1 January According to the Maritime Administration, there were 764 vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over in the active oceangoing U. S. merchant fleet as of this date.
Japan’s Kyodo News Service reported that the U. S. military on Okinawa will begin removal of chemical weapons from Okinawa to Johnston Island on 10 January 1971.
2 January Admiral S. M. Nanda, Chief of India’s Naval Staff, said his government would soon begin building submarines and patrol craft. He said India needed a strong Navy to guard its long coastline.
3 January U. S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force aircraft flew a three-pronged bombing attack over wide areas of Indochina, concentrating on suspected enemy supply trails in Laos and Cambodia.
4 January Rear Admiral David F. Welch, Commander of the U. S. Antarctic Deep Freeze support force, arrived in Tonga for a two-day visit. He was scheduled to pay an official call on the King and Queen of Tonga.
In a television interview, President Nixon said that if the Soviet Union services nuclear-armed submarines in Cuba or from Cuba, it will risk a crisis in the Caribbean. He said aerial surveillance showed Moscow had not violated an understanding with Washington against reintroducing nuclear weapons on the island or establishing a military base there.
General Leonard F. Chapman, Jr., Commandant of the Marine Corps, said the Corps is determined to hold fast to its long tradition of tough training and discipline. He said the Corps is going to be leaner, tougher, more ready, more disciplined, and more professional than ever before.
The Polish liner Stefan Batory, the first Communist passenger ship to dock at New York in 20 years, arrived. However, because of a longshoremen boycott in protest of the “. . . brutal treatment of Polish longshoremen, Jews, and others who staged food demonstrations in Poland last month . . .” the 397 passengers were forced to carry their own luggage ashore.
5 January In a clarification of policy, the White House emphasized that President Nixon would consider it a violation of an understanding with the Soviet Union if their nuclear submarines are serviced anywhere at sea by submarine tenders operating from Cuba.
6 January The General Accounting Office said the Navy has lost over half the antisubmarine drone helicopters it purchased. The cost of the 362 lost helicopters of a total 750 bought was estimated at $45.3 million.
South Korean officials said North Korean gunboats attacked and sank a disabled South Korean fishing boat with 11 crewmen on board. There was no word on the fate of the fishermen.
The U. S. Marine Corps received the first of its newest jet close air support aircraft, the AV-8A Harrier, in the United Kingdom. The Harrier is the only operational jet in the Western world with a vertical/short take-off and landing (V/STOL) capability.
8 January Pentagon sources said that at least six Soviet cargo ships delivered about 30 jet aircraft, spare parts, and other war material to Egypt and Syria during the past ten days.
The hospital ship SS Hope sailed from Baltimore, Maryland, for the West Indies, beginning her second decade of service.
The Prudential-Grace liner SS Santa Rosa departed her Manhattan pier for the last time, ending more than a century of regular American-flag passenger steamship service out of New York.
The USS Bluefish (SSN-675) was commissioned at Groton, Connecticut.
10 January Cuba was reported to have completed the encirclement of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base with three 7-foot wire fences, one behind the other. The fences are set on a bare ribbon of land running around the base.
An anti-pollution group in Glenview, Illinois, began a campaign to have the Glenview Naval Air Station relocated in a less populated area.
11 January The New York Times reported that Secretary of the Navy John H. Chafee will fly to Culebra today to sign an agreement surrendering control over the eastern two-thirds of the 6,000-acre island and halting the firing of Walleye missiles close to inhabited areas. Firings in uninhabited areas will continue.
The Navy announced a delay in deployment of the first multiple warhead Poseidon missiles this month because of production line problems. The delay reportedly could set back deployment of the long-range missiles until spring.
Spanish Navy Minister Admiral Alfonso Baturone said the United States has agreed to lend Spain five destroyers, four ocean minesweepers, two submarines, three landing ships, an ammunition ship, and an oiler as part of the U. S.-Spanish Friendship and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1970.
Congressman Edward A. Garmatz, (Dem., Md.), reported that the tuna boat Lexington was seized by Ecuadorian patrol boats 55 miles off the coast of Ecuador, presumably for being within the 200-mile territorial limit, which is claimed by Ecuador.
13 January President Nixon signed a bill authorizing the loan of two destroyer escorts to South Vietnam and two destroyers and two submarines to Turkey. The law also extends the loan of submarines already in use by Greece and Pakistan for five years.
British Prime Minister Edward Heath, in Singapore for a meeting of Commonwealth countries, said the Soviet Navy buildup in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean impelled him to risk the breakup of the Commonwealth to strengthen Britain’s naval pact with South Africa.
14 January President Nixon signed legislation repealing the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, regarded by former President Lyndon Johnson as his authorization for U. S. intervention in Southeast Asia.
Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, U. S. Navy, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived at the Naval Air Station, Atsugi, Japan, to begin a four-day visit.
15 January Two Soviet warships, a cruiser and a destroyer, passed through waters of Singapore during meetings of British nations. One of the subjects of the meetings was the growing Russian naval presence in the Mediterranean Sea and also the Indian Ocean.
Following modernization with the latest antisubmarine warfare weapons, the USS Richard S. Edwards (DD-950) was recommissioned at the U. S. Naval Shipyard in Long Beach, California.
16 January The New York Times reported that after nearly eight years of efforts, the U. S. Navy has developed and accepted a new deep-submergence system that enables divers to carry out protracted rescue and salvage operations at ocean depths of 850 to 1,000 feet. Called the Mark I deep dive system, it can be transported on board two C-141 cargo planes, and can be quickly deployed on board any type of ship.
The amphibious command ship, USS Mount Whitney (LCC-20) was commissioned at Norfolk, Virginia.
The Archerfish (SSN-678) was launched at the General Dynamics Corporation’s Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut.
Following her modernization, the USS Worden (DLG-18) was recommissioned at Bath, Maine.
17 January The Baltimore Sun reported that the soaring cost of bunker fuel oil has set the stage for a head-on collision between the American maritime industry and the Department of Defense. The friction came from the reluctance of the Military Sealift Command to authorize increases in fixed-price contracts to civilian ship companies carrying military cargo, to cover increases in the price of fuel.
18 January The U. S. command in Saigon said that the USS Iwo Jima (LPH-2) and the USS Cleveland (LPD-7) have taken up stations off the Cambodian coast. Both were reported to be staging missions and providing support for allied forces fighting in Cambodia.
The State Department announced that the United States has suspended all military sales to Ecuador, and is considering further punitive action because of the seizure of American fishing boats.
