Sea Orbit at 60
Some 60 years ago this week, the world’s ocean saw a novel naval squadron take to sea. On 13 May 1964, the first all-nuclear-powered task group, “Task Force One,” was organized and deployed to the Fleet as Carrier Division 2.
Comprising the brand new 93,000-ton supercarrier USS Enterprise (CVAN 65), the sleek and enigmatic 15,000-ton cruiser USS Long Beach (CGN 9), and the 9,000-ton destroyer leader USS Bainbridge (DLGN 25), the group, thanks to their dozen installed nuclear reactors (8 A2Ws on Enterprise, on 2 C1Ws on Long Beach, and 2 D2Gs on Bainbridge) could make 30+ knots non-stop for years, with their endurance limited generally to the amount of food aboard for their combined 7,600 sailors and Marines, and the finite quantity of lubricants and spare parts to keep things in motion.
U.S. Navy National Naval Aviation Museum photo NNAM.1996.488.125.008
They weren’t just showboats and had serious combat potential as well.
The “Big E,” whose radio callsign was “Climax,” had the newly redesignated Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 6 embarked (F-4B Phantoms of VF-102, F-8E Crusaders of VF-33, A-4C Skyhawks of VA-64, VA-66 and VA-76; A-1H Skyraiders of VA-65, A-5A Vigilantes of VAH-7, and smaller dets of E-1Bs, EA-1Fs, RF-8As, UH-As, and C-1As) while the two escorts brought a combined four twin Terrier launchers (with 200 missiles), a Talos twin (52 missiles), two ASROC matchboxes (16 missiles), two 5″/38s, two 3″/50s, and 4 triple ASW tubes along to keep the flattop safe.
Operation Sea Orbit, 1964. A formation of A4 Skyhawk jet aircraft flies over nuclear Task Force One, on whose return to the United States on October 3, 1964, concluded a sixty-five-day unreplenished world cruise. The three ships, USS Enterprise (CVAN-65); USS Long Beach (CLGN-9), and USS Bainbridge (DLGN-25), are under the command of Rear Admiral Bernard M. Strean, aboard the carrier. Photograph released October 2, 1964. Accession #: 330-PSA-211-64 (KN 29719)
The force was under the command of RADM (later VADM) Bernard M. Strean (USNA 1929)– an Oklahoma-born naval aviator who earned the Navy Cross for personally scoring a direct bomb hit on a Japanese aircraft carrier in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
Task Force One’s Mediterranean deployment turned into a high-speed circumnavigation, dubbed Operation Sea Orbit. In all, they traveled 34,732 statute miles without refueling or taking on supplies in just 65 days (57 steaming), covering 600 miles each steaming day on average.
Nonetheless, they made time to make six non-replenishing port calls (Karachi, Fremantle, Melbourne, Sydney, Wellington, and Rio De Janeiro) and “fly-by” visits in which local dignitaries were flown in from 10 other far-lung ports (Rabat, Dakar, Monrovia, Freetown, Abidjan, Cape Town, Nairobi, Montevideo, Buenos Aries, and Sao Paulo).
Operation Sea Orbit, 1964. Officials at Dakar, Senegal, were flown to Enterprise for an air demonstration as the nuclear task force sailed down the coast of Africa in the first phase of the global cruise. Captain E.W. Hassel, Chief of Staff for the Commander of the Task Force escorts Senegalese cabinet officials. Photograph released August 22, 1964. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives. (2015/11/03). Accession #: 330-PSA-178-64 (USN 11042204)
As noted by the Navy:
The World Cruise has a dual mission. It offers practical experience in the operation of nuclear-powered warships independent of support ships, a fast impractical for conventionally powered ships. Equally important, and immediately evident is the opportunity to win friends in areas not frequently visited by U.S. Navy ships, and to show the world an all-nuclear element of the world’s great power for peace.
Of note, several men of TF1 were descendants of Great White Fleet sailors, Teddy Roosevelt’s slow battleship force that had taken 14 months to cover its 42,000 mile/20 port call circumnavigation a half-century prior.
The Navy men who had relatives aboard ships in the Great White Fleet, 1907-09, are, (left to right): Aerographer’s Mate Third Class William C. Longstreet, USN, whose grandfather made the cruise in 1907; Chief Electrician’s Mate J.E. Norton, USN, whose uncle Joseph Starr was a Quartermaster with the Great White Fleet; Boatswain’s Mate Third Class Henry Lopez, who had an uncle, Eddie Romers, in the Great White Fleet, and Fireman William C. Stock, whose father sailed with the 16 battleships on their history-making voyage. 330-PSA-208-64 (USN 1105502)
Of course, the above is a rarity that could never occur today, as the Navy has long ago put its nuclear-powered escorts to pasture as part of the Great Clinton-era Cruiser Slaughter. Speaking of which, all of the ships of TF1 have long been retired, with Enterprise the last leaving the fleet, decommissioned on 3 February 2017 (although her hulk remains).
VADM Strean passed in 2002, aged 91, and, besides Task Force One, he went on to be the technical adviser for the 1976 film “Midway” and helped establish the Naval Air Museum. His papers are in the NHHC Collection.
