USS Chicago (CA-136) - 5th Vietnam Deployment

5th Vietnam Deployment

After a final readiness test and embarking five guests of the Secretary of the Navy, Chicago departed for another deployment on 6 November 1971. After a weekend stop at Pearl Harbor, where the passengers were debarked, the ship stopped at Guam and Subic Bay before arriving in the Gulf of Tonkin PIRAZ station on 6 December. Chicago celebrated the new year in Singapore, and briefly crossed the equator on 4 January for a line-crossing ceremony at 105° 30′ east. Chicago then spent a week in Subic Bay before resuming PIRAZ station on 18 January. Chicago launched four RIM-8H Talos-ARM anti-radar homing missiles against North Vietnamese shore-based radar stations in February and March, but no hits were registered. Radar surveillance and air coordination continued, except for a few days in Subic Bay in late February, until a visit to Hong Kong in late March. The cruiser set course for San Diego before being recalled to PIRAZ station on 3 April 1972 in response to the North Vietnamese Army's invasion of the south.

The scale of U.S. air operations increased dramatically as strike and interdiction missions, designed to restrict the movement of men and supplies, were conducted throughout North Vietnam. The cruiser monitored all aircraft flying over the gulf, directed friendly CAP, and, despite intense electronic jamming, coordinated fighter escorts during the mid-April B-52 Stratofortress raids against the North Vietnamese. By maintaining a complete air picture, Chicago vectored damaged bombers around enemy missile sites, set up tanker rendezvous points for planes low on fuel, and directed helicopters on rescue operations. The cruiser also directed friendly fighters against North Vietnamese aircraft. In April and May, Chicago's air intercept controllers directed Navy and Air Force aircraft on CAP missions that were credited with 14 MiGs shot down. Among these was the second MiG downed by Navy aces Randy Cunningham and William P. Driscoll.

Chicago's forward Talos battery downed a MiG at long-range during the mining of Hai Phong harbor on 9 May. Chicago and USS Long Beach were given the unusual assignment of protecting A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair aircraft mining Hai Phong harbor at low altitude. To avoid exposing F-4 Phantom fighters to North Vietnamese ground-based anti-aircraft defenses, these ships patrolling offshore were given a free-fire zone for Talos missiles to engage defending MiG fighters approaching the coast from Phúc Yên and Kép airfields near Hanoi. Chicago came under fire from North Vietnamese coastal artillery batteries, but was able to maintain missile envelope coverage while moving out of gun range before suffering any damage. After a month of surveillance and directing air strikes against Hai Phong harbor traffic, Chicago finally departed for San Diego on 21 June 1972.