USS Chicago (CA-136) - 1st Vietnam Deployment

1st Vietnam Deployment

On 12 May 1966, Chicago got underway for her first Vietnam deployment. After stopping at Pearl Harbor and Yokosuka, where a new radar antenna was installed, the ship arrived at U.S. Naval Base Subic Bay on 12 June. Picking up her helicopter detachment the cruiser departed the next day for duty with Task Force 77 on Yankee Station in the Tonkin Gulf.

On 15 June, Chicago began evaluating the concept of radar surveillance of all U.S. Navy air operations over designated areas of the Gulf and North Vietnam. Known as PIRAZ, for "positive identification and radar advisory zone," the initial duties of tracking friendly aircraft was expanded to include Air Force planes, controlling barrier combat air patrols, advising support aircraft, and coordinating strike information with the Air Force reporting center at Da Nang, South Vietnam. After a port visit to Hong Kong, where the ship had to avoid a typhoon on 17 July, the cruiser returned to Yankee Station on 29 July.

On her second PIRAZ tour, in early August, Chicago assumed the duties of anti-air warfare commander for short periods of time and demonstrated the ability of a CG to track complex air operations. After a practice Talos missile shot off Okinawa on 27 August, and a short visit to Keelung, Taiwan, the ship returned to her station on 7 September. The cruiser, expanding air duties once again, soon became the primary source for MIG warning information, and assumed surveillance responsibility for the North Vietnamese-Chinese border. On her fourth PIRAZ tour, from 25 October to 12 November, the cruiser helped improve these procedures, particularly in the area of joint Air Force-Navy cooperation.

En route to Sasebo, via Subic Bay, the cruiser stopped at the Okinawa Missile Range to fire two more practice missiles on 18 November. Arriving in Japan on 19 November, the ship visited Yokosuka before departing for home on 27 November. Sailing in rough seas, the ship completed the non-stop voyage on 7 December. The cruiser remained at San Diego for the remainder of the year.

Starting in January 1967, the cruiser settled into the busy routine of training, exercises, and inspections. Underway for such widely divergent responsibilities as providing guest cruises for the Secretary of the Navy, serving as First Fleet flagship, and air warfare exercises with Constellation, the cruiser spent the first five months of the year off California. In both April and May, Chicago conducted experimental Talos missile tests against surface targets to demonstrate missile versatility.

Following readiness inspections, the cruiser departed 6 June for an Alaskan cruise with Commander First Fleet. Arriving in Juneau, Alaska on 10 June, the ship paid an official visit to that city before returning to San Diego eleven days later. After another fleet exercise in July, where Chicago's Talos battery scored a direct hit on a drone at a range of 96 miles, the cruiser spent August conducting official visits to Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, and Esquimalt, British Columbia.