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VQ-11 Bandits
VQ-11 Bandits:

The Brief History of a Short-lived Squadron*

    Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Eleven (VQ-11) was officially established on August 2, 1997 during a ceremony held on board Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine. Although the establishment ceremony was held at that time, the squadron was actually operating from July 1, 1997, and some of its personnel had even begun setting up shop in Brunswick as early as April. The squadron was established as a component of the Naval Air Reserve Force, and reported directly to Commander, Reserve Patrol Wing Atlantic1. VQ-11 operated two EP-3J "Electric Orion" aircraft as well as one P-3C Orion later on.

    VQ-11's mission was to provide electronic warfare and command and control warfare training to U.S. Navy battle groups preparing for overseas deployment. This program was conceived as a way of training fleet EW operators to properly detect, classify, and react to hostile threats, and was necessitated by tragic events involving the USS Stark2 and USS Vincennes3 during the 1980s. The mission was accomplished utilizing the EP-3J "Electric Orion" aircraft, a modified P-3B previously used as an anti-submarine warfare aircraft. With a variety of onboard sensors and wing pod emitters, the EP-3J was capable of performing a wide range of communications intrusion, deception, and jamming scenarios. Other components allowed the aircrew to simulate a variety of hostile aircraft radar and anti-ship missile systems. The EP-3J could also dispense chaff to deceive radar systems. The usual crew compliment was three pilots, two flight engineers, three naval flight officers, one sensor operator, a radio operator, and an in-flight technician.

    Prior to VQ-11's establishment, this mission had been performed by other naval units. The only two EP-3J aircraft that ever existed were originally assigned to Tactical Electronic Warfare Squadron Thirty-Three (VAQ-33) at NAS Key West, Florida. Upon VAQ-33's disestablishment in October 1993, the aircraft were transferred to Patrol Squadron Sixty-Six (VP-66) at NAS JRB Willow Grove, Pennsylvania4. While at Willow Grove, the EP-3J mission prospered due to greater awareness of the aircraft and increased demand from the fleet. This demand led to the need for a command dedicated solely to the mission.

    When the decision was first made to stand up a new squadron in the summer of 1997, Patrol Squadron Eleven (VP-11) at NAS Brunswick, Maine was in the throes of standing down to disestablish as a result of a recommendation by the 1995 Base Realignment and Closure Commission. As a tribute to the "Proud Pegasus," the new squadron was designated VQ-115. At VP-66, personnel were asked to participate in selecting a squadron insignia. The winning entry was designed by AT1 Stephen Osborne who was assigned to the EP-3J UIC and flew the aircraft as an In-flight Technician. It was derived from the lethal connotation of a skull adorned with a bandit hat and bandana from western lore. In the background, crossed lightning bolts signified the electronic nature of the mission. Together they represented the deadly threat posed by electronic warfare. The name "Bandit" was explained to me at the time as having been derived from the name of a dog owned by the new squadron's prospective skipper, CDR Al Labeouf6.

    In VQ-11's short history, the squadron sent detachments around the world in support of Battle Group exercises, Command and Control exercises, Joint Task Force Exercises, and UNITAS. The "Bandits" started detachment operations even before their official standup in the summer of 1997. They provided Electronic Warfare Services to four different carrier battle groups while operating out of NAS Oceana, Virginia; NAS Jacksonville, Florida; and NAS North Island, California. During this up-tempo period, not only did the Bandits have to deal with the process of standup without the benefit of already having all the necessary publications, instructions, and equipment in place, but also with setting up in work spaces that were much less than adequate. The old Hangar Three on NAS Brunswick was in serious need of restoration and the Bandits set up shop in a little "trailer park" provided by the contractor in one corner of the hangar deck, while the contractor worked around them and the aircraft! It always seemed a relief to get away on detachment for a while, and somewhat safer, too. This point was made startlingly real to us when atmospheric lead levels were found to be higher than government standards during a sandblasting operation by the contractor to remove old paint from the hangar doors. The episode prompted an all-hands meeting and the unanimous vote to request other spaces to work out of for the remainder of the renovation work. Unfortunately, the squadron was forced to split up at this point, with the Maintenance Department working out of trailers outside of Hangar Two on the flight line, and the rest of the Squadron (Ops, Training, Safety/NATOPS, and Admin) working in spaces topside in Hangar Four. Naturally, interdepartmental communication became more difficult, but the squadron adapted, as always.

    Later that year, VQ-11 participated in UNITAS, a Joint Training Exercise with the Naval Forces of Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, flying 217 flight hours during the two month detachment. In the first few months of 1998, the squadron provided Command and Control training and Joint Task Force Exercise support to Carrier Battle Group elements while operating from Borinquen, Puerto Rico and North Island, California. The Bandits also supported Operation Strong Resolve from Naval Station Rota, Spain, and provided Electronic Warfare interoperability training to the Air Force's 552nd Air Control Wing at Tinker Air force Base, Oklahoma.

    But despite the successes and the fun we were having, the Bandits' existence was doomed from the start. The EP-3J aircraft were old. Indeed, both of them had already undergone extensive inspections to have their service lives extended before they had even departed Willow Grove for their new home at Brunswick. Never loaded with money in the first place, the Reserve Force was at a loss as how to replace the airplanes when their time came, and all inquiries to higher authority evidently resulted in one response: Just keep flying the old warhorses as long as possible. But possibility was extremely limited. The end was seemingly as close as the end of the current service life extension and next major overhaul inspection7. And while some scrambled to find a way for the mission to continue, events began to conspire against them. In April of 1998, while preparations for an upcoming detachment were underway, the cockpit oxygen system on LP-745 suffered a catastrophic failure that resulted in a fire which quickly consumed the front end of the aircraft8. Although the base fire department responded quickly, the damage was already done. The aircraft was determined to be unsalvageable, and the squadron began an arduous standdown while a mishap investigation ensued. It would be eight long months before the Bandits went on the road again.

