Task Force 71

Task Force 71 was based in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1941–42, operating submarines under Rear Admiral Charles A. Lockwood.

These naval demonstrations preceded Operation Campus, the amphibious landing of U.S. Army ground forces at Incheon, Korea, on 8 September 1945.

Additionally, in 1967, a South Korean patrol vessel was sunk by North Korea shore batteries over a fishing dispute, with thirty-nine of the 79-man crew killed.

Seventh Fleet warships to the Sea of Japan off the eastern coast of North Korea following that country's seizure of USS Pueblo (AGER-2) in international waters on 23 January 1968.

Taken together, both operations represented a major surge deployment of U.S. naval and air forces into the Sea of Japan region off the eastern coast of North Korea, the largest since the end of the Korean War.

[17] Taken together, as noted by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, the purpose of this build-up/call-up was to provide a "measured show of force" in support of the diplomatic effort to resolve the Pueblo crisis peacefully.

[18] The US responded to the 1969 EC-121 shootdown incident by activating Task Force 71 to protect future flights over international waters neighbouring North Korea.

Initially, the Task Force comprised the aircraft carriers Enterprise, Ticonderoga, Ranger, and Hornet with a screen of cruisers and destroyers that also included the battleship New Jersey.

[20] On 16 April, the United States National Security Council considered the following options:[21] In addition to the NSC's ideas, the Joint Chiefs of Staff prepared several plans to bomb the airfield at Sondok and Wonsan.

On the day of the shootdown, Rear Admiral William A. Cockell, Commander, Task Force 71, and a skeleton staff, taken by helicopter from Japan, embarked in USS Badger (FF-1071), which had been stationed off Vladivostok at time of the flight.

[22] Cockell was transferred again on 9 September to the destroyer USS Elliot to assume duties as Officer in Tactical Command (OTC) of the Search and Rescue (SAR) effort.

In addition to the above ships, there were numerous Japanese Maritime Safety Agency patrol boats and South Korean vessels involved.