Two tankers, the Oregon Standard and the Arizona Standard, both owned by the Standard Oil Company of California, collided in a dense fog early this morning under the Golden Gate Bridge, spilling an estimated half-million gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay. By afternoon, the resulting oil slick had spread to adjacent coastlines and as far as ten miles out to sea.
19 January Three Pennsylvania Republican legislators, Senators Hugh Scott and Richard Schweiker and Representative Lawrence G. Williams, said that they have received assurances from the Defense Department that the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard will remain in operation at least until mid-1972.
Members of the National Maritime Union began picketing foreign-flag ships loading government cargo, as part of a campaign to compel the U. S. government to use American-flag ships to carry a greater share of the cargo generated by federal foreign assistance programs.
The Grumman Aerospace Corporation announced plans to reduce its work force by 3,000 employees because of a decline in military and space expenditures as well as near-completion of several production programs. This follows the company’s 5,000-worker cutback of 1970.
Acting on the advice of his Council on Environmental Quality, President Nixon ordered a halt to further construction of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal “. . . to prevent potentially serious environmental damage.” Nearly a third of the 107-mile canal was complete, using $50 million of an overall cost of $180 million in federal funds.
20 January A South African Navy spokesman reported that a Soviet freighter, carrying a Russian guided missile fast patrol boat of the Osa-class as deck cargo, had been sighted entering the Indian Ocean.
The Chief of Naval Operations authorized 27 battle streamers with 23 Silver Stars and 33 Bronze Stars to be displayed on the flagstaff bearing the official Navy flag as a commemoration of significant events in the history of the U. S. Navy.
21 January Senator Richard Russell, (Dem., Ga.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, died at the age of 73.
President Nixon issued a memorandum to the Secretary of Defense, directing that construction of the four nuclear attack submarines, the nuclear guided missile frigate, and the six destroyers in the 1971 shipbuilding and conversion program be done in private shipyards.
22 January The U. S. Navy claimed a new world distance record when a P-3 patrol plane landed at Patuxent River, Maryland, after a 7,010-mile flight from Atsugi, Japan. Time for the flight, which topped the Soviet IL-18 turboprop record of 4,761 miles set in 1967, was 15 hours 21 minutes.
Grumman Aircraft Corporation and Navy investigators, who studied the 30 December 1970 crash of the first prototype F-14A Tomcat fighter plane, have recommended the installations of mufflers on the hydraulic pumps and replacement of the titanium hydraulic lines with stainless steel. The titanium lines cracked from vibration of the hydraulic pumps during the test flight, causing the accident.
23 January The Cook (DE-1083) was launched at the Avondale Shipyards in Westwego, Louisiana.
The USS Saginaw (LST-1188) was commissioned at the U. S. Naval Shipyard in Long Beach, California.
25 January Three people were killed and three others injured, when an undetermined number of shells exploded inside a de-activation facility at the McAlester Naval Ammunition Depot in Oklahoma.
26 January The Massachusetts Congressional delegation was advised that there will be funds to operate the Boston Naval Shipyard for only one more fiscal year, and that chances for starting the planned $100-million modernization program were dim.
Ecuador charged the United States with aggression in the dispute over American tuna fishing boats seized by the Ecuadorean Navy, and requested an emergency meeting of the hemisphere’s foreign ministers.
27 January The U. S. Navy turned over the first eight river patrol boats to the Cambodian Navy. The patrol boats were the first to be given to Cambodia under the military assistance program.
28 January President Nixon asked for a two-year extension of the draft and proposed a 50% pay raise for new recruits to achieve his goal of an all-volunteer military and an end to the draft by mid-1970s.
Litton Systems, Inc., received a $357,836,658 modification to a previously awarded contract to provide for construction of six additional Spruance-class destroyers. This constitutes the second increment of the multi-year basic contract. The original contract, awarded to Litton’s Ingalls Shipbuilding Division in Pascagoula, Mississippi, on 23 June 1970, called for construction of 30 multipurpose destroyers, with funding in five consecutive procurement increments, from Fiscal Year 1970 to FY 1974, each subject to Congressional approval.
29 January General Lewis W. Walt, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, retired after 35 years of active service.
President Nixon sent a $74.9 billion defense budget to Congress. The budget was $1.6 billion more than last year, but only 32% of the total federal budget, the smallest segment for defense since 1950. In the face of a growing Soviet Navy, naval construction was to reach the highest level since 1963.
The Smithsonian Institution commissioned a five-man submersible research vessel designed to operate in water to a depth of 3,000 feet. The vessel’s primary use will be oceanographic research along the continental shelf.
30 January Eight young Americans, including a son of the Commander-in-Chief Pacific, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr., dumped hundreds of mail sacks containing millions of letters at the doorstep of the North Vietnamese delegation in Paris. The letters demanded humane treatment for American POWs held in North Vietnam. Another son of Admiral McCain is a POW in North Vietnam.
31 January The Naval Academy announced that 39 midshipmen will sail on board ships of 17 foreign countries plus the five ships of the standing NATO fleet this summer.
In a campaign in behalf of U. S. war prisoners, a delegation from San Diego rolled out two half-mile-long petitions and delivered 12 tons of mail outside the Viet Cong’s Paris headquarters.
1 February According to the Maritime Administration, there were 727 vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over in the active oceangoing U. S. merchant fleet as of this date.
The New York Times reported that Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, faced with imminent bankruptcy, yielded to a Pentagon demand that it take a $200-million loss on the controversial C-5A jet transport as the condition for financial rescue.
Secretary of Defense Laird announced that two of the Navy’s newest nuclear-powered attack submarines will be named for Representative L. Mendel Rivers and Senator Richard B. Russell, both staunch supporters of the Services during their years in Congress.
The Glenview, Illinois, Village Board defeated a proposal to halt all jet aircraft flights at Glenview Naval Air Station.
2 February The Washington Post reported that ships of the U. S. Sixth Fleet set sail from Izmir, Turkey, cutting short a scheduled week’s visit, after anti-American demonstrations and incidents.
Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird, Draft Director Curtis W. Tarr, and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Manpower Roger T. Kelley were called before the Senate Armed Services Committee to defend a $1.5-billion package of pay raises and other benefits designed to produce an all-volunteer military by 1973. Unimpressed, Chairman John Stennis called the plan a “flight from reality.”
The USS Saint Paul (CA-73) departed San Diego, California, en route to mothballing at Bremerton, Washington.
3 February Secretary of the Navy John H. Chafee said the Navy has no civilian surveillance agency, but that the Naval Investigative Service does gather information on civilians or organizations when they “. . . pose a direct threat to the naval establishment.”
