hello fellow modellers from a dank miserable uk on christmas day. wishing everyone around the world a great day and stay sober. I have a model of the nimitz (xmas pressie) which is covered with a6's, phantoms, seakings, corsairs and tomcats. my question is was the nimitz used on station during the final part of the vietnam conflict. people have said the f 14's flew top cover during the evacuation of siagon. i dop not want to take this model back so please someone help me out here ok. thanks in advance. wafu

Considering her first cruise was in 1976 I doubt it.

"Nimitz' first deployment began July 7, 1976 when she departed Norfolk for the Mediterranean. Included in the task force were the nuclear-powered cruisers USS South Carolina and USS California. The deployment marked the first time in 10 years that nuclear-powered ships had deployed to the Mediterranean. In November 1976, Nimitz was awarded the coveted Battle "E" from Commander, Naval Air Forces Atlantic Fleet, for being the most efficient and foremost aircraft carrier in the Atlantic Fleet. The ship returned to Norfolk Feb. 7, 1977 after a seven-month deployment. "

My brother-in-law was part of that cruise. I remember him sending me the USS Nimitiz model from the ship's store in the mail.

subhunter

The aircraft you have are correct. It was a year or so before the Phantoms were pulled and replaced by Tomcats. I have the Trumpeter 350 scale Nimitz and those were the aircraft that were included with the kit. It was several years before the Corsairs and Intruders were totally replaced by Hornets. Now it seems that the Tomcats have been replaced by Hornets as well. Depending on when you choose to depict your Nimitz, you need to research a bit to find out the aircraft / squadrons that comprised the airwing.

Des, first of all, welcome to Armorama! You'll find that everyone here is genuinely helpful with projects and research information. As Steve has said, the composition of the airwing, and in fact, which airwing was embarked depends on the date. Let me know whether you're interested in either a specific time period, or want to have specific planes aboard and I'll be happy to provide chapter and verse!!

Tom

Welkomen Des....

What Tom said. Best folks in the world for helpful advice.


Later
Steve