This one came over the transom from the mil-email chain…
Not one I was on, but it looks like a merchant ship. But it does bring back memories…
Hours and hours of Maritime Air Patrol (MAP) tracks all over the world. Checking on merchant and other traffic, recording names, location, and course and speed. Two of the more infamous ones were the ones into Vietnam/South China Sea, and the other was the Malacca Straits off Singapore.
Both were guaranteed 12 hour flights, usually 8-10 hours onstation (200 feet) yanking and banking.
Ah yes… ‘Fun’ times… (kinda, sorta)…
That yanking and banking is fine when you can see out, not so good if you are down stairs in the hole. Like your pictures of the new house. 28 deg, snow and no golf in Missouri.
Why would a merchant ship have so many boats on deck? I agree it doesn’t look like a cruise liner. A military transport, perhaps?
The Navy is a good life in so many respects. Mainly the people you work with and the friendships that you have based on common experiences. I think that there are many stressful times, but that only makes the whole experience interesting.
It appears that ship is not making way but it is sounding it’s horn (an alarm/general quarters/to say hello?). Perhaps she is swinging on a mooring. That leads to my question, would that yanking and banking also include overflights of harbors in countries which were not involved in open hostilities?
Unrelated question but for curiosity’s sake, from where would you launch for flights to Malacca straights if not Singapore? That is indeed a long flight.
Wonder what the pucker factor was among the crews you overflew? Especially if they didn’t spot you inbound.
Part of the fun of NOT being a lookout was missing the occasional butt-chewing when said lookout didn’t notice/report an inbound flight at low altitude. It was a lot more fun to watch than to receive; just sayin’. Of course, the MiG that overflew our tin can in the Black Sea, firing its guns into the water alongside, got everyone’s attention all at once.
I like that photo. It says a lot.
8/10 hours on station? That doesn’t sound too bad, what with all those computer’s, I see hours of games played.
Now that is a very neat picture!!
Guess I’m not sure how a lookout wouldn’t know you were inbound…I would think the noise alone from the engines (props?) would alert them when you were more than a mile out…no? Or is that already too close?
Anyways…very neat pic.
Suz
Since the shadow cast on the earth by an airplane in noon-day sun is very close to the actual size of the airplane, why is it that I get that shadow cast on me so often?
Do the math – it involves a couple of triangles with one side the length of the airplane, and the other two sides very close to 93 million miles long.
Ed- True! And remember, spring is coming!
Peter- My ‘guess’ since this isn’t one I was on, is that it is/was a USSR ‘fishing’ trawler… 🙂
LL- Oh so true! 🙂
r- Depended on the ‘approach path’ to the airport… 🙂 For Malacca, we launched out of RAAF Butterworth (Penang Is.)
WSF- Depended on who and ‘where’… 🙂 And whether or not the bombbay doors were open.
Rev- Yep, that would get your attention!
Fargo- 🙂 Thanks!
CP- We didn’t have computers in the B’s… And the 901 in the C’s was Octal!
Suz- You could ‘sneak’ up on them occasionally… Down sun and all that, and low… 😀
Sendarius- Yep, some serious math there… Probably 200 feet up in this picture.
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