Bio: Slowiak, Lawrence E. (Aboard Aircraft Carrier – Jun 1916)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Slowiak

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 16 Jun 1966

Aviation Boatswain's Mate Airman Apprentice Lawrence E. Slowiak, USN, son of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Slowiak of 115 E. Lawrence St., Thorp (Clark Co.), Wis., is serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, which launched her first air strikes against Viet Cong targets in South Vietnam last month.

Flying 97 sorties, Intrepid's A-1 "Skyraiders" and A-4 "Skyhawks" hit Viet Cong supply, storage and training areas, and thus were the first attacks made by Intrepid based aircraft on enemy targets since 1945, when the 44,000 ton carrier served in the Pacific Theater of operations.

Although Intrepid, by designation, is now an anti-submarine warfare carrier, he service in the South China Sea with the Seventh Fleets is to provide a mobile landing field for attack aircraft.

Intrepid departed her Norfolk, Va. Homeport in April to travel halfway around the world to join the Naval forces off the shores of Vietnam to provide attack support for American and South Vietnamese ground forces in South Vietnam, and against selected targets in North Vietnam.