U-Tapao International Airport is one of the important international airports under supervision of the Royal Thai Navy's Naval Air Division Commander. U-Tapao International Airport is one of Thailand's regional airports, located 25 minutes’ drive from Pattaya and Rayong, which are among the best beach resorts in Thailand. Utapao Royal Thai Naval Air Force Base is located near the city of Sattahip on on the Gulf of Siam, approximately 90 miles south of Bangkok. The geographical location is 12° 40′ 40″ N 101° 00′ 33″ E. The military is still trained in Thailands native martial art, Lerdrit, the military version of Muay Thai, or Thai boxing. ... Pattaya (Thai พัทยา Phattaya) is a city of 95,000 inhabitants (2004) in Thailand, located on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand, about 165 km southeast of Bangkok in the province of Chonburi. ... Rayong is a town in Thailand, capital of the Rayong province. ... Amphoe Sattahip is a district in the province Chonburi, Thailand. ... The Gulf of Thailand is a gulf located in the South China Sea (Pacific Ocean), surrounded by the countries Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. ... Bangkok from the Chao Phraya River at sunset, July 2004 Bangkok, (in Thai กรุงเทพฯ, กรุงเทพมหานคร, or Krung Thep, Krung Thep Mahanakhon), population 8,538,610 (1990), is the capital and largest city of Thailand. ...

Thailand is an important element in the Pentagon's new strategy of "forward positioning," establishing sites where United States forces can store equipment and from which they can come and go as needed. Despite Thailand's neutrality on the war in Iraq, the Thai government allowed Utapao to be used by American warplanes flying into combat in Iraq, as it had earlier done during the war in Afghanistan. Utapao may be where Al Qaeda operatives have been interrogated, according to some retired American intelligence officials. The Pentagon, looking east with the Potomac River and Washington Monument in the distance. ... Osama bin Laden Ayman al-Zawahiri Al-Qaeda (Arabic: - al-Qā‘idah, the foundation or the base) is the name given to an international alliance of militant Islamist organizations. ...

Royal Thai marines hit the beach at Utapao, Thailand during a Combined Amphibious Landing Force Exercise with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit Special Operations Capable. The U.S. and Thai Marines trained together during the exercise, which was part of Exercise Cobra Gold 2002. Marine is an umbrella term for things relating to the ocean, as with Marine biology, Marine geology, and as a term for a navy, etc. ...

U-Tapao during the Vietnam War

U-Tapao was an important forward operating base for U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Operational dates for American forces in U-Tapao were 18 April 1966 to 20 June 1976. U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield was a forward operating base for B-52 Stratofortresses and KC-135 Stratotankers of the Strategic Air Command (SAC). The Vietnam War was fought from 1957 to 1975 between Soviet and Chinese-supported Vietnamese nationalist and Communist forces and an array of Western and pro-Western forces, most notably the United States. ... April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ... 1966 was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... June 20 is the 171st day of the year (172nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 194 days remaining. ... 1976 is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... A B-52 in flight The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range strategic bomber flown by the United States Air Force since 1955, replacing the Convair B-36. ... The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an aerial refueling tanker aircraft, first manufactured in 1956 and expected to remain in service into the 2020s. ... The Strategic Air Command or SAC was the branch of the United States Air Force in charge of Americas bomber-based and ballistic missile-based strategic nuclear arsenal, as well as the infrastructure necessary to support their operations (such as tanker aircraft to fuel the bombers and, until 1957...

Various aircraft flew aerial surveillance of South Vietnam's coastal waters. Throughout this period, five to seven P-2 Neptunes stationed at Tan Son Nhut near Saigon ranged up and down the South Vietnamese littoral along designated patrol tracks. In addition, from May 1965 to April 1967, Martin P-5 Marlin seaplanes operated from seaplane tenders Currituck (AV-7) and Salisbury Sound (AV-13), periodically anchored at Condore and Cham islands and at Cam Ranh Bay. To compensate for withdrawal of the older seaplanes in early 1967, the Navy stationed a squadron of twelve P-2s ashore at Cam Ranh Bay and a detachment of P-3s at Utapao in Thailand. The P-3s patroled the Gulf of Siam. The Lockheed P-2 Neptune (until 1963 the P2V Neptune) was a naval patrol bomber and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft for the United States Navy between 1947 and 1978, replacing the PV-1 Ventura and PV-2 Harpoon and being replaced in turn with the P-3 Orion. ... Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh) is the largest city in Vietnam and, as Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn), was the capital of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1976. ... The Martin P5M Marlin, built by the Glenn L. Martin Company of Middle River, Maryland, was the last flying boat in service with the United States Navy and the US armed forces in general. ... Cam Ranh Bay is a deep-water seaport in Vietnam. ...

The humanitarian relief effort for the Sumatran Tsunami of 26 December 2004 is being coordinated from the U-Tapao Royal Thai Naval Air Force Base. A multinational force headquarters has been established at the base. The December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami hits Thailand The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, was an undersea earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time) on December 26, 2004. ... December 26 is the 360th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, 361st in leap years. ... 2004 is a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

This information was adopted from [1]

See also

• Royal Thai Navy