The USS Frank Knox (DD-742) was turned over to Greece in ceremonies at San Diego. The Greek government paid the U. S. $229,500 for the destroyer, which is now named Themistocles.
4 February The nuclear-powered attack submarine USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) was commissioned at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, in Vallejo, California.
The United Aircraft Corporation received a $67,940,000 fixed-price-incentive contract for J52-P-408, J52-P-8B, and TF30-P-412 engines for Navy aircraft.
5 February The Soviet news agency Tass said that Russian warships, including a submarine and an antisubmarine ship, would visit Cuban ports in February. The Defense Department confirmed that three Soviet vessels were on their way to Cuba.
The Coast Guard said that no other Soviet fishing vessels had been sighted since a cutter drove off a Russian trawler fishing off Cape May, New Jersey, on 4 February, in violation of a U. S.-U.S.S.R. pact.
The Navy announced the first successful test firing of a Condor air-to-surface missile armed with a live warhead. The missile, which was fired from an A-6 Intruder jet aircraft and guided by television, scored a direct hit on a target ship, which was out of sight from the launching aircraft.
Four helicopters from the USS Forrestal (CVA-59) rescued two passengers and 18 crewmen from the foundering Greek-owned ore carrier Flamingo, 100 miles east of Sicily.
6 February The replenishment oiler Wabash (AOR-5) was launched at the General Dynamics Corporation, Quincy Shipbuilding Division, Quincy, Massachusetts.
7 February The Baltimore Sun reported that the Military Sealift Command has revived a program to provide enough tanker capacity to meet “increasingly critical” petroleum requirements of the Defense Department The plan would have nine 25,000-ton tankers privately built to be charted to the military on a long-range basis.
8 February South Vietnamese President Thieu announced that South Vietnamese forces had entered southern Laos to attack North Vietnamese bases located along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The Navy announced that it will name a destroyer escort in honor of Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown, the first black American naval aviator, who was killed in combat during the Korean War. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
The Shipbuilders Council of America reported that Venezuelan interests were negotiating with American shipyards for the construction of seven large liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers. If completed, the agreement would provide the first ships built in American yards for export since the mid-1950s.
9 February The Washington Star reported that the Navy received the go-ahead from the administration to build a large fleet of small, cheap, high-speed vessels to trail major ships of the Soviet Navy.
11 February In a decision based on a technicality, the U. S. Navy Court of Military Review reversed the conviction of Seaman Roger Lee Priest for promoting disloyalty and disaffection among members of the Armed Forces with his militant Servicemen’s newsletter.
The United States and the Soviet Union signed the treaty barring nuclear weapons from the ocean floor. The area covers about 70% of the earth’s surface.
Admiral Zumwalt ended the practice of enlisting Filipinos to serve only as stewards in the U. S. Navy. They will now be accepted as seaman recruits and assigned ratings “. . . based on the needs of the Service, and the background and desires of the individual.”
12 February Vice Admiral William P. Mack, was selected to become the Commander of the U. S. Seventh Fleet in the Far East.
13 February The tank landing ship La Moure County (LST-1194) was launched at the National Steel & Shipbuilding Company in San Diego, California.
15 February The Chief of Naval Operations, began a visit to three Latin American countries, including Chile.
16 February Admiral John S. McCain, Commander-in-Chief, Pacific, arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a three-day visit including a tour of military facilities in West Java.
17 February The Pentagon confirmed the presence of a Soviet nuclear attack submarine in waters off Cuba.
A federal district court imposed $50,000 in fines on the captain of a Russian trawler for fishing within the 12-mile territorial zone of the U. S. The Soviet vessel was seized by the U. S. Coast Guard on 11 February about ten miles east of Kodiak, Alaska.
18 February The N. W. Ayer & Son advertising agency announced details of a $10.6-million, four-month saturation experimental radio and TV recruiting campaign to see if advertising can create an all-volunteer Army.
22 February The New York Times reported that the Defense Department will pay Lockheed Aircraft Corporation $10-million extra as an incentive award for superior work on the Navy’s Poseidon missile.
23 February In an interview in a German newspaper, Admiral Horacio Rivero, U. S. Navy, Commander, Allied Forces, Southern Europe, said that reopening of the Suez Canal would provide an “. . . enormous strategical advantage . . .” to the Soviet Mediterranean fleet. Rivero said, however, that reopening the waterway would be of no direct benefit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Lloyd’s Register of Shipping reported that world shipping tonnage launched during 1970 reached an all-time record for the fifth successive year. Japan led in construction, with 61% of the Japanese ships built for export. The United States, one of six major nations with a reduced output, was 13th.
Forty-seven U. S. and Canadian ships began Exercise Admixture, a 10-day exercise off Southern California.
The President nominated Lieutenant General Raymond G. Davis for promotion to four-star rank and assignment as Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps.
24 February Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird banned the dumping of obsolete gas and explosive weapons into the ocean. The decision was made following a request by the Secretary of the Navy, until alternative means of disposal could be studied.
The Navy disclosed that an electronic eavesdropper, developed at the Johnsville Naval Air Development Center, has been used in Southeast Asia since June 1967. Called the “Acoubuoy,” it is dropped along trails and broadcasts passing sounds to aircraft up to 20 miles away.
The General Dynamics Corporation proposed that the oil industry gamble $3-billion on a fleet of 1,000-foot long submarines to move Alaskan oil to the East Coast. Each submarine would carry 1.8 million gallons of oil to a port in Greenland or Newfoundland, where conventional tankers would pick up the oil for further transport to East Coast ports.
25 February Two motorboats landed on the beach at the U. S. Navy firing range on the island of Culebra, forcing a Colombian Navy ship to stop shelling the target area.
The Pentagon announced that the Navy’s Military Sealift Command and the Army’s Military Traffic Management and Terminal Service will be consolidated into a single agency run by the Army. The reason for merging was said to be reduced costs through the use of a single computer system for all surface movement of supplies.
26 February In a directive to the Navy, Admiral Zumwalt said that some sailors were going beyond the original intent of the relaxed grooming originally announced in 1970 in Z-grams 57 and 70. The Chief of Naval Operations clarified the rules in the new directive, on hair grooming and the wearing of certain uniforms.
27 February The visit to Valparaiso, Chile, on 28 February of the USS Enterprise (CVAN-65) was cancelled by the United States. President Salvador Allende had extended the invitation to Admiral Zumwalt during his 15 February visit to that country. The Defense Department said the cancellation was made because, if the visit were made, the ship would be unable to meet her scheduled commitments.
