I remember just about freaking out the first time I read "Hunt for Red October", because there was so much material in that damn book that had been declassified since I was in the Navy. The funny thing about it was that by 1975 SOSUS had been described EVERYWHERE - including in an article in Reader's Digest - while the DoD kept insisting it was classified.
I wasn't really an airdale ... I was a Yeoman. However, for most of my time in VP I was more of a radioman than a Yeoman, and ended up with a little shy of 500 hours in P3s. We were one of the first aviation units to get Forward Looking InfaRed, and flew pretty much the same thing as the plane that made the much publicized emergency landing in China. There was a VQ squadron in Brunswick at that time, and I worked with them quite a bit. I have to smile when I read that the Navy has plans to replace the P3s with 767s. They were spinning the same fucking B.S. when I was in - the only difference is back then they were going to uses 707s or 727s.
I got stationed in Brunswick in May of 74, and left for Bermuda the end of August. I left Bermuda at about 10:00 a.m. on January 27, 1975. Temperature was 87, humidity was 93. Arrived in Brunswick, Maine three hours later. Temperature was -14F, Wind Chill put it at about -40. I was ready to go back to the rock for another six months after about three steps down the ladder.
Did you know that the Soviet Navy used to get VERY VERY upset if you shit a sonobouy on the deck of a flagship?
05-26-2003
Hybrid Mode