    Although it was not the reason for VQ-11's ultimate demise, the fire aboard LP-745 did seal the decision to discontinue squadron operations at the end of Fiscal Year 19999. The demands for Fleet training services were impossible to support with just one aged EP-3J and no one wanted to spend money on reconfiguring younger airplanes with the electronics necessary for the Electronic Warfare training mission. The cost of running the kind of detachment operations that had become a way of life for the Bandits was a strain on the Naval Air Reserve Force and Reserve Patrol Wing in particular, which earned its bread and butter with the P-3C ASW aircraft. And although the Regular Navy fleet forces were the direct beneficiaries of VQ-11's mission, standard military politics and fiscal distribution practises prohibited a shift of money from the Fleet to the Reserves for the purpose of maintaining it. So the budget for Fiscal Year 2000 did not include funding for the EP-3J mission.

    Finally in December 1998, VQ-11 began providing fleet support again, first operating twice out of Naval Station Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico and then moving on to detachment sites at Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina; North Island, California; Hickam Air Force Base in Hawaii; Roosey Roads again; and Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C. The squadron's final detachment supported the USS Stennis (CVN-74) battle group in August 1999, operating from North Island. On September 12, 1999 the final flight of LP-719, the last and only EP-3J, was flown to the AMARC facility at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in the Arizona desert. Stripped of all its electronic gear, it will rest "in mothballs" until it is eventually scrapped or sold to a foreign military service. LP-999, the squadron's only P-3C aircraft, which was used solely for pilot training and detachment logistics support, was transferred to SDLM10 at NAS Jacksonville, Florida in November, and thus ended Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Eleven's short, yet illustrious, operational career.

    During the squadron's brief existence, the Bandits operated on three continents, in five countries, and thirteen detachment sites, and flew over 900 hours on 174 operational sorties. Additional pilot and crew proficiency training resulted in a total of over 2,000 flight hours. The dedication of VQ-11's sailors and the wide range of talent and expertise which they brought to bear on the task of preparing the Fleet to go into harm's way was of vital interest to the national defense from 1997 through 1999. May God bless our shipmates in the Fleet and protect them from the harm which it is their duty to confront...



    NOTES:

    1. The two Reserve Patrol Wings, Atlantic and Pacific, were consolidated in 1999 to form a single Reserve Patrol Wing headquarted at Naval Air Station Norfolk, Virginia. The seven squadrons under the cognizance of Commander, Reserve Patrol Wing outnumber those of any single regular navy Patrol Wing in the U.S. Navy.

    2. On May 17, 1987 an Iraqi attack aircraft fired two Exocet missiles at the USS Stark (FFG-31), resulting in the deaths of 37 American sailors and the wounding of 21 of their shipmates.

    3. The USS Vincennes (CG-49), mistaking Iran Air Flight 655 for an Iranian F-14, shot the civilian aircraft down with the loss of all souls on board in April 1988.

    4. VP-66 at this time had two separate UICs (Unit Identification Codes), one for the Anti-Submarine Warfare P-3s and one for the EP-3Js. The EP-3J UIC consisted of Regular Navy personnel as well as the standard Reserve Force contingent of TARs and SELRES. As far as I know, this was a unique situation in the history of Naval Air Reserve Force patrol squadrons. This diversity of personnel was retained in the later formation of VQ-11.

    5. The letters VQ normally designate a Fleet Air Reconnaissance squadron. VAQ designates a Tactical Electronic Warfare squadron. Since the EP-3J was not a reconnaissance platform, and did Electronic Warfare, I always wondered why the Bandits were designated VQ instead of VAQ.

    6. This is the only explanation I ever heard, but unfortunately I never took an opportunity to ask CDR Labeouf himself how accurate it was.

    7. This raises some interesting questions: Why stand up a squadron at a different location, with permanent change of station transfers for all concerned as well as monies for the hangar restoration, if the plan wasn't to continue the mission indefinitely? And if it was, why was the money for obviously needed new aircraft withheld? Did politics have much to do with it? With VP-11 disestablished, was a sacrificial lamb (VQ-11) established to appease the mourners (i.e., Maine politicians)? And if the mission was important enough for all this in the first place, why wasn't it important enough to continue a mere two years later? One must wonder whether the decision to decommission was made at the outset, and whether my squadronmates and I were victims (or beneficiaries?) of pork barrel policies...

    8. Luckily, none of the maintenance crew were harmed.

    9. The Department of Defense runs on a Fiscal Year calendar that begins 1 October of one year and ends 30 September of the following year. Fiscal Year 1999 ended on September 30, 1999 and Fiscal Year 2000 began on October 1, 1999.

    10. The Standard Depot Level Maintenance facility where "overhaul" inspections and rework are performed on P-3s.

    *Disclaimer: This account is by no means official - it does not express the official views of the United States Navy or United States Naval Reserve in any way whatsoever. If inaccuracies are found, the author claims faulty memory due to lead poisoning...


Copyright © 1998-2000 S. A. MacLagan - All rights reserved.



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