Operation Pocket Money, the devastatingly effective naval blockade of North Vietnam was on. The large mines were destined for the inner channel of Haiphong’s busy harbor, with the smaller ones destined for the outer channel. The Corsairs carried the smaller, 500-lb Mk-36. Slung underneath the wings of the Intruders were 1,000-pound Mk-52 antiship mines. Task Force 77, then consisting of six carriers, had been flying combat missions against the North for more than a month, but this mission was different. The aerial campaign against North Vietnam, paused in 1968, had resumed five weeks before in response to the Easter Offensive. On the morning of May 9, 1972, the USS Coral Sea catapulted a strike package of three A-6 Intruders and six A-7 Corsairs into the morning sky.
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