For anyone who has never stood for a shift on the helicopter flight deck of a United States Navy guided-missile frigate that might not seem to be a big deal.
But when I think back to how many hours at just about every hour of the day I stood there in that location on the stern of the ship and when I think of how I had a 180-degree area of that big ocean to look at that seems a big deal to me.
And the thing about making a sighting of periscope is that makes me feel less secure. I wonder if there were times I did not see other periscopes.
After phoning it in to the ship's combat information center from my headset I wondered how long it had been staring at me and I knew the ship's radar had probably picked it up as soon as it appeared above the ocean's surface and I had a pretty good guess the radar operators, on the same sound-powered phone circuit I was on with my headset standing there on the helicopter flight deck at the stern of the ship, were deliberately not telling any of us when the ship's radar detected the submarine periscope staring at us.
That was the year 1985. I was a non-rated seaman assigned to the deck division of the United States Navy warship USS Taylor FFG 50 and my duties while out to sea included standing lookout watch and helmsman, which were typical activities of the division I was assigned to.
http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/SSN598.htm
NVR
Naval Vessel Register
GEORGE WASHINGTON (SSN 598)
(ex-SSBN 598)
SUBMARINE (NUCLEAR-POWERED)
Class: SSN 598
Award Date: 12/31/1957
Keel Date: 11/01/1957
Launch Date: 06/09/1959
Commission Date: 12/30/1959
Decommission Date: 01/24/1985
http://www.navysite.de/ssbn/ssbn598.htm
USS George Washington (SSBN 598)
USS GEORGE WASHINGTON was the Navy's first nuclear-powered fleet ballistic missile submarine.
[ Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-Nazi the cowardly International Terrorist Organization violently against the United States of America actively instigate insurrection and subversive activity against the United States of America with all Bill Gates-Microsoft-Corbis-Nazi staff partners contributors employees contractors lawyers managers of any capacity as severely treasonous criminal accomplices and that are active unlawful obstructions, combinations, or assemblages, or rebellion against the authority of the United States that actively make it impracticable to enforce the laws of the United States in the United States and in the Severely Treasonous and Criminally Rebellious State of Washington by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings ]
1991 "Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis" DVD video:
00:30:26
United States Navy Captain Charles McVay - USS Indianapolis CA 35 commanding officer: Oh, God, not just me. Please, God, not just me.
1991 "Mission of the Shark: The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis" DVD video:
00:10:06
United States Navy Captain Charles McVay - USS Indianapolis CA 35 commanding officer: What they have left, however, they have begun to outfit with something new, called Kaitens. Now, Kaitens, for you army-types, are torpedos manned by human beings. Sort of underwater kamikazes. They're very fast, very expendable. You get one of those boys on your tail and zigzagging wouldn't mean a thing. The pilot just recalculates his attack angle and takes another run at your midships.
http://www.e-reading.org.ua/bookreader.php/79701/Clancy_-_Red_Storm_Rising.txt
Clancy Tom, Red Storm Rising [ RACKETEER INFLUENCED AND CORRUPT ORGANIZATIONS US Title 18 ]
Tom Clancy
Red Storm Rising
USS CHICAGO
"Close-approach procedures," McCafferty ordered.
McCafferty had been tracking a surface ship for two hours, ever since his sonarmen had detected her at a range of forty-four miles. The approach was being made on sonar only, and under the captain's orders, sonar had not told the fire-control party what they were tracking. For the time being, every surface contact was being treated as a hostile warship.
"Range three-five hundred yards," the executive officer reported. "Bearing one-four-two, speed eighteen knots, course two-six-one."
"Up scope!" McCafferty ordered. The attack periscope slid up from its well on the starboard side of the pedestal. A quartermaster's mate got behind the instrument, dropped the handles in place, and trained it to the proper bearing. The captain sighted the crosshairs on the target's bow.
"Bearing-mark!"
The quartermaster squeezed the button on the "pickle," transmitting the bearing to the MK-117 fire-control computer.
"Angle on the bow, starboard twenty."
The fire-control technician punched the data into the computer. The microchips rapidly computed distances and angles.
"Solution set. Ready for tubes three and four!"
"Okay." McCafferty stepped back from the periscope and looked over at the exec. "You want to see what we killed?"
"Damn!" The executive officer laughed and lowered the periscope. "Move over, Otto Kretchmer!"
McCafferty picked up the microphone, which went to speakers throughout the submarine. "This is the captain speaking. We just completed the tracking exercise. For anyone who's interested, the ship we just 'killed' is the Universe Ireland, three hundred forty thousand tons' worth of ultra-large crude-carrier. That is all." He put the mike back in its cradle.
"XO, critique?"
"It was too easy, skipper," the executive officer said. "His speed and course were constant. We might have shaved four or five minutes on the target-motion analysis right after we acquired him, but we were looking for a zigzag instead of a constant course. For my money, it's better to proceed like that on a slow target. I'd say we have things going pretty well."
McCafferty nodded agreement. A high-speed target like a destroyer might well head directly for them. The slow ones would probably be altering course constantly under wartime conditions. "We're getting there." The captain looked over to his fire-control party. "That was well done. Let's keep it that way." The next time, McCafferty thought, he'd arrange for sonar not to report a target until it got really close. Then he'd see how fast his men could handle a snapshot engagement. Until then he decided on a strenuous series of computer-simulated engagement drills.
- posted by H.V.O.M - Kerry Wayne Burgess 02:02 AM Pacific Time USA Tuesday 10 April 2012
