Can You Have Hodgkins For A Long Time

Libya: Libya

Attain Document III  came to a close at 0900 on 27 March 1986, three days ahead of schedule and after 48 hours of largely unchallenged use of the Gulf of Sidra by the United States Navy. Thence steaming to Augusta Bay, Sicily,  America  relieved  USS Saratoga  on station, and subsequently visited Livorno, Italy, from 4 to 8 April 1986.

In the meantime, intelligence information, however, in the wake of the strikes designed to let Col. Qaddafi know that the United States had not only the desire but the capability to respond effectively to terrorism, indicated that Qaddafi intended to retaliate. Such retaliation occurred soon thereafter.

On 5 April 1986, two days after a bomb exploded on board a Trans World Airways (TWA) flight en route to Athens, from Rome, killing four American citizens, a bomb exploded in the La Belle Discoteque in West Berlin, killing two American servicemen and a Turkish civilian. Another 222 people were wounded in the bombing, 78 Americans among them. Col. Qaddafi threatened to escalate the violence against Americans, civilian and military, throughout the world.

Repeated efforts by the United States to persuade the Libyan leader to forsake terrorism as an instrument of policy, including an attempt to persuade other western nations to isolate Libya peacefully failed. Rumors of retaliation by the United States were soon followed by Qaddafi's threat to take all foreigners in Libya hostage, to use them as a shield to protect his military installations. In light of that threat, and of the failure of means to gain peaceful sanctions against Libya, and citing "incontrovertible evidence" of Libyan complicity in the recent terrorist acts, President Reagan directed that attacks on terrorist-related targets in Libya be carried out.

Operation Eldorado Canyon  commenced early on the afternoon of 14 April 1986, as tanker aircraft took off from bases in England to support the Air Force North American F-111F and EF-111 planes that soon followed them into the air and began the long 3,000 -mile trip to the target. Later that afternoon, between 1745 and 1820,  America  launched six  Intruders  (strike aircraft) from VA-34 and six A-7E  Corsair II s (strike support);  Coral Sea  launched her strike/strike support aircraft, eight A-6Es from VA-55 and six F/A-18  Hornets  between 1750 and 1820. Both carriers launched additional aircraft to support the strike to provide a combat air patrol (CAP) and other functions.

"In a spectacular feat of mission planning and execution," the Navy and Air Force planes, based 3,000 miles apart, reached their targets on time at 1900. The  Hornets  from  Coral Sea and  Corsair II s from  America  launched air-to-surface  Shrike  missiles and  HARMs  against Libyan SAM sites at Benghazi and Tripoli. Moments later, VA-34's  Intruders , roaring in at low-level in the blackness, dropped their MK. 82 bombs with near surgical precision on the Benghazi military barracks, reckoned to be an alternate command and control facility for terrorist activities and a billeting area for Qaddafi's elite Jamahiriyah Guard as well as a warehouse for components for MiG aircraft. VA-34's attack heavily damaged the warehouse, destroying four crated MiGs and damaging a fifth.

Following that counter-terrorist strike,  America  visited Naples between 28 April and 4 May, and then participated in NATO  Exercise Distant Hammer  with units of the Italian and Turkish Air Forces, and visited Cannes upon conclusion of the evolution. During June, the carrier operated with  USS Coral Sea  and the newly-arrived  USS Enterprise  (CVN-65) , and took part in a "Poop Deck" exercise with English and United States Air Force units off the coast of Spain, arriving at Palma de Mallorca soon thereafter.

Participating in a NATO  Exercise Tridente , in late June 1986,  America  visited Naples before she participated in a  National Week  exercise. 

Subsequently visiting Catania and operating in the central and western Mediterranean, the carrier wound up the month of July at Benidorn, Spain, before returning to sea for further operations at sea in that region. Visiting Naples between 11 and 17 August,  America  spent the rest of her deployment in operations in the western and central Mediterranean before  USS John F. Kennedy  relieved her at Rota between 28 and 31 August. When  America  returned from its Mediterranean deployment on 10 September, it marked the first battle group to spend no more than six months overseas as part of the Navy's efforts to reduce deployments. Having deployed to the Sixth Fleet on 10 March 1986, the carrier was relieved by  USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) with Carrier Air Wing 3 (CVW-3) embarked. America then Went to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on 20 November 1986 for an overhaul Which Lasted until 11 February 1988.

from: www.navy.mil