeast Asia,

these pilots and crews, flying C-54 and C-118 aircraft

of the Air Reserve, carried key personnel and urgently

needed cargo to the combat zone, logging over 19,000

flight hours in the first 18 months of the operation.

1 June The new Marine Corps expeditionary airfield

at Chu Lai, South Vietnam, 52 miles south of the major

base at DaNang, became operational as the first air-

craft arrived and the first combat missions took off

from the strip.

7 June The Gemini 4 spacecraft of J. A. McDivitt and

E. H. White splashed down in the Atlantic about 40

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UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

257

miles off target after a four-day flight. Minutes later

Navy frogmen dropped from a helicopter to attach the

flotation collar and in less than an hour after landing

the astronauts were aboard Wasp which had kept

position for possible landings in each orbit since

blastoff on 4 June.

17 June While escorting a strike on the barracks at

Gen Phu, North Vietnam, Commander Louis C. Page

and Lieutenant Jack E. D. Batson, flying F-4B

Phantoms of VF-21 and Midway, intercepted four MiG-

17s and each shot down one, scoring the first U.S. vic-

tories over MiGs in Vietnam.

17 June Independence with CVW-7 on board,

arrived at Subic Bay for duty with Seventh Fleet. Her

arrival, from the Atlantic Fleet around the tip of Africa,

added a fifth attack carrier to naval forces operating

off Vietnam.

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