Hi Ron...Most of the INDEPENDENCE ship's histories ,including the one distributed at the DeCom in '98, have the wrong date for the Vietnam WESTPAC Cruise. They list it as 1964.  The correct dates were May to December 1965.   I waited in the Brooklyn receiving station for INDEPENDENCE to return from WESTPAC at the end of '65, then reported aboard in January 1966 in Portsmouth, Virginia as a JO3 to take over production in the TV studio for the upcoming MED Cruise.  I had almost 4 years experience working at ABC-TV in NY when I went on active duty.

 

    That date misinformation got into the "official ships history" in the mid 80's, probably as a typo, and has been impossible to correct.  I was aboard in '95 in Hong Kong , and pointed it out to the PAO CPO who just shrugged.  I went to the DeCom in '98 and it was repeated in a official booklet, and on the INDEPENDENCE  website.  By then it was too late for anyone to correct.

 

    The accurate dates are in the '65 Cruise Book and I've seen it correctly in numerous places...but it is wrong in most official histories I've seen.  INDEPENDENCE was in the MED in '64.  All the INDEPENDENCE  Cruise Books come up regularly  on eBay.  I left the ship in December of '67 and the last 'Welcome Aboard' booklet I wrote just before the '68 MED cruise had all the correct info.

 

    Oh Well!  I guess it only matters to us old farts who were there.  I'm at my 'winter quarters' in Florida now but when I get back to Vermont in late May I'll scan you something from either the '65 book or something from my scrapbook, that has the accurate dates.  If there are any  Radiomen on this site who were on that '65 cruise, send in your information, photos  and memories.

 

    I used to go to Main Comm every day on the '66 MED Cruise to get a printout of the Reuters Newswire for the evening newscast on WIND-TV.

 

  

 

 

 Good luck with the site.

 

Bob Ring

ex JO2

CVA-62 '66-'67