The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard was assigned a destroyer conversion workload that will keep the yard busy through 1973.
The Tass News Agency reported that researchers at the Soviet Research Institute of Sea Fisheries and Oceanography have designed a highly-maneuverable, two-man, underwater laboratory capable of remaining submerged for three days.
1 March According to the Maritime Administration, there were 725 ships of 1,000 gross tons and over in the active oceangoing U. S. merchant fleet as of this date.
The annual Coast Guard bill authorizing construction and acquisition was introduced by Representative Edward A. Garmatz, (Dem., Md.), chairman of the House Merchant Marine Committee. The measure provides for $99.5 million in funds.
2 March The Navy announced that its first Reserve Officer Training Corps program in Florida will begin next fall at Jacksonville State University, as part of a Navy policy to increase the number of black officers.
5 March Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird announced a major new program that will require every man entering the Armed Forces to attend classes in race relations. Laird said six-hour refresher courses will be given every year thereafter.
Rear Admiral Damon W. Cooper relieved Vice Admiral Frederic A. Bardshar as Commander Task Force 77, the U. S. Seventh Fleet’s carrier strike force.
6 March An 80-knot-plus, 100-ton surface effect ship (SES) was christened at the New Orleans Operation of the Bell Aerospace Division of Textron. The test craft program is a major phase in a long range U. S. Joint Surface Effect Ships Program Office (JSESPO) effort to determine the feasibility of building and operating 100-knot surface effect ships of the 4,000- to 5,000-ton class.
The amphibious transport dock USS Trenton (LPD-14) was commissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington.
7 March British ship officers and maritime officials have charged that standards of seamanship in the English Channel are lax, especially among flag-of-convenience ships. The charge came after the loss of three freighters and 53 lives in seven weeks in the narrow, busy Channel.
8 March In an interview with C. L. Sulzberger of The New York Times, President Nixon was quoted as saying: “. . . I seriously doubt if we will ever have another war. This is probably the very last one.”
9 March In testimony before the House Merchant Marine Committee, Maritime Administration spokesmen, Andrew E. Gibson and Commander Steven Lazarus, U. S. Navy, said the nation’s logistic sealift capacity will be unable to meet military requirements in 1975 should a major contingency develop in Asia.
Secretary of Defense Laird submitted a five-year program to Congress which, among other things, called for a billion-dollar program to more than double production of the new supersonic fighter, the F-14 Tomcat, to replace the F-4 Phantom II.
10 March An Ecuadorian warship fired several warning shots to halt the U. S. Navy cargo ship USNS Wyandot (T-AG-283) near the Galapagos Islands, but the ship was not damaged. The incident was apparently connected with the feud over tuna fishing areas.
The British Ministry of Aviation Supply was issued a $47,160,000 letter of offer, which it accepted, for Fiscal Year 1971 procurement of Harrier aircraft for the U. S. Marine Corps.
12 March Several sailors were injured in a series of fights involving black and white enlisted men at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center enlisted men’s club.
The USS Billfish (SSN-676) was commissioned at the U. S. Naval Submarine Base at Groton, Connecticut.
General Raymond G. Davis became the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps. The Medal of Honor winner was promoted to four-star rank at the same time.
13 March After undergoing extensive modernization, the guided missile frigate USS Dewey (DLG-14) was recommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
16 March As an alternate proposal to transferring most sealift logistic functions to an existing Army agency, as originally announced on 25 February, Deputy Defense Secretary David Packard directed the three Armed Service secretaries to merge all surface transportation procurement functions into a single new agency which would report directly to the Secretary of Defense.
17 March The General Accounting Office reported that Defense Department contractors earn “significantly lower” profits on their defense sales than on their commercial work. It said, however that current contracting procedures militate against industry measures to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
In testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee, Secretary of the Navy John H. Chafee warned that “. . . currently planned shipbuilding programs will not arrest obsolescence . . .” of some portions of the U. S. Navy’s Fleet. He also noted that during FY 1971, active ship levels will decline from 769 to 710 ships. This is the lowest level since 1950.
18 March Testifying before a House Appropriations Defense subcommittee, Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard said that Russia has reached “a rough overall parity” with the United States in strategic nuclear capacity. He said that the United States is ahead of the Soviets in most, if not all, areas of technology, but that the number of Russian research and development projects are going up, while those of the United States are going down.
The United States and Australia agreed on the establishment of an Omega navigation system base, costing more than $11.2 million, in the Bass Strait between the Australian mainland and Tasmania.
20 March The ocean escort ship McCandless (DE-1084) was launched at Avondale Shipyards, Inc., in Westwego, Louisiana.
21 March Tass reported that Russia is setting up its sixth scientific station in Antarctica. It will be called Leningradskaya.
22 March The Navy announced the establishment of new Reserve Officer Training Corps units beginning next fall at Savannah State College, Savannah, Georgia, and at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The student bodies of both schools are predominantly black.
Unsubsidized shipping interests asked the Maritime Administration for an emergency hearing on their argument for withholding federal operating subsidies on the transport of military cargo from the lines that receive the subsidy. The unsubsidized lines argue that the subsidy permits subsidized lines to offset losses on their below-cost bids, thus threatening the existence of the unsubsidized lines.
23 March West Germany announced plans to buy more Phantom jets from the United States to fill the gap in its air defenses in the late 1970s. No exact figures were made, but it is expected to be between 175 and 220 of the stripped-down F-4E(F) version, to be used as one-man fighters and fighter-bombers. The Defense Ministry has already ordered 88 RF-4E Phantoms, the reconnaissance version of the McDonnell Douglas aircraft. The first aircraft in the more than $1-billion new order are expected to be delivered in 1974 or 1975.
24 March President Nixon revealed that he is rescinding an order that would have closed the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in New Hampshire in 1974. The order reverses a 1964 decision made by then Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara.
26 March The ocean escort ship USS Harold E. Holt (DE-1074) was commissioned at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California.
The Secretary of Defense announced that the Commander, U. S. Second Fleet, Vice Admiral Gerald E. Miller, will be reassigned as Commander, U. S. Sixth Fleet.
27 March The U. S.-flag tanker Texaco Oklahoma broke up and sank 120 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Twenty crewmen were listed as missing. Eleven were rescued by the Coast Guard. The ship was on her way to Boston from Port Arthur, Texas.
The dock landing ship USS Pensacola (LSD-38) was commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard in Massachusetts.
The tank landing ship USS San Bernardino (LST-1189) was commissioned at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California.
29 March Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said that the Soviet fleet in the Southeast Asian area could be a useful counterweight against both China and Japan.
