Yankee Station
Yankee Station was during the Vietnam War , a point in the Gulf of Tonkin , called by the aircraft carriers of the US Navy air strikes against North Vietnam could fly.
The name is derived from the geographical reference point "Y", this letter being pronounced Yankee in the NATO alphabet . The point was more than 160 km from the coast at 17 ° 30 'north latitude and 108 ° 30' east longitude .
There were normally three aircraft carriers at Yankee Station, each performing 12 hours of flight operations: one between noon and midnight, another between midnight and noon, and the third in daylight so that operations were operational around the clock. In addition, there was an increased readiness in daylight, whereby the attacks were usually more effective and therefore more flown.
The first aircraft carrier on the station was the USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) , which started its service there from April 1964. The USS Constellation (CV-64) was added in July.
South of Yankee Station in the South China Sea, there was a similar point called Dixie Station .
literature
- John B. Nichols, Barrett Tillman; On Yankee Station: The Naval Air War over Vietnam. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD 1987, ISBN 978-0870215599