A Frank Odell Web Page

The date was the mid 1990s' and the location of the missile test was in the Atlantic Ocean 50 to 75 miles east of Cape Canaveral, Florida. It was a beautiful day of sunshine, light winds and slow rollers. USNS RANGE SENTINEL had a deck load of international news people and their equipment to view and record the historic event.

During the operation USNS RANGE SENTINEL was acting as the Launch Area Support Ship during the first Trident II missile launch by Her Majesty's Royal Navy's first Trident II submarine. The purpose of the operation was to demonstrate the operational capabilities of the submarine's strategic missile weapon system and her crew's ability to successfully operate the system.

The official units involved were from the US Navy, US Air Force and UK Navy. The UK submarine came into the area from her base in the UK. US Navy support was from Port Canaveral, Florida, USA and US Air Force support was from Patrick Air Force Base, Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA. The Greenpeace units were all brought into the area aboard m/v Solo and they were from Rotterdam, Holland.

Greenpeace showed up even though they were not invited. This was to be a confrontation at sea. To borrow a phrase, "let the games begin."

They sailed their ice breaker SOLO all the way from Rotterdam, Holland, via Porto Rico, to Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, just to see the first United Kingdom Trident II submarine conduct its first missile launch.

Actually, their purpose was to stop the UK missile operations by physically placing themselves inside the danger zone just prior to the missile launch, because they knew that Range Safety rules cause a HOLD condition to be generated if any unauthorized personnel are inside the danger area.

It is likely that the presence of eight international and local television crews and other journalists aboard our ship was their motivation. The green guys put on a really good show for the cameras and we enjoyed watching them do their act. My perception was that the media people were strongly on the side of the greenies.

The greenies had one helicopter and we had two helicopters. They had five hard bottom motorized rafts and we had a submarine. While they made many efforts to stop the missile launching, it was inevitable that the missile would fly that day.

The weather was perfect and the green guys seemed to be having a great time. We on RANGE SENTINEL were outside, as much as possible, to watch the show. The green guys put their small boats in the water early and had a jolly time running around looking for the submerged submarine. The guys in the small boats came very close to us and waved their flags and yelled and generally amused us.

They had trouble staying near the submarine because the submarine would hide by submerging. Hiding is what a submarine does best. The submarine would surface when some event required its presence and would re-submerge after completing the required task. This would leave the greenies wandering about without a clue as to the submarines location.

The green guy's helicopter flew search patterns looking for the submarine while their small boats spread out on the water where they thought the submarine might be hiding. When the helicopter crew spotted the submarine's mast breaking the surface of the water they would head for the spot and would call the small boats and SOLO by radio and direct them to the area. The green guys really did try, but they were over matched when they took on the United Kingdoms Royal Navy.

The missile was successfully launched that day.

Photographs by Ken Porter, Cocoa Beach, Florida, USA