Three More Far East Tours of Duty
From 1956 until late 1964 Loyalty sailed on three WestPac cruises; performed special operations in 1962 during the nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean; and exercised off the California coast perfecting the techniques of modern mine warfare. She also performed sonar searches for downed aircraft. Her service with the powerful U.S. 7th Fleet was climaxed during her 1964 cruise. Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident when North Vietnamese torpedo boats attacked U.S. destroyers in international waters, Loyalty was dispatched to steam off the coast of Vietnam ready for further provocation.
In 1962 - 1963, the Loyalty was one of five in a division of minesweepers that were deployed off the coast of Vietnam in the Tonkin Gulf to perform electronic countermeasures activities and to vector South Vietnamese gunboats to interdict large junks coming down the coast from North Vietnam that were suspected of providing arms and ammunition to cadres of Viet Cong operating in South Vietnam.
Read more about this topic: USS Loyalty (AM-457)
Famous quotes containing the words east and/or duty:
“The Indians knew that life was equated with the earth and its resources, that America was a paradise, and they could not comprehend why the intruders from the East were determined to destroy all that was Indian as well as America itself.”
—Dee Brown (b. 1908)
“The chuck wagon carries the food and utensils for the range kitchen. Man-at-the-pot is the first buckaroo to pick up the coffee pot when out with the chuck wagons. It becomes his duty to pour the coffee for the outfit. “Come and get her before I throw her out” is the time honored mess call.”
—Administration in the State of Neva, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)