266

UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995

1968-Contin ued

personnel qualified as Flight Officers. The new wings

replaced the old Naval Aviation Observers wings effec-

tive 31 December.

16 September The Department of Defense

announced that six naval air reserve squadrons called

to active duty immediately after the seizure of Pueblo

(AGER 2) would be returned to inactive status within

the next six weeks.

22 October Helicopters of HS-5 from Essex located

and recovered astronauts Walter M. Schirra, Donn F.

Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham about 285 miles

south of Bermuda and delivered them safely to the

ship. It was the end of an II-day mission in space and

the first manned flight of the Apollo program.

1 November In response to orders from the president,

all bombing of North Vietnam was halted at 2100 Saigon

time. The last Navy mission over the restricted area was

flown earlier in the day by Commander Kenneth E.

Enney in an A-7 Corsair II from Constellation.

6 November The lighter-than-air hangar

Lakehurst, N.J., was designated a National

Landmark by the National Park Service

Department of the Interior.

at NAS

Historic

of the

27 December Helicopters of HS-4 hovered over

Apollo 8 after it ended its historic flight around the

moon with a predawn splashdown in the Pacific with-

in three miles of Yorktown. At first light, astronauts

Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders

were picked up by helicopters and carried to the ship.

...

..

,"



I

SchiITa, Eisele, and Cunningham aboard recovery ship Essex after orbiting earth for 1l days in Apollo 7 NASA 68H986