Interesting book to find, Thanks 11th......Was an Airdale at the time {on a different CVA)....the usual cruise was 6 months and 6 months in home port. This incident, I recall, was about this carrier being sent back again with out a break again to S.E Asia again...Don’t remember why it was though...
While I could easily be mistaken, I thought that a normal carrier Westpac at the time was at least nine months, if not a year. (My DDG did a six month Westpac in late 1972 but that was typical for the smaller ships.)
This may have been the time one of the other carriers on Yankee station caught fire and had to withdraw and Kittyhawk had to fill back in. That would suck.