Starting 13 April 1966 Yankee Station was moved further toward the Gulf of Tonkin at 17° 30' N and 108° 30' E, about 190 km due east of Đồng Hới.Įarly missions were flown in the Kingdom of Laos during the Laotian Civil War. The first ship operations at Point Yankee took place in April 1964. In turn the term Point Yankee derived from the launch point for "Yankee Team" aerial reconnaissance missions over Laos conducted in 1964. The name derived from it being the geographic reference point "Y", pronounced "Yankee" in the NATO phonetic alphabet. Yankee Station was initially located at 16° 00′ N, 110° 00′ E, however with a massive increase in operations over North Vietnam in 1966 the station was moved about 145 miles (230 km) northwest to 17° 30′ N, 108° 30′ E, placing it about 90 miles (145 km) from the North Vietnamese shore. Carriers conducting air operations at Yankee Station were said to be "on the line" (in combat) and statistical summaries were based on days on the line. While the coordinate's official designation was "Point Yankee", it was universally referred to as Yankee Station. The location was used primarily by aircraft carriers of Task Force 77 to launch strikes over North Vietnam. Navy aircraft carriers and support ships operated in open waters over a nine-year period during the Vietnam War.
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