260

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1966-Contin ued

18 April In a reorganization of Naval Air Basic

Training Command schools at NAS Pensacola, Fla., the

Naval Pre-Flight School was redesignated Naval

Aviation Schools Command and six existing schools

became departments of the new command. The six

schools were: Aviation Officer Candidate, Flight

Preparation, Survival Training, Instructor Training,

Indoctrination for Naval Academy and NROTC

Midshipman, and Aviation Officer Indoctrination.

1 May A reorganization of the Navy Department

became effective which placed material, medical, and

personnel supporting organizations under command

of the Chief of Naval Operations, abolished the Naval

Material Support Establishment and its component

bureaus and in their place set up the Naval Material

Command, composed of six functional, or systems,

commands titled: Air, Ships, Electronics, Ordnance,

Supply, and Facilities Engineering.

11 May The Commanding Officer of MAG-12 pilot-

ed an A-4 Skyhawk on a catapult launch from the

Marine Expeditionary Airfield at Chu Lai, Vietnam. It

was the first combat use of the new land based cata-

pult capable of launching fully loaded tactical aircraft

from runways less than 3,000 feet long.

15 May Intrepid, operating as an attack carner

although still classified as an antisubmarine carrier

(CVS), joined Seventh Fleet carriers in action off

Vietnam. On the first day, her air wing (CVW-lO),

composed entirely of attack squadrons, flew 97 com-

bat sorties against Viet Cong troop concentrations and

supply storage areas around Saigon.

18 May The XC-142A tri-service V/STOL transport

made its first carrier takeoffs and landings during tests

conducted aboard Bennington at sea off San Diego.

The tests, including 44 short and six vertical takeoffs,

were made with wind over the deck varying from zero

to 32 knots. Lieutenant Roger 1. Rich, Jr., along with

other Navy, Marine, and Army pilots took turns at the

controls.

6 June Wasp recovered Gemini 9 astronauts Thomas

P. Stafford and Eugene A. Cernan 345 miles east of

Cape Kennedy after their 72-hour space flight on

which they made successful rendezvous with another

satellite and Cernan spent well over an hour outside

the spacecraft. The astronauts elected to remain in

their space craft during the recovery and were hoisted

aboard the carrier.

7 June A C-130 Hercules, piloted by Commander

Marion Morris of VX-6, returned to Christchurch, New

Zealand, after a flight to McMurdo Station, Antarctica,

to evacuate Robert 1. Mayfield, UT-2, who had been

critically injured in a fall. It was the third emergency

air evacuation from Antarctica during the winter night.

16 June An attack by A-4 Skyhawks and F-8

Crusaders from Hancock in an area 24 miles west of

Thanh Hoa, was the first carrier strike on petroleum

facilities since 1964 and the beginning of what became

a systematic effort to destroy the petroleum storage

system of North Vietnam.

1 July Three North Vietnam torpedo boats came out

to attack Coontz (DLG 9) and Rogers (DD 876) operat-

ing about 40 miles off shore on search and rescue mis-

sions. Aircraft from Constellation and Hancock made

short work of the attackers, sinking all three with

bombs, rockets, and 20mm cannon fire. After the

attack, Coontz pulled 19 survivors from the water.

19 July The Chief of Naval Operations established

the LHA program to bring into being a new concept of

an amphibious assault ship. Plans developed through

preliminary study envisioned a large multipurpose

ship with a flight deck for helicopters, a wet boat well

for landing craft, a troop carrying capacity of an LPH

and a cargo capacity nearly that of an AKA.

21 July A helicopter assigned to HS-3 from

Guadalcanal recovered astronauts John W. Young and

Michael Collins after their landing in the Atlantic 460

miles east of Cape Kennedy, Fla. The astronauts had

The XC-142A vertical takeoff and landing aircraft during trials

aboard Bennington NH 69968