The USS Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631) launched her first Poseidon missile, making her the fourth submarine to fire the multiple warhead missile at sea.
30 March The Washington Post reported that the Navy has decided to speed up its efforts to develop an antisubmarine mine for use against enemy subs in narrow points, such as port entrances and straits.
The Department of Defense agreed to two industry-recommended changes, which would provide steamship lines with a surcharge on military cargo if bunker fuel oil costs continue to climb. It would also make any recall of commercial ships for defense use during emergencies, short of full-scale war, subject to the joint approval of the Secretaries of Defense and Commerce.
A Washington Star report of an interview with Rear Admiral Thomas D. Davies, Chief, Naval Development, said the Navy has embarked on a crash program to improve the Knox-class destroyer escorts. At a cost of $1-million per ship, the program will provide for surface-to-surface missiles, a manned helicopter, and a superior new device for finding submarines. Admiral Davies also said the Navy intends to install a surface-to-surface version of the Standard missile on the Asheville-class gunboats.
31 March Reuters reported that construction has begun on the joint Anglo-American air and radio communications base on the remote Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia.
Singapore assumed full control of the British Royal Air Force’s Seletar Air Base.
1 April According to the Maritime Administration, there were 718 vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over in the active oceangoing U. S. merchant fleet as of this date. The total U. S.-flag merchant fleet decreased by 20 to 1,516.
The Chicago Tribune reported that the Navy has modified an existing antiaircraft missile for use as a surface-to-surface or ship-to-ship missile. The missile is viewed as a stopgap measure to catch up, at least for the present, with the Soviet Navy.
The Washington Post reported that Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird has decided that the Navy will stop using live shells or explosives of any kind in target practice on Culebra after January 1972, and will give up the island entirely by June 1975. The decision was announced by Puerto Rico’s Governor Luis Ferre.
Secretary of the Navy John Chafee announced that Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover will stay on active duty for another two years. The Navy’s top nuclear power expert was officially placed on the retired list seven years ago, but has been given active duty extensions since that time.
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Chief of Naval Operations, announced a program to improve education, job training, promotions, and recruitment of blacks in the Navy. The goal of the program is to transform the Navy into a “mode of equal opportunity” by 1976.
The U. S. Navy announced that the homeport for the U. S. Seventh Fleet will remain in Yokosuka, Japan, and will not be moved to Sasebo, Japan, as previously announced.
The Navy announced that the USS James Madison (SSBN-627) departed Charleston, South Carolina, for her assigned secret station. She is the first U. S. submarine to go to sea armed with missiles carrying multiple nuclear warheads.
Reports that a German U-boat, the U-166, which sank near New Orleans, Louisiana, during World War II, has drifted to within 30 miles off Tampa, Florida, have whetted the interest of fortune seekers. It has, however, caused concern among government officials because of the possibility of spilling some of the 100,000 pounds of elemental mercury that is thought to be on board the submarine.
3 April The Pentagon announced that the Navy will send four destroyers, the USS Rich (DD-820), USS Steinaker (DD-863), USS New (DD-818), and USS William W. Wood (DD-715), on a six-day routine operation into the Black Sea beginning on 16 April.
The ammunition ship Shasta (AE-33) was launched at Pascagoula, Mississippi.
6 April The Defense Department has ordered the Army to stop spending money on radio and television advertising until it has evaluated the current $10.6 million campaign to sell an all-volunteer Army to young men.
7 April The Washington Post reported that rising costs on the Navy’s new swing-wing F-14 fighter are expected to increase the price per plane by at least $1 million above the $11.5 million earlier cost estimate.
8 April The Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Raymond Davis, said that the diminishing number of U. S. troops remaining in Vietnam will be protected by Marine units on board Navy ships. He said that if there is a serious threat, Marines could go to their aid in 30 minutes. He added that the Third Marine Division on Okinawa could be back in Vietnam within five hours if U. S. forces are threatened.
The Grumman Aerospace Corporation said that it expected to make a profit on its present contract to produce 38 F-14 fighters for the Navy, but acknowledged that it faces losses on subsequent production contracts without a price increase from the Navy.
The faculty at Northwestern University’s College of Arts and Sciences has voted to reinstate credit for four Navy ROTC courses, reversing a no-credit decision made last spring.
The White House announced that the President nominated Vice Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., for appointment to the grade of admiral and assignment as the Chief of Naval Material. He is presently serving as Commander, U. S. Sixth Fleet.
9 April The Defense Department announced that the Military Sealift Command hydrographic survey ship, USNS Kellar (T-AGS-25), will make a three-day port visit to the Soviet Union beginning 12 April. The visit to Nakhodka, in the Sea of Japan, will be the first for an American ship to Russia in eight years.
The Defense Department reported the departure of the Soviet submarine tender that had been in Cuban waters since mid-February. The ship was reported in mid-Atlantic headed East.
10 April The ocean escort ship USS Marvin Shields (DE-1066) was commissioned at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington.
11 April Three escort vessels of the Soviet Black Sea fleet sailed through the Turkish straits en route to the Mediterranean. They were identified as Mirka-class ships.
In a telegram to Defense Secretary Melvin R. Laird, the American Maritime Association requested that the Defense Department leave ocean transportation procurement functions for the movement of defense cargo with the Military Sealift Command, rather than transfer them to the Army.
12 April A 160-foot North Vietnamese trawler was sunk as she tried to slip through a surveillance line at the southern tip of South Vietnam. Two U. S. Coast Guard ships, a U. S. Navy gunboat, and a South Vietnamese patrol craft, as well as two U. S. Navy aircraft took part in the sinking.
The U. S. Command in Vietnam said a Navy fighter-bomber attacked an enemy missile site about 30 miles north of the Demilitarized Zone in a “protective reaction” strike. Results of the strike were not known.
13 April Secretary of Defense Laird said that U. S. ships and planes will remain on duty in Southeast Asia after American ground troops had been withdrawn from Indochina.
The Navy and the Maritime Administration announced that they will reestablish a joint planning group to evaluate and coordinate future ocean shipping requirements in the event of a national emergency.
14 April The U. S. Marine Corps all but ended its connection with the Vietnam War, with the deactivation of the Third Marine Amphibious Force at DaNang.
15 April The Baltimore Sun reported that the Navy has made a bid to Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard to take over control of military waterfront terminals now operated by the Army. This is in addition to the continuing argument against a Pentagon proposal to shift most of the ocean transportation procurement functions from the Military Sealift Command to an Army agency.
17 April The destroyer USS Manley (DD-940) was recommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard after modernization.
