Gonzo Station was a

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

acronym for "''Gulf of Oman Naval Zone of Operations''" or "''Gulf of Oman Northern Zone''.""Decision at Sea: Five Naval Battles that Shaped American History," Symonds, Craig L., Oxford Univ Press; New York, NY; c2005, p.275 It was used to designate an area of carrier-based naval operations by the

and

U.S. Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines or simply the Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is responsible for conducting expeditionary ...

in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

during the 1979–1981 Iranian Hostage Crisis and the " Tanker War" between the United States and the

Islamic Republic of Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Carriers deployed

Multiple

aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...

s, their associated air wings and carrier battle groups, and associated sea-based and land-based task forces and task groups served on Gonzo Station. , and were some of the first carriers on Gonzo Station who were at sea for 110 days or more, the longest at-sea record for a conventional US Navy carrier. ''Ranger'' was the first on-scene carrier at the beginning of the Iranian Hostage Crisis, followed shortly after by , with both carriers executing simultaneous air operations and carrier presence in the vicinity of one another off the southern coast of Iran. exceeded ''Midway''s record at sea in May 1980 with 144 days at sea. In 1984 ''Midway'' was on station for 111 days. Subsequent deployments by other carriers, such as and ''Kitty Hawk'', dwarfed the earlier records with over 180 days at sea, or six months on-station. Several U.S. Navy carriers from both the Atlantic Fleet and Pacific Fleet served repeated deployments on Gonzo Station, including ''Ranger'', ''Midway'', , ''America'', , ''Kitty Hawk'', ''Constellation'', , ''Nimitz'' and . While replenishment ships normally rotated on and off the line in order to resupply, served in formation for 180 days, and served in formation for 78 days. In 1980, the ''Dwight D. Eisenhower'' served 315 days of deployed sea time with a consecutive 154-day line period. This was the largest deployment of US Navy ships to the Indian Ocean since World War II.

References

United States Navy {{USN-stub

Carriers deployed

See also

References