Navy pilots are cocky…
Navy pilots are cocky. Tom Cruise got it right.
I flew P-3s in the Navy. The P-3 Orion flew primarily anti-submarine and surveillance missions. About 40 years ago, my squadron would send planes to Adak, Alaska to fly missions just off the Soviet coast. US flights conducted close to non-allied land masses were routinely coordinated through the Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program (PARPRO). We would fly right up to an imaginary line which was offset by a couple of miles from the real “do not cross or else” line which kept us from violating sovereign Soviet airspace. It was crazy in those days… Navy, Air Force, Russian MiGs and Bears flying all around… lots of intercepts… plus surface ships lighting up fire control radars. It was intense. Quite a contrast to only 30 years ago when I flew off the Russian coast. My plane was the only military aircraft in the area that day. The Russians made one sweep with their air defense radar system as if to confirm… Oh, yeah. One Amerikanski P-3. No big deal. That’s all they could do. They didn’t have enough rubles to sustain the intense military coastal operations of the early 1980s.
Also, about 30 years ago, while flying as a Patrol Plane Commander with a reserve squadron out of Okinawa, my crew was tasked with flying off the North Korean coast. It was another PARPRO mission, and the Air Force would be tracking our flight profile. Most of this mission was flown at night. The North Koreans were going to test a rocket that could give them the capability to hit Japanese cities. My task was to fly just off the North Korean coast and monitor their naval surface ships. Those ships were zig zagging under the night cloud cover and waiting to race out into the Sea of Japan to recover the rocket. The North Koreans had an advantage. They knew beforehand where the rocket was supposed to splash down, but they were being coy. The North Korean ships were using the overcast to move close to the imaginary line they knew we would not cross. Plus, they were maneuvering between fishing boats to mask their movements. Bad news for them… the radar gear we had on board this P-3 cut through the clouds and fog to allow us to monitor every course change. It was like watching black and white TV. We could see them, but they didn’t know we could see them.
It was a long flight and the plane tasked to relief us would be launched out of Northern Japan… except that plane went hard down in preflight. I received orders to extend on station… in other words, keep flying. The back up to the relief plane went hard down, too. I received a new message… you guessed it… extend on station. A back up plane to the back up plane was finally launched. New orders… PLE. Keep flying to the Prudent Limit of Endurance, which really meant keep flying until there is only enough fuel to make it back to Okinawa. I radioed the operations officer in Okinawa with an updated time for when I planned to start my return flight to base. His response… can you stay longer?
I huddled up with my flight engineer and determined we could stay longer if we diverted and stopped for fuel on the way to Okinawa. I relayed an updated time for starting my return transit and filed a flight plan for an en route stop to add more fuel to my plane. Finally, the relief plane was getting close. We swapped info with the relief crew and set a course for our pit stop at Iwakuni. It was now daylight and the weather was beautiful. We got the extra fuel and headed back to Okinawa.
We landed. It had been a long, long day that started after dinner the night before. Remember that operations officer in Okinawa? We were in the same squadron but he had been recently promoted to commander so he outranked me. However, he was not a pilot and he didn’t really understand what calls to extend on station and PLE really meant. He shows up on my plane and starts chastising me. According to him, I’m in a heap of trouble because my mission briefing did not include a stop at Iwakuni. The newly minted commander reminded me the Air Force had been monitoring my flight and they lost track of my plane when I stopped for fuel… and USAF General Schmuckatelli wants answers… now!
OK. Here’s my answer… the operations officer directed me to extend on station, PLE then directed me to stay longer. I updated every flight extension with revised