The dock landing ship Mount Vernon (LSD-39) was launched at General Dynamics Corporation’s Quincy Shipbuilding Division at Quincy, Massachusetts.
20 April The hydrofoil gunboat USS Tucumcari (PGH-2), began a series demonstrations to NATO in Northern Europe, with Copenhagen the first stop. An example of advanced hydrofoil technology, the Tucumcari was scheduled, the next several months, to operate win NATO navies in exercises designed to demonstrate her speed, maneuverability, and sea-keeping capabilities in heavy weather.
21 April Nearly 100 containers of military cargo were reported tied up in Norfolk, Virginia, because of a jurisdictional labor dispute between the International Longshoremen’s Association and the Navy over the use of Civil Service longshore gangs to load containers at Norfolk.
Reuters reported that the U. S. Pacific Fleet has sent an aircraft carrier, four destroyers, and a submarine into the Indian Ocean for antisubmarine warfare exercises.
The Secretary of the Navy announced the formation of the Navy Recruiting Command as a field activity under the Chief of Naval Personnel.
23 April Six U. S. warships, including an aircraft carrier, ended a five-day antisubmarine training exercise in the Indian Ocean. It was the first appearance of a sizeable number of U. S. Navy ships in the Indian Ocean in nearly seven years.
The New York Times reported that, in the absence of an international authority on exploitation of seabed resources, the Soviet Union and its allies have agreed on an ambitious program of surveys and extraction of valuable minerals from the ocean floor.
24 April In a copyrighted interview, Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird indicated that he will resign his cabinet post in 1973.
A Maritime Administration official, F. Scott Dillon, chief of the office of ship construction, strongly criticized Litton Ship Systems Division of Litton Industries at Pascagoula, Mississippi, for trying to staff an entirely new shipyard with managers unfamiliar with shipbuilding.
The Manchester Guardian reported that the Royal Navy spent $13.2 million on development of a torpedo which does not work, and now the program has been abandoned. It also said that the British government is trying to buy a replacement in the United States.
The ocean escort ship USS Joseph Hewes (DE-1078) was commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard.
The ocean escort ship Bagley (DE-1069) was launched at the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company at Seattle, Washington.
25 April The London Sunday Telegraph reported that Communist China is preparing four Soviet-built submarines for duty in the Mediterranean. The paper said that the submarines, of the Whiskey-class, will carry Chinese crews, but will sail under the Albanian flag.
26 April The Defense Department said that for the last two months North Vietnam has been sending MiG-21 fighters over Laos to harass American planes operating against the Ho Chi Minh supply trail.
27 April The Defense Department postponed indefinitely plans to build a fourth nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. The reason given for delaying construction of the $640-million warship was budgetary limitations.
28 April Vice Admiral Hyman G. Rickover charged that many defense contractors regularly refuse to comply with the 1962 Truth in Negotiations Act, which requires firms to supply cost and pricing information so that government negotiators can determine legitimate charges and profits on defense contracts. He blamed the Defense Department for failing to enforce the act.
The Navy said it has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against local longshore leaders in Norfolk, Virginia, where dock workers have refused to handle containers packed by Civil Service employees.
The Navy announced the selection of 49 new rear admirals. Among them were the first black admiral in the Navy, Captain Samuel L. Gravely, Jr., and America’s first man in space, Captain Alan B. Shepard, Jr. This was the largest group ever selected for promotion to rear admiral.
The General Dynamics Corporation at Groton, Connecticut, received a $13,800,000 letter contract for design, engineering, planning, and support services for the undersea long-range missile system (ULMS) submarine development.
29 April U. S. Navy aircraft tangled with North Vietnamese MiGs over North Vietnam for the second time in six days.
1 May According to the Maritime [A]dministration, there were 720 vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over in the active oceangoing U. S. merchant fleet as of this date. The total U. S.-flag merchant fleet decreased by 21 to 1,495.
For the sixth time in the last three years, the Air Force grounded all its F-111 fighter-bombers, after discovering a fatal and possible widespread flaw in the pilot escape system.
The hospital ship USS Sanctuary (AH-17) sailed from DaNang harbor, closing out four years of duty in the Vietnam war zone. Officials said the 27-year-old ship would be retired upon her return to the United States.
The fast automatic replenishment ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-29) was commissioned at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, Virginia.
2 May The Washington Post reported that the U. S. Navy expects to complete its Vietnamization program by mid-1972, but that American naval advisers would remain in Vietnam. The Navy now has 13,200 men in Vietnam compared to a peak strength of 36,500 in 1969.
3 May Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Kure, Japan, launched the world’s largest supertanker, the Nisseki Maru. The vessel has a length of 1,130 feet, a beam of 180 feet, and a draft of 88 feet. She has a capacity of 372,400 tons—nearly 50,000 tons more than the Universe Ireland, previously the world’s biggest ship.
4 May Chile announced that it would resume participation in the joint inter-American naval exercises with the United States in September 1971 after a one-year absence.
The South Korean Defense Ministry reported that a North Korean vessel fired on a South Korean coast guard patrol boat off Inchon, killing one policeman and wounding another.
5 May The Baltimore Sun reported that the Navy is turning a large portion of the U. S. Seventh Fleet Amphibious Force into cargo-carrying freighters to save the cost of chartering commercial ships as American involvement in Southeast Asia winds down. The Navy estimated that it had saved $15.6 million in the last two years by using its ships rather than commercial freighters and planes.
The destroyer USS Hanson (DD-832) collided with a Soviet tug in the Korea Strait, 80 miles from the Japanese coast. The vessels received only minor damage and there were no injuries.
6 May The Coast Guard sent a helicopter to the aid of an injured Soviet seaman on board a Russian fishing factory ship at sea. He was airlifted from the Soviet ship Trudovaja Slava, 42 miles southeast of Nantucket.
7 May The Defense Department said it has decided to build only three of the five previously-approved nuclear-powered, guided-missile frigates. A significant increase in the cost of the program, the limitation on shipbuilding funds, and other high priority needs were given as reasons for the decision.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Admiral Zumwalt wants smaller, faster ships, heavily armed with anti-ship missiles, which will carry helicopters and vertical takeoff planes. Navy planners were said to favor building a big fleet of missile-armed hydrofoil vessels.
The Department of Defense announced selection of the Boeing Company, Vertol Division, to conduct the first phase of the development of a heavy lift helicopter (HLH). Responsibility to develop the helicopter, which is to meet the heavy lift, shore-based requirements of all the Services, has been assigned to the Army, with Navy participation in the program.
