Shortly after, we were assigned to Yankee Station, off North Viet-Nam, and conducted daily and almost continuous bombing missions. From time to time they would stop the war, and USO and local Vietnamese entertainers would fly out to the ship to perform. We had three collisions at sea with other ships while taking on supplies or bombs. Six months later we returned to the United States for maintenance. You would have had to be there to see it yourself before you could believe it.
All exaggerations are weak and ineffectual in describing the event.
On the second trip, our stay in Naples was cut short so we could transit the Suez Canal before the shooting started in the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six Day War. We were shadowed during the transit by a Russian trawler and two Egyptian submarines. Shortly after, a British freighter was sunk to block the canal. After another six months on station, we turned around to come home. The USS Forrestal was to be our relief but soon met with tragedy.