USS Constellation CVA-64 Southeast Asia 1970 Tonkin launch and resupply National Archives NARA

It’s deep into the war in Vietnam in February 1970, and the aircraft carrier USS Constellation, CVA-64, launches and recovers F-4 Phantoms, A-7 Corsair IIs, A-6 Intruders, and the occasional sleek RA-5 Vigilante. The ship is in the Gulf of Tonkin to put its aircraft within striking distance of Vietnam. But the steady delivery of bombs on target needs replenishment to keep the carrier stocked. This film shows the USS Camden (AOE-2), a ship capable of pumping fuel to USS Constellation, delivering ammunition, and providing refrigerated stores for the carrier underway at sea. Watch for racks of bombs passing from Camden to Constellation. The necessary proximity for these transfers put two large hulls side-by-side, with the sea rushing between them creating a suction that tends to pull the ships together, requiring constant and precise seamanship on the part of the crews. The resupplying of USS Constellation by the Camden is called UNREP by the Navy, meaning underway replenishment. When connected by hoses and lines, the process is called CONREP, or connected replenishment. The film shows Navy CH-46 helicopters slinging loads aboard the Constellation, a process known as vertical replenishment or VERTREP. USS Constellation was a Kittyhawk-class conventionally powered carrier. Commissioned in 1961, Constellation was decommissioned in 2003. Scrapping of Constellation was finished in 2017. Thanks for subscribing, and for watching our ongoing series of films from the archives, depicting U.S. aircraft carrier operations. You will find more aircraft carrier videos on the Airailimages Channel. Dig into our more than 2,400 videos.