A Calendar of Deployments to
Port Lyautey
(with AJ-1s or AJ-2s, that is)
Note: In the table below the end
of one deployment and the beginning of the next is usually designated by
me as the fifteenth of the month. This is simply a convenient reference
date. In actual practice the change was sometimes a little different from
that. It would appear that before VC-9 got into the act there were six-month
deployments (six months in Port Lyautey and 12 months stateside). Between
April 1953 and October 1956 the deployments lasted only five months (with
15 months stateside in between). Thereafter there appear to have been eight
month periods of deployment.
| 2/51 to late September/51 |
VC-5 |
6 AJ-1s and 3 P2V-3Cs |
|
| late September/51 to 4/52 |
VC-6 |
9 AJ-1s and 2 P2V-3Cs |
|
| 4/11/52 to 10/15/52 |
VC-7 |
AJ-1s and P2V-3Cs |
|
| 10/15/52 to 4/15/53 |
VC-5 |
AJ-1 |
|
| 4/15/53 to 10/15/53 |
VC-8 |
AJ-1 |
Cruise Book |
| 10/15/53 to 4/15/54 |
VC-7 |
AJ-2 |
|
| 4/15/54 to 9/15/54 |
VC-9 |
9 AJ-2s and 1 P2V-2 |
|
| 9/15/54 to 2/15/55 |
VC-5 |
AJ-2 |
|
| 2/15/55 to 7/15/55 |
VC-8 |
AJ-1s and 1 P2V-2 |
|
| 7/15/55 to12/15/55 |
VAH-7 (as of 7/1/55) |
AJ-2? |
|
| 12/15/55 to 5/15/56 |
VAH-9 (as of 11/1/55) |
AJ-1 (retrofitted) |
their last time with AJ |
| 5/15/56 to 10/15/56 |
VAH-5 (as of 11/1/55) |
AJ-1 (retrofitted) |
their last time with AJ |
| 10/15/56 to 6/15/57*# |
VAH-11 (as of 11/1/55) |
12? AJ-1s (retrofitted) |
their last time with AJ |
| 6/15/57 to 2/15/58* |
VAH-7 |
AJ-2 |
their last time with AJ |
*
Originally I had indicated that the deployments on the last
two lines of the table were of five month duration. However,
Bill Sowell,
a B/N in VAH-7, has given me the correct dates for the
last line. He says that the dates for VAH-7's deployment
were June 1957 to February 1958, indicating
that at some time previous to this there had been a major change in policy
re length of deployments. The change could not have been instituted
previous to the beginning of VAH-11's deployment because Ginter says
on page 106, "In October 1956 VAH-11 deployed to the Med for the first
time since its redesignation." I can only conclude that the decision
had been made to lengthen the time interval from five months to eight
months, and that the decision had first gone into effect for VAH-11.
#
Recently I have received an email that provides information for an additional correction to this line. Apparently USS Forrestal went to the Med during this period. An "all-jet" complement was wanted, and so VAH-11 was brought home early and VAH-1 deployed with its new A3Ds. (This is a temporary fix. In time I'll get this organized a little better with more precise data, credit my source, etc.)
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Kenneth Jennings Wooster
27 Abdallah Avenue
Cortland, NY 13045-3302
(607) 753-3558
File created: August 23, 2003.
File modified: September 1, 2003; January 3, 2004, July 18, 2005.