306
UNITED STATES NAVAL AVIATION 1910-1995
1973-Contin ued
29 October The Defense Department announced
that a naval task force centering around Hancock had
been ordered to the Indian Ocean. This was prompted
by the Middle East war and the consequent Arab oil
embargo and was the first of four task groups
deployed into the Indian Ocean in 1974 to focus on
such areas as the entrance to the Persian Gulf and the
entrance to the Red Sea.
16 November Skylab IV, commanded by Lieutenant
Colonel Gerald P. Carr, USMC, and with a crew con-
sisting of Lieutenant Colonel William R. Pogue, USAF,
Bow view of Tarawa,
the first ship in the
new class of
Amphibious Assault
Ships, undelway
L.. _
and Edward G. Gibson, civilian, was launched at the
Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The scheduled 56-day
"open-ended" space flight had among its aims study of
the Comet Kohoutek, earth resources and the sun.
21 November In the first test of its full arsenal of
Phoenix missiles, an F-14 operating over the Pacific
Missile Sea Test Range, Calif., fired six Phoenix mis-
siles and guided them simultaneously at six separate
targets 50 miles away, obtaining four direct hits.
1 December The Blue Angels became the Navy Flight
Demonstration Squadron (Blue Angels) and was desig-
nated a shore activity located at NAS Pensacola, Fla.
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