[70SATMan]

I was aboard the Enterprise for that op. We were on standby in the IO to support. We may have flown Prowlers for EW,,, can’t recall now. What I do remember is that VP Bush visited the ship the week prior to the mission. Being apprehensive as we listened to traffic in Comms during and after. The week following the mission we were ordered through the Suez to relieve the America as she was overdue and her replacement was still a month out or so.

We transited with only 2 boats from our task force. A bit nerve racking with the tensions in the area. The world gets really small with land that close on both sides.. I’ll never forget the time on deck during that,,, Passing artillery positions in the midst of ancient ruins,,, At one point, there was an older couple driving a Range Rover along the frontage road running parallel to the channel. They had stopped and were outside the vehicle holding Old Glory in the wind and waving at us nimrods on deck. After months at sea, the sand in the air got the better of me.

Once in the Med and the America relieved I was eating a late meal in the aft mess when Cap’n came over the 1MC to notify us that we had been ordered to steam directly toward the Libyan coast and cross the “Line of Death”. Yep,,,,,, used as bait with aircraft locked and loaded to see if K had learned his lesson. Evidently he didn’t have the stomach for a 2nd round.

The Arab community being pissed that we transited wouldn’t let us head back home the way we came, so it was through the Straits of Gibraltar, down around the Cape the long way to get back to the West Coast.

Did give us the opportunity to port in Italy, France which Pacific deployments never saw unless doing a World Cruise. Made for a loooong deployment but, memorable.

Then I was ‘lucky’ enough to deploy back to the IO in ‘88. Another memorable trip. They don’t call it Gonzo Station for no reason.