264

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1967-Continued

8 June Aircraft launched from America to aid Liberty

(AGTR 5) as she was under attack by Israeli aircraft

and motor torpedo boats, were called back before

reaching their destination when a message of regret

and apology was received from Tel Aviv. Commander,

Sixth Fleet, then sent medical teams on board destroy-

ers to the scene to aid in caring for the wounded.

18 June The first scheduled winter flight to

Antarctica was successfully completed when a Navy

LC-130F of VX-6 flying from Christchurch, New

Zealand, landed at Williams Field, seven miles from

McMurdo Station. Although earlier winter flights had

been made to Antarctica as a result of medical emer-

gencies, this was the first planned flight.

30 June Naval Air Transport Wing, Pacific, was dis-

established at NAS Moffett Field, Calif.

1 July DODGE satellite was placed into orbit by a

Titan III-C fired from Cape Kennedy, Fla. DODGE (an

acronym for Department of Defense Gravity

Experiment) was developed by the Applied Physics

Laboratory under management of the Naval Air Systems

Command to provide a three-axis passive stabilization

system that could be used on satellites orbiting the

earth at synchronous altitudes. In addition to demon-

strating the basic feasibility of this form of stabilization,

Dodge carried color television cameras and on 25 July

made the first full-disc color photograph of the earth.

1 July The title of the Office of the Naval Weather

Service was changed to Naval Weather Service

Command and its mission modified to ensure fulfill-

ment of Navy meteorological requirements and the

Department of Defense requirements for oceanograph-

ic analyses; and to provide technical guidance in

meteorological matters. On the same date, the Naval

Weather Service Division, Op-09B7, was disestablished

and its functions assigned to the new command.

1 July Naval Air Propulsion Test Center, with head-

quarters at Trenton, N.J., was established by merger of

the Naval Air Turbine Test Station, Trenton, N.J., and

the Aeronautical Engine Laboratory of NAEC

Philadelphia, Pa.

19 July Air Transport Squadron Three, last Navy

component of the Military Airlift Command, was dises-

tablished at McGuire AFB, N.J., ending an interservice

partnership that began in 1948 when Navy and Air

Force transport squadrons combined to form the

Military Air Transport Service.

29 July Fire broke out on the flight deck of Forrestal

as aircraft were being readied for launch over

Vietnam. Flames engulfed the fantail and spread

below decks touching off bombs and ammunition.

Heroic effort brought the fires under control, but dam-

age to aircraft and the ship was severe and the final

casualty count was 132 dead, two missing and pre-

sumed dead, and 62 injured.

29 July The vice president announced that the Navy

Navigation Satellite System, Transit, would be released

for use by merchant ships and for commercial manu-

facture of shipboard receivers.

15 August The Aircraft Carrier Safety Review Panel

held its first meeting. Headed by Admiral James S.

Russell, USN (Ret.), the panel was appointed to exam-

ine actual and potential sources of fire and explosions

in aircraft carriers with the object of minimizing their

occurrence and damage and to propose further

improvement in the equipment and techniques used

to fight fires and control damage by explosion.

10 October Rear Admiral Albert Cushing Read, USN

(Ret.), Naval Aviator No. 24, died in Miami, Fla. Well

known commander of the NC-4 on the first flight

across the Atlantic in 1919, Admiral Read made many

contributions during his Naval Aviation career which

began in July 1915 and carried through to his retire-

ment in September 1946.

31 October Currituck, last seaplane tender in ser-

vice, was decommissioned at Mare Island, Calif., and

transferred to the Reserve Fleet.

6 November An SP-5B Marlin of VP-40 at NAS

North Island, Calif., made the last operational flight by

seaplanes of the U.S. Navy. With Commanders Joseph

P. Smolinski and George A. Surovik as pilot and copi-

lot and 15 passengers including Rear Admiral Constant

A. Karaberis on board, the flight ended seaplane

patrol operations in the Navy. For more than fifty

years, seaplanes had been a mainstay in the Navy's

enduring effort to adequately integrate aeronautics

with the fleet.

9 November Bennington recovered the unmanned

Apollo 4 spacecraft about 600 miles northwest of

Hawaii and after its 812-hour orbital flight.

1968

19 January A C-130 Hercules of VR-24 and heli-

copters from NAF Sigonella, Italy, delivered food,

clothing and medicine to the west coast of Sicily to aid