I was going to post this yesterday for TBT, and forgot… And I don’t feel like doing politics today.
Back in the day, the P-3A/B aircraft had a radio operator. Yes, he operated the HF and secure radios and TTY (teletype) and morse code. And he was also a forward observer, depending on what we were doing.
The problem was, due to ‘limited’ space, the radio operator didn’t get a nice hardened TTY. According to what I was told, the unit was ‘originally’ meant to be used by secretaries/shore operators in the comm center. Soooo, they gave a ‘fragile’ TTY to a bunch of ham fisted guys bouncing around in an airplane…
Amazingly, a lot of the folks made them work anyway!
And this pic has been floating around for years…
These were the six operational squadrons flying out of NAS JAX in the 70s-80s under Commander, Patrol Wing Eleven. This was when we had 24 active squadrons between the four bases, plus the 13 reserve squadrons during the Cold War. The picture was taken in 1985, one of the few times we had birds from every squadron in town. Usually, at least one of the squadrons was deployed.
And yes, if you were there, the other squadron was VP-30, but it was a training (RAG) squadron, not operational, plus VP-62, the reserve squadron.
And we deployed all over the world with them.
I’d mentioned to you before about a good friend who was a CTI2 (at the time) Russian linguist on P3’s out of Atsugi Japan ,and he got around on other planes too. He had a story that was about a slang term called “breaking the code” on P3’s. The first guy to use the shitter (a solid) had to empty it off the plane when they landed because he “broke the code” . He also had a habit from aircrew of saying/shouting “SAGE!!!” when he …ummmm…broke wind , he said that was an aircrew thing too. You ever heard of these two things? Or was he bullshittin me?
Yes, if you dropped a deuce you emptied it, no matter the rank. This was observed in WestPac VP squadrons in the 60’s-70’s.
He was correct!
No patter the platform either. My EC-130E ABCCC had the same rule for the canister toilet.
I was driving through Jacksonville in the late 80s, and P-3s were taking off one after the other, 60 second intervals was my guess. It was impressive, and a little spooky at the same time.
Impressive.
I wonder if the radio operators had a substantially higher number of back problems than others in their units.
Thanks for the great pictures. Lived in Jax in the Riverside/Avondale area and always enjoyed being on the pattern for P3s (and others) going in & out of NAS JAX.
Were you ever there when they did the simulated evac of families & .gov civilians from Gitmo? Nothing like a few flights of C141 to make to make you aware of things. Understood they called it a ‘shopping trip to the mainland’ LOL
Oh the memories… I was a P-3 Radio Operator/IFT until ’79. We got the TT-264 in the P-2’s when the Navy started getting away from the code key. I started the last code class at VP-31 (North Island) in ’67 but the class was cancelled the first day because it was decided to stop training operaters in morse code.
Yes, I did both Moffett and Jax, JD I remember that too!
Mike- They were ‘flapping’ on probably multiple contacts. We did that a time or two, with multiple squadrons all flying on different targets.
Flugel- They did away with the morse code class, but some of the ‘old fart’ radio guys used the key to ‘keep the circuit’ open, if I remember correctly.
Looks like a batch of Lockheed electras? I flew many hours in those as a passenger CONUS and down in S. America. Robust as heck aircraft.
NFO, I don’t blame you for a second on the politics thing, I’ve taken refuge from the errant idiocy in fishing. But that’s me, maybe shooting next.
Terra- Point!
LSP- Sigh…agreed!
What squadron did you fly with, NFO?
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