"Underway on 6 March 1969, "Tappahannock" proceeded westward for her third and last WestPac deployment.Initially based at Sasebo, "Tappahannock" went to sea in the third week of April as part of Task Force 71 which was hastily assembled after North Korean MiG-15 fighters had shot down a Navy EC-121 Constellation reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan, killing its entire Navy crew.