8 May Admiral Zumwalt cited the need for an extremely austere 12,000-ton ship for launching helicopters and vertical take-off warplanes, which would provide greater “. . . mobility to respond with a credible force over wider areas.”
10 May The Washington Post reported that Secretary of the Navy John H. Chafee is not satisfied with information he has received from Grumman Aircraft Corporation concerning problems with the F-14 fighter, and has sent Rear Admiral Albert H. Clancy, Jr., to monitor the situation.
The North Atlantic alliance’s Mediterranean air-naval command reported that the number of Soviet surface ships in the Mediterranean increased in the past month from 39 to 43. The number of submarines grew from nine or ten to ten or 12.
11 May A bipartisan Congressional group, Members of Congress for Peace Through Law, headed by Senator Mark O. Hatfield (Rep., Ore.) has recommended cancellation of the F-14 and substitution of the F-4M, calling the proposed fighter a mediocre plane. The group also recommended cancellation of the Phoenix defensive missile.
Captain James A. Lovell, U. S. Navy, resigned from the astronaut corps, but will continue working at the lunar science office at the Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston, Texas.
The Copley News Service reported that NATO sources said the Soviet Navy is testing a new triple-threat guided missile ship, a 3,000-ton destroyer that could be the fastest surface ship in the Russian fleet. The 40-knot plus gas-turbine destroyer, known as the Krivak class by NATO, was first spotted undergoing sea trials in the Baltic in December 1970.
The USS Ulysses S. Grant (SSBN-631) launched two Poseidon missiles while cruising submerged in the Atlantic off Cape Kennedy. The Navy reported that both launches, toward a target more than 2,000 miles downrange, were successful.
14 May The South Korean Navy and Air Force sank a North Korean spy boat below the east coast border before dawn, South Korean President Park Chung Hee said.
15 May The 16,168-ton Liberian tanker Maurice, loaded with highly explosive fuel, ran aground in the English Channel, and a Norwegian tanker later collided with another ship in the same area as the first mishap.
The Barbour County (LST-1195) was launched at the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company Yards at San Diego, California.
The USS Pogy (SSN-647) was commissioned at the Ingalls Nuclear Shipbuilding Division, Pascagoula, Mississippi.
16 May The New York Times reported that, for the first time, China is producing a jet fighter of its own design. The twin-jet fighter is based on the MiG-19 design, but said to be more advanced. It has been designated the F-9 by American analysts.
Bethlehem Steel Corporation formally dedicated the largest shipbuilding basin in the United States. The $15-million facility will enable Bethlehem to build 300,000-ton vessels at its Sparrows Point Shipyard near Baltimore, Maryland, a four-fold increase in the yard’s capacity.
17 May The Baltimore Sun reported that the special Navy task force stationed in the Sea of Japan following North Korea’s capture of the USS Pueblo in 1968 has been reduced to two destroyers. Naval officers were said to attribute this mainly to the withdrawal of American naval units from the Vietnam war zone.
Reuters reported that a U. S. nuclear submarine armed with Poseidon missiles arrived at the Holy Loch base in Scotland last week.
18 May Deputy Defense Secretary David Packard arrived in Athens on a four-nation Mediterranean tour to assess the recent increase of the Soviet fleet’s force in the Mediterranean and the possible consequence on the allied forces in the area.
19 May The Bureau of Naval Personnel said that naval officers will soon be graded on their ability to deal with members of minority races. The new category will be added to fitness reports.
The Associated Press reported that the U. S. Marines have closed out tactical operations in South Vietnam. The 7,000 to 8,000 Marines remaining in the DaNang area were said to be involved in shipping equipment out of Vietnam and other non-combat activities connected with the withdrawal.
20 May Undersecretary of the Navy John W. Warner told the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee that the return of U. S.-flag passenger ships would improve the strategic mobility posture of the United States.
Two American lobster boats reported that Soviet fishing vessels were endangering their boats and damaging their fishing gear by “. . . zigzagging varied courses at various speeds, deliberately destroying [the] gear.”
21 May Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird said that it will not be long before the Navy has a lady admiral.
The USS Midway (CVA-41) has returned to the Indochina war after more than five years in the shipyard undergoing extensive modernization.
22 May The Soviet Union announced that a submarine and an auxiliary vessel would visit Cuban ports later in May. The report said the ships, now on a training cruise in the central Atlantic, would take on supplies and give the crews liberty.
The Donald B. Beary (DE-1085) was launched at the Avondale Shipyards, Inc., Westwego, Louisiana.
The USS Luce (DLG-7) was recommissioned at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard after modernization.
The USS Bowen (DE-1079) was commissioned at the Boston Naval Shipyard.
23 May The Chief of Naval Operations, said in an interview that it will take major pay increases, perhaps more than the $1.2-billion proposed by the President, to achieve an all-volunteer military force.
24 May The Pentagon announced plans to beef up the U. S. Sixth Fleet in response to growing Soviet naval power in the Mediterranean. It was reported that the size of the Fleet is not to be increased, but new ships and new planes are planned.
Five months after the Navy’s first F-14 fighter crashed on its second flight, a sister plane got the program back into the air with a 58-minute test flight.
27 May The federal district court in Norfolk ordered members of a Hampton Roads local of the ILA to resume handling containers loaded with military cargo that were packed by Civil Service dock workers, pending a National Labor Relations Board hearing on Navy charges that the five-week boycott constituted an illegal secondary boycott.
The Lockheed Aircraft Corporation of Sunnyvale, California, received $123,635,471 on a cost-plus-incentive-fee letter contract for Poseidon fleet ballistic missile production.
28 May The United States announced new measures to strengthen the U. S. Sixth Fleet. Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird said Fleet readiness would be improved by almost continuous presence of a helicopter carrier, and by a substantial increase in the hours flown by maritime air patrols and the ship-operating days of sea patrols.
29 May The Department of Defense said that a Russian Echo II class nuclear submarine had been sighted in Cuban waters.
31 May The total numerical strength in the Navy as of this date was 624,902 as compared with 695,098 on the same date in 1970. The Marine Corps figures were 217,358 and 264,702 respectively.
1 June According to the Maritime Administration, there were 701 vessels of 1,000 gross tons and over in the active oceangoing U. S. merchant fleet as of this date. The total U. S.-flag merchant fleet decreased by 16 to 1,479.
Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard asked the Secretary of the Navy to re-examine development and production plans for the F-14 aircraft, in light of the increased costs of the aircraft.
