It was during the 1976 Med Criuse (June or July I think). I was just coming up to the bridge to stand midwatch at the deck log as a Quartermaster Seaman Apprentice on the USS AmericaCV-66. As I was getting briefed by QM3 Holben he informed me that one of our A-7 Corsairs had gone down in the sea somewhere in the vicinity off western Crete. It was absolute chaos. Captain James McCormick was surrounded by a crowd of Flight Officers while giving the OOD course change instructions. It seems that the Soviet ship Moskva (a helicopter carrier) was north and slightly east of the last known position of the downed A-7. We were south and west of the crash site. It was a race between our two ships to get to the site first. The Russians wanted to recover whatever they could very badly if they could arrive before the America. I remember jotting down all of the course changes and speed changes as they were given (we were at all ahead flank). What I neglected to write down however, were some of the more important details such as the radar range call outs to the Moskva that were being relayed across the bridge to the OOD. As it was we were the burdened vessel having the Moskva bearing down on the crash site north of us. It was our obligation to change course and speed as was necessary in order to avoid a possible collision with the Soviet ship. We did not make any changes and maintained our heading toward the site of the A-7's last known radar position (before we lost contact with it). As the ships drew nearer to each other (the Moskva was at flank speed as well), the captain became noticably agitated and ordered the radar readings to the Moskva to be called out every minute; then every 30 seconds. Finally Captain McCormick announced to the bridge personel that he was assuming the conn from the OOD as our two ships approached each other at flank speed and ordered right 5 degrees rudder increasing it to 10 degrees then 15 degrees finally right full rudder. All of this was being called out in the dark of night when judging the movement distances to surface contacts can be uncertain at best. The race to the scene of the crash between our two ships was excitement enough. What made it a night to remember was the movement of the Moskva. As we were turning to the starboard in what our captain thought would turn us away from the Soviet carrier the Moskva turned to it's port. We were turning into each other !! The America displaced about 80,00 tons of water, the Moskva, about 40,000 to 50,000 tons of water. At our closest approach we were told to brace ourselves. I can remember watchiong the Moskva as we were at our closest approach and seeing what I thought were the silouettes of the heads of Soviet sailors watching us from their bridge. It was a very near miss at flank speed between two huge ships !! The incident was probably protested by the Soviets to the Maritime board. It was brought up the next day at quarters by our Master Chief Pappy Burns with the mentioned that the pages of the deck log were scrutinized by the captain for the mid-watch last night and a certain seaman apprentice had not been very attentive to detail. He said had our vessels collided, the negligence on the part of this "seaman apprentice" could have resulted in a courtsmartial with serious charges following. As it was since we were the burdened vessel and our captain failed to give way to the Moskva, he was not too disappointed that only speed and course changes were logged in; no mention outside of the original position of the Moskva far to our north was noted in our log. Pappy Burns was a good man and as he finished speaking about the incident, he gave the seaman apprentice a wink of his eye. This story is true and is one of those untold incidents that would have made worldwide headlines the next day reporting on what would have been great damage and horrendous casualties for both ships. My closing comment is a question; "Is there anyone out there from the 1976 Med Cruise who might have also been on board who remembers this"? As to that matter of the A-7, no wreckage was ever recovered and the LTJG who was flying the aircraft was lost at sea.