Conventional Trident Missiles Will Aid Terror War

[HAL Pilot]

there never was a call to get my butt up to the front office afterwards.

I didn't get a call either....they were waiting on the ramp for me.....

Back then, the Trident's sound signature was beyond TS/SCI....but who knew? My crew and I sure didn't. We figured there were no training tapes because it was so new.

 

[A4sForever]

May I join in this VP/VS reminiscence orgy-fest? Does this count ??? Attack pilots need sub-hunting love, too.

"We" caught a Russian Golf I or possible converted Zulu on the surface between the Horn of Africa and Socotra Island -- in 1974.

My B/N ... the Navy's oldest B/N and a former enlisted aircrew in WW 2 ... knew EVERYTHING about subs and how to hunt them. We just got lucky this time. We were on a SSSC mission, cruisin' and bumpin' along @ 5000' looking for some Russkie surface ships reported in the area when we got one "singer low" burp on the RHAW gear. 25 miles on the nose. Our eyes get big .... what the hell is that?? Nobody out here is shooting at us, are they?

I would probably have thought ... "gee, that's odd, only one strobe, remind me to write it up if it does it again" .... whereas my B/N started pounding on my shoulder and shouting "THAT'S A FVCKING SUB, THAT'S A SUB !!! LET'S GO GET IT !!!"

That was evidently Russkie sub SOP at the time ... surface --- at least the conn --- do a 360 sweep with the radar and see what happens. Throttles to the firewall, we unloaded and ticked off the miles as we dove toward the surface --- 10 down ... B/'s head in the scope .... I'm seeing nothing except blue ocean ..... 15 down .... still nothing ..... less than 10 miles to go .... Art started picking up a really, really small blip on the radar. "Look through the gunsight --- see if you can see anything behind the pipper" he shouted .... still nothing.

And there it was !!! BINGO !!! Going as fast as they could, pulling the plug and diving, white wake all over ... just like the movies.

It was determined to be a Golf I or a possible converted Zulu class ... we were never really sure --- We got a picture (this isn't it) of the top of the conn and the periscope in the white water as we passed over the last of the conning tower @ 500 KIAS and @ 5" .... I'm pretty sure they "heard" us ... ...

It was a big deal on the ship, especially since the Stoofs and helos were finding NOTHING. Not really their fault .... slow birds -- big ocean. We were lucky. And fast. And had the Navy's oldest B/N aboard.

Like I say ... I'd rather be "lucky" than good any day ...

 

[Brett327]

Yeah, that's been the motto of the military for... how long?

Since tucking tail and running in Vietnam?

Since the disaster in Beirut?

Since "Black Hawk Down"?

And the current boondoggle in Iraq...

How about we learn about how to deal with insurgencies and low-intensity conflicts? Learning to swim in quagmires might be a good idea before we start wondering how to deal with some hypothetical future conflict that will somehow require conventional MIRVed warheads for success...

I like the cut of your jib, shipmate.

Brett

 

[Brett327]

I THOUGHT it smelled slightly better around here.

How DARE you! I was the cleanest and nicest smelling individual in all of Western Europe. Rant on the French inability to get the whole "shower" concept right after all their centuries of culture and advancement to follow. :tongue2_1

Brett

 

[Cate]

It's not the showering. It's the sheer price of doing laundry. Laundromats charging the equivalent of $3.75 a load just to wash? Some of us get poor making our clothes clean, and others just go stinky.

You think France is bad, try eastern Europe. I nearly got knocked over in Bratislava by a guy who was a good two blocks away. Think visible stimmer lines, like in a "Peanuts" comic.

 

[MasterBates]

Yes, there is a most definite culture difference.

My grandfather, only took one bath a week, unless he was dirty in a mud/manure sense. Washed with a handcloth and hot water. That was the way it was done in the old country. Not having runnning water and the hot water coming from the stove tends to make people be stingy with the H2O.

As to France, "Pepe Le Peux" is the mascot, no?