I was active duty then also on the America. I remember we went on alert and closed ship the day they were taken hostage and it lasted into the evening. We were scheduled to begin a year overhaul. JFK drew the short straw and we headed up the river to Portsmouth my final year in.
The IO for the carriers back then was bad news. The older KH class carriers didn't have quite enough air conditioning capacity and they were just addressing that issue with us with a 10th chiller we got in overhaul.
It wasn't about comfort though but the A/C was needed for the electronics.
Good to see you my friend, you had to be a fireman as a snipe right? As airman we had AC in all of our work centers, it was mandatory, felt sorry for the snipes and the flight deck boys because they had it way tougher than we did. Of course the AC wasn’t for our comfort but for the monstrous electronic machines they used at that time that ran hotter than hell.