June 1973
As I said, the war in Vietnam wasn’t really over until the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. The US Navy decided it needed to keep up almost continuous operations in the South China Sea off Vietnam just to let them know we were still around. NCSP decided that since combat operations were not likely only the Commander Carrier Group (COMCARGRU) staff conducting operations off Vietnam would be augmented with cryptologic personnel. The COMCARGRU was always embarked in an aircraft carrier and we were dispatched from flag to the Cryptologic Division officer who owned all our cryptologic resources so no change in the environment for me. This would reduce the number of people required to support the operations as our numbers were rapidly declining with transfers to other duty stations or folks leaving the Navy altogether. We, the CT’s assigned to augment the staffs, were supposed to deploy one month out on the ships and one month back at NCSP. My turn came up on 7 June 1973. I augmented the COMCARGRU Five staff on the USS Constellation (CVA-64) until 17 June; cross decked (flew by helicopter) to the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43); cross decked again on 24 Jun to COMCARGRU Three on the USS Hancock (CVA-19) and then on 5 July back to COMCARGRU Five on the Constellation. I was back at NCSP on 17 July; a total of 40 days deployed. Not bad, pretty close to the 30 I was told and far better than the 60+ days we had been doing.
My next deployment began 27 days later on 13 August, not bad, just a little less than the 30 we were supposed to get. Time at home, that is San Miguel, had suddenly become more important to me given the relationship I had developed with Tess. I was back out with the COMCARGRU Five staff on the USS Constellation for 14 days beginning 27 August and then back at NCSP until 6 October 1973 spending 40 days ashore; great, we’re making up for lost days. I should have gotten even more days ashore as we had a new guy check in, I think his name was Jack Flint, and he was next in line to be deployed. They asked me to go out in his place so he could get his new wife over to the Philippines but would relieve me once that was accomplished. So on 6 October I headed back to COMCARGRU Three on the Coral Sea; cross decked to COMCARGRU Seven on the Hancock and got news that I wouldn’t be relieved on time because Jack had to move his wife from off base housing to on base housing. I finally got back to San Miguel on 17 December 1973 after a 70 day deployment. To make up for it, the command told me Jack had taken the open flight billet while I was deployed. I never got to meet Jack’s wife. She decided in the meantime that she didn’t like the Philippines or Jack and returned to the States.