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Yankee Station was a point in the Gulf of Tonkin off the coast of Vietnam used by the U.S. Navy aircraft carriers of Task Force 77 to launch strikes in the Vietnam War. While its official designation was "Point Yankee", it was universally referred to as Yankee Station. Carriers conducting air operations at Yankee Station were said to be "on the line" and statistical summaries were based on days on the line. ==Yankee Team beginnings== The name derived from it being the geographic reference point "Y", pronounced "Yankee" in the NATO phonetic alphabet. In turn the term Point Yankee derived from the launch point for "Yankee Team" aerial reconnaissance missions over Laos conducted in 1964. It was located about 190 km due east of Đồng Hới, at 17° 30' N and 108° 30' E. Early missions were flown in the Kingdom of Laos during the Laotian Civil War. Begun 19 May 1964 as medium and low level U.S. Navy photo reconnaissance missions over the Plain of Jars, it was soon ramped up to "armed reconnaissance" covered by U.S. Air Force F-100 Super Sabre fighter escorts from Tan Son Nhut. The classified operation was dubbed Yankee Team on 25 May 1964. Notice of their non-emergency sorties was forwarded from CINCPAC to Washington 36 hours in advance for possible cancellation. A command post was set up in 2nd Air Division headquarters. A U.S. Air Force liaison officer was posted to the to coordinate the naval aviators with Air Force operations; in turn, a party of five naval personnel were detailed to the command post. Committed to a mission in which half the planes drew ground fire, and lacking a formal Combat Search and Rescue backup, the mission suffered its first loss on 6 June 1964 when Lieutenant Charles F. Klusman was shot down while flying at 1,200 feet. Air America attempted rescue without success. Flak suppression protocols had not yet been figured out; use of napalm, the most successful counter to anti-aircraft batteries, was banned by the American ambassador to Laos, Leonard Unger. A second plane went down during the would-be CSAR.〔 After settling into secretive run air strikes against communist infiltrators into Laos, Yankee Team morphed into Operation Barrel Roll.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Yankee Station」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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