When I was on the Big E in late '71 I remember going up to the Island for a break, some air, and to see what was going on. Sick Bay was busy and I had just a little time. It was night operations and we were launching a lot of aircraft. I remember looking up to the night sky and seeing what seemed to be hundreds of tiny lights moving toward the west of us. They were aircraft. A lot of them. Our own flight deck was a bee hive of aircraft being launched. Now from some reading on the net I'm guessing that we might have been involved in an offensive named OPERATION PROUD DEEP ALPHA. And that we and other carriers were part of an Air Force strike. But I'm not sure. Shoot, I was always below decks and wasn't up to date on our operations. It seemed we were always launching aircraft day and night. Can anybody from the Big E back then clarify this? Or anybody with knowledge of the navy war from back then? We might have been taken off line and sent to India around that time for an evacuation of American civilians from a war over there! Any history lesson from you vets is appreciated.Thanks.
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