Taken from From Southeast Asia to Southeast USA: The War as a Constant by Joe Miller:
February 18, 1966, Subic Bay, Philippines: USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) in port for one day before heading off to Japan for some time off-line. That is the day I was finally transferred from overseas duty after twelve months in Taiwan and twenty months on board the carrier. Even when the carrier was stateside, it counted as "overseas duty."
Official photo of front gate to NAS Ellyson Field.
By this time, the US now had nearly 400,000 troops in-country. Offshore naval forces had increased significantly. Where in late 1965 we had three carrier groups on station off Vietnam, we now had at least five. The 37-day bombing halt, LBJ's so-called "peace initiative," ended on January 31, 1966. The Vietnamese were being pounded day and night. It would only get worse.
I was now leaving the war zone, heading for my final duty station, shore duty with Helicopter Training Squadron Eight, based at Ellyson Field, Pensacola, Florida.... Read More
