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I have been serving in the United States Naval Reserve on active duty for over sixteen years. What some of my non-Navy friends and relatives find odd is that I can have spent this much time in the Navy yet never have set foot upon a sea-going vessel. (Well, once I did attend a retirement ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Constitution in Boston, but that hardly counts.) The reason for this is that I enlisted as an "AW," the Navy's only remaining enlisted flying rating, and have been a part of the "P-3 Navy" ever since. The Lockheed P-3 Orion is the U.S. Navy's (and the world's) premier maritime patrol aircraft, or MPA. It is also a land-based platform, which explains my lack of "surface" time.
A "rating" describes an enlisted man's technical specialty. AW is the rating abbreviation for Aviation Warfare Systems Operator. Back during the Cold War it stood for Aviation Anti-submarine Warfare Operator - and detecting, locating, and tracking the Soviet Navy's sub fleet was what it was all about. But the name changed after we won the Cold War (by that I mean AW's - no pride here) and the job is not so much concentrated on Anti-Submarine Warfare as it was then. The P-3 is a multi-faceted and versatile platform that can carry out a wide range of tasking, and today's AW's are up to it.
Most P-3s carry a long "stinger" on the tail, which contains the detecting equipment known as MAD. MAD is just one of thousands of Navy acronyms, and it stands for Magnetic Anomaly Detection. It is used in pinpointing a submerged sub's position. Primarily, since it was my job to operate the MAD gear, (and secondly because I'm a Mad Max fan), someone dubbed me Mad Mac.
In 1984 I enlisted, and accidentally did it as a TAR (another acronym, standing for Training and Administration of Reserves. I didn't know what it meant then, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that I would not be going on any six-month-long deployments overseas. You see, I was already planning on proposing to my girlfriend, and couldn't stand thinking of long separations.) I attended "Boot Camp" at RTC Great Lakes, Illinois before going through the Naval Aircrewman Candidate School at NAS Pensacola, Florida. From there I went on to AW "A" School at NAS Memphis in Millington, Tennessee to learn the basics of my trade, and then on to AW "pipeline" training at the Reserve ASW Training Center at NAS Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. With initial training finally accomplished I received orders to my permanent duty station which was to be aboard Naval Air Facility, Washington, D.C. (on Andrews Air Force Base) assigned to the Squadron Augment Unit, VP-4549, the "Watermen," (which would later become VP-1649). I arrived there in April of 1985.
While there I received my Naval Aircrewman designation as what was then called a Non-acoustic Operator - later an Electronic Warfare Operator, or EWO - flying with some real old-timers from the SAU and the Blackhawks of Patrol Squadron 68, whose "birds" we had to fly, as SAU's did not have their own aircraft. That fortunate alliance allowed me to share in receiving the Navy "E" award for efficiency in combat readiness which VP-68 received in 1988. We were then flying the P-3B TACNAVMOD "Super B." It was also flying with VP-68 in counter-narcotics operations in the Caribbean that led to receiving the Coast Guard Special Operational Services award, for helping nab some drug smugglers.
After three years at that first command, I was sent to Patrol Squadron 92 at Naval Air Station (NAS) South Weymouth, Massachusetts near Boston. Right at home there, as eastern Massachusetts was where I'd grown up. In 1991, VP-92 began transitioning to the newer P-3C model aircraft, which the entire regular Navy P-3 fleet was flying by then; the Reserves were just beginning to upgrade to them, with VP-62 in NAS Jacksonville, Florida getting the Reserve's first ones, P-3C Update IIIs brand-spanking new off the Lockheed production line in 1989. We weren't quite so fortunate, getting Update II planes that were already over ten years old. But, hey, they were new to us! I had to extend my tour of duty at VP-92 in order to complete the transition with the squadron and they sent me away for the summer to Patrol Squadron 30 at NAS Jacksonville, the Fleet Replacement Squadron that trains P-3 crews. There, as a "re-tread," I went through the Non-acoustic Operator curriculum to learn the ins and outs of the P-3C ASW electronics suite as pertained to an Electronic Warfare Operator.
In late summer 1995 I was transferred to Patrol Squadron 66 at NAS JRB Willow Grove, Pennsylvania near Philadelphia. VP-66 was now in transition at that time to the P-3C UII aircraft (lucky me...again!), and I checked in as the only qualified Sensor Station Three operator, and was promptly sent off on detachment to NS Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico where the squadron was doing its first deployment with the newer aircraft. VP-66 was at the time a dual-mission squadron, prepared to carry out both the ASW mission in the P-3C UII aircraft and electronic warfare (EW) training for the surface fleet flying the EP-3J "Electric Orion," after having received the only two EP-3Js in existence in early 1995 from VAQ-33 in Key West, Florida. After successfully completing fiscal year 1996 doing both missions, the squadron was awarded the Navy Meritorious Unit Commendation. The training services being provided by the EP-3J crews were fast gaining popularity among fleet commanders, and it was decided that a squadron dedicated solely to that single mission was necessary. So, between May and July of 1997, many of the personnel assigned to VP-66 who were working on and flying the EP-3Js transferred to NAS Brunswick, Maine to stand up a new squadron, the "Bandits" of Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Eleven (VQ-11).
I checked in aboard NAS Brunswick on 1 July 1997 assigned to VQ-11's Operations and Aircrew Training Departments. I was designated the squadron's primary instructor in the Radar seat position and Leading Petty Officer of the Aircrew Training Department. After successfully establishing the squadron's Aircrew Training Program, I was reassigned as the Operations Department LPO. In February 1998, the squadron received its first P-3C UII, which was intended as a pilot training aircraft and logistics support for our EW detachments. Just a few weeks later however, an unfortunate accident occurred during ground servicing of the cockpit oxygen system on one of our EP-3Js, resulting in a fire that destroyed the front of the aircraft. It was written off as a "strike" and VQ-11's mission became quite curtailed during the lengthy mishap investigation and subsequent months as we continued to provide EW services with only one aging EW aircraft that spent a lot of time "down" for maintenance requirements. The strike aircraft, bureau number 152745, was sold as scrap recently at NAS Brunswick after salvaging all usable parts from it. Things being as they are, the Navy decided not to replace the old birds with anything newer, and recommended the decommissioning of VQ-11 (so soon!) come March 31 of the year 2000. We recently flew EP-3J Buno. 152719 to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona to its supposed final resting place at the "Boneyard" (although it may eventually be sold to a foreign military). Click here for more information about the Bandits.
Upon decommissioning, I received orders to report to Commander Reserve Patrol Wing Detachment, Brunswick, Maine as an instructor in the P-3C UIII Weapons Systems Trainer. (Although Commander Reserve Patrol Wing staff are based in Norfolk, Virginia, and due to relocate soon to Willow Grove, PA, there are three training simulator staffs detached around the country. I was lucky enough to get the Brunswick det.) I will be serving my last tour in the Navy before I reach twenty year retirement, unless I get advanced to Chief Petty Officer and stick around. Wish me luck!
