CVAN-65 USS ENTERPRISE

Key Dates:

• 3 January 1968: Dudley departs Alameda in San Francisco Bay aboard USS Enterprise CVAN-65 bound for Yankee Station in Tonkin Gulf Off Viet Nam.

• 23 January 1968: Word was received of the capture of USS Pueblo by a North Korean patrol boat. A Task Group, composed of Enterprise and screen, was ordered to reverse course in the East China Sea and to run northward to the Sea of Japan where it operated near South Korea for almost a month.

• 14 January 1969: At approximately 8:19 am, 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. By the time the fire was finally brought under control 27 lives had been lost, and an additional 314 people had been injured. The fire had destroyed 15 aircraft, and the resulting damage forced Enterprise to put in for repairs.

• March 1969: Repairs to the ship were completed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

• 14 April 1969: North Korean aircraft shot down an unarmed EC-121 Constellation which was on a routine reconnaissance patrol over the Sea of Japan 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 the carriers Enterprise, Ticonderoga, Ranger and Hornet with a screen of cruisers and destroyers.

• 1970: Enterprise returned to Newport News Shipbuilding for an overhaul and her second refueling.

• 19 January 1971: She completed sea trials with her newly-designed nuclear reactor cores which contained enough energy to power her for the next 10 years. Enterprise then set sail for Viet Nam, stopping in Rio de Janiero and rounding Cape Horn before docking at Alameda in San Francisco Bay.

• 12 May 1971: Dudley was discharged in Alameda after 3 years and 9 months of active duty.