USS Enterprise January 14, 1969
Here are some highlights from my time on board...
In the morning of 14 January 1969, a MK-32 Zuni rocket warhead attached to an F-4 Phantom was overheated by exhaust from an aircraft starting unit and detonated, setting off fires and additional explosions across the carrier. The fire was brought under control promptly when compared with previous carrier flight deck fires, but 27 lives were lost, and an additional 314 personnel were injured. The fire destroyed 15 aircraft, and the resulting damage forced Enterprise to put in for repairs, primarily to repair the flight deck's armored plating.[8] In early March 1969, repairs to the ship were completed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the ship proceeded on her deployment to Vietnam and Tonkin Gulf.
On 14 April 1969, tensions with North Korea flared up again as a North Korean aircraft shot down an unarmed EC-121 Constellation which was on a routine reconnaissance patrol over the East Korea Sea from its base at Atsugi, Japan. The entire 31-man crew was killed. The United States responded by activating Task Force 71 to protect such flights over those international waters in the future. Initially, the Task Force consisted of Enterprise, Ticonderoga, Ranger and Hornet with a screen of cruisers and destroyers. The ships for Task Force 71 were drawn mostly from Southeast Asia duty. This deployment became one of the largest shows of force in the area since the Korean War.
In all, Enterprise made six combat deployments to Southeast Asia from 1965 to 1972.
