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Coral Sea Fires Shots in Anger First Time in Her 18 Year Career Against North Viet Nam
On the morning of December 7,1964 Coral Sea gracefully slid under the Golden Gate Bridge departing San Francisco and beginning an adventure that she had never experienced in her eighteen year career. This unexpected experience would last for nearly one year.
Shortly after departing San Francisco Coral Sea was forced to enter the Navy yards at Pearl Harbor for major repairs to several boilers. Coral Sea remained in Hawaii for a delightful stay of many warm and sunny days enjoyed by her crew on Waikiki Beach.
On January 15,1965 change of command ceremonies were conducted on board Coral Sea. Captain George L .Cassell assumed command from Captain Pierre Charbonnet. On the following day Coral Sea departed Pearl Harbor for operations in the Western Pacific with the 7* Fleet.
On February 6,1965 Coral Sea. which was a part of Task Force 77. was notified that guerilla attacks took place against American advisor barracks in South Viet Nam. Several American military advisors were killed and a number of others were injured.
Early in the morning of February 7,1965 Coral Sea, Hancock and Ranger, all part of Task Force 77. were ordered to rendezvous at a designated point and conduct retaliatory air strikes into North Viet Nam because of these attacks. This was the largest single U.S. Navy air effort since the Korean War. This sea period for Coral Sea which began January 16,1965 would continue for 50 days. Only six months previously North Vietnamese torpedo boats fired torpedoes upon two U.S. Navy destroyers, the Turner Joy and Maddox while on patrol in the Gulf of Tonkin. Neither destroyer was hit because of evasive maneurvers taken by the destroyers. The two destroyers returned fire upon the torpedo boats and sunk two of them. Aircraft from aircraft carriers Ticonderoga and Constellation retaliated against torpedo boat bases and fuel dumps In North Viet Nam. These air strikes were total successes.
During her December 7,1964 - November 1,1965 deployment to Southeast Asia Coral Sea was named "Ship of the Year" by Our Navy Magazine. During this time her air wing flew over 10,000 sorties. This was a record number for any carrier in the U.S. Navy during a single combat deployment. Her pilots logged 16,500 launches and 15,000 arrested landings without serious incident since her departure from the U.S. mainland. The average pilot flew over 100 combat missions. Tonnage of ordnance dropped on enemy sites was over 6,000 tons. This was a much higher rate than ever before in naval aviation. Also a significant number of aviators of her air wing sacrificed their lives in this effort. Of those Include Peter Mongilardi, Jr., Harry Eugene Thomas, Kenneth Edward Hume. Edward Andrew Dickson, William Marshall Roark, Edward Brendan Shaw, David Allen Kardell, Dwight Glenn Frakes, Andrew Lee Furrer, Wendell Burke Rivers (MIA), Robert Harper Shumaker (MIA), and Charles Bernard Goodwin (MIA).
On October 2,1965 Coral Sea claimed 150,000 arrested landings in her 18 year career of which no other carrier at that time could claim. She also conducted over 150 major UNREPS and also won the Admiral Flatley Memorial Award for Naval Aviation Safety in which for five months was heavily engaged in the most intense combat operations since WWII. The Navy Unit Commendation for combat operations in Southeast Asia was also awarded to her.
When Coral Sea arrived in San Francisco on November 1,1965 a 975 foot pennant held up by helium balloons flew from the yardarm of the carrier. Coral Sea was greeted under the Golden Gate Bridge by numerous yachts and fireboats that spouted fountains of water in celebration for the famed naval aircraft carrier returning home from a lengthy combat deployment.