The U. S. Sixth Fleet commander. Vice Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, Jr., arrived in Split, Yugoslavia, on board the flagship USS Springfield (CLG-7), for a three day goodwill visit to the Yugoslavian Navy.
3 June The British Defence Ministry announced that Britain will buy more than $120-million worth of French Exocet surface-to-surface missiles for the Royal Navy.
Antara, the official Indonesian news agency, reported that the Indonesian Navy sank an unidentified foreign ship it claimed was carrying arms for Communist rebels in Kalimantan, Borneo.
The New York Times reported that Portugal has plans for a shipyard to build supertankers as large as 700,000 tons. Scheduled for completion in 1973, it will be the only shipyard outside Japan able to build such big vessels.
4 June A new 3,000 to 4,000-ton Soviet warship, called the Krivak class by NATO, passed through Danish waters into the North Sea from the Baltic Sea. The new ship, combining missiles with conventional weapons, has been operating in the eastern parts of the Baltic, but this is the first time one of them has been reported venturing onto the high seas.
United Press International reported that NATO’s Special Surveillance Command said that the Soviet Navy now has 44 surface vessels and 12 to 14 submarines in the Mediterranean. The helicopter carrier Leningrad is one of the ships.
The Washington Post reported that U. S. aerial intelligence has spotted what appears to be construction of Communist China’s first nuclear-powered submarine. Although still in the early stages of construction, officials say her hull is larger than any ever built in Chinese shipyards.
An $83.8-million shipbuilding contract—the second to be awarded under the President’s 10-year program to revitalize the American Merchant Marine—was announced. The contract covers the construction of three lighter-aboard-ship (LASH) vessels for the Waterman Steamship Corporation by Avondale Shipyards, Inc., of New Orleans.
The Silversides (SSN-679) was launched at General Dynamics Corporation’s Electric Boat Division in Groton, Connecticut.
The USS Boulder (LST-1190) was commissioned at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California.
5 June The hydrofoil gunboat USS Flagstaff (PGH-1) fired a 6-inch gun while skimming over the water’s surface at speeds of up to 51 knots in a demonstration off the coast of California.
7 June Three American Servicemen, two sailors and a Marine, were injured when racial violence erupted in a bar district of Yokosuka, Japan.
The nuclear submarine USS John C. Calhoun (SSBN-630), cruising 30 miles east of Cape Kennedy, fired a multiwarhead Poseidon missile on a 1,500-mile test flight. It was the Calhoun’s second Poseidon launching and the 15th submerged firing of the 34-foot missile.
The U. S. Justice Department filed suit against the owner of the Norwegian tanker Tiberius for allegedly spilling approximately 550 gallons of oil into Casco Bay at South Portland, Maine.
8 June The Navy announced that the USS Shelton (DD-790) is undergoing an investigation at a Japanese port following reports of widespread use of drugs on board.
President Nixon accepted the resignation of Assistant Secretary of the Navy Charles A. Bowsher, effective 30 June.
9 June Some 859 midshipmen were graduated at the U. S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. The speaker was Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., Chief of Naval Operations.
Marine Industries, Ltd., of Montreal, signed a $125-million order to build 12 multipurpose container ships for two French concerns. The Canadian government described the order as “. . . the largest commercial shipbuilding agreement . . .” in Canada’s history.
Some 211 midshipmen were graduated from the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, New York. John W. Warner, Undersecretary of the Navy, was the speaker.
A Soviet freighter was seized in San Francisco as security for a $377,000 damage suit filed by a Massachusetts company who said Russian trawlers damaged its lobster fishing equipment.
The National Maritime Research Center, the first research center in the United States to be devoted specifically to improving commercial shipping operations, was dedicated at the U. S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point.
11 June Soviet Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev offered to negotiate a mutual limitation of naval forces with the United States, specifically mentioning the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. It was the first time the issue of naval fleets was included in the current Soviet-American disarmament negotiations.
13 June Soviet Defense Minister Andrei A. Grechko and Admiral Sergei G. Gorshkov, Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy, visited the Soviet naval squadron in the Mediterranean over the weekend. They were believed to be the highest ranking persons ever to review this naval force.
14 June Newsweek reported that Defense Secretary Laird and Navy officials were dismayed to find that Allied warships in the Mediterranean spend an average of only 30 days a year at sea. The U. S. Sixth Fleet averages about 200 days annually. The Allies say their long stays in port are to save fuel and other operating costs.
The Soviet newspaper Izvestia reported that American ships and planes kept constant watch on a cruiser carrying the Soviet defense minister, Andrei Grechko, during his weekend visit to the Soviet fleet in the Mediterranean.
The Chief of Naval Operations announced that the enlisted men’s uniform will be replaced by an officer-style uniform. Several other uniform announcements, including replacement of the service dress khaki with a summer-weight service dress blue uniform, were also made.
15 June The Soviet freighter seized on 9 June in San Francisco as security in a damage suit by Massachusetts lobstermen, was freed by court order and sailed for Japan. A U. S. District Court ruled that the seizure was improper.
16 June The creation of the National Maritime Council, a joint industry-labor-government organization to promote more cargoes for U. S.-flag merchant ships, was announced. Including leading representatives of shipping lines and shipyards, seagoing and shoreside maritime labor, and the Maritime Administration, the new group will undertake national and regional programs to persuade shippers to increase their patronage of U. S. ships.
19 June The Assembly of the Western European Union urged the NATO Council to improve Allied defense capabilities in the Mediterranean in view of the Soviet naval build-up. It also asked the Council to press France to return to a full role in NATO.
21 June In testimony released this date, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that the strategic balance of nuclear weapons has shifted drastically to the Soviet Union in the last five years.
The Navy selected McDonnell Douglas Corporation to develop the Harpoon anti-ship missile system. The initial contract will be for about $60 million for development and demonstration work over the next two years. Successful completion of the initial phase would lead to production in about four years.
23 June The Robert E. Peary (DE-1073) was launched at the Lockheed Shipbuilding and Construction Company yard at Seattle, Washington.
The New York Times reported that the Defense Department decided to force the Grumman Aerospace Corporation to produce 48 more F-14 fighters despite company protests that inflationary pressures would make such a move commercially impracticable.
25 June The Norfolk Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Corporation was awarded a $5,925,050 firm-fixed-price contract for construction of a 1,135-ton patrol escort ship, the F-PF-108, for transfer to Thailand on completion.
26 June The USS England (DLG-22) was recommissioned at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine.
27 June The Navy announced the creation of a West Coast branch of the Bureau of Naval Personnel in San Diego. The purpose of the new “people” branch is to insure that Navy commands follow the spirit of the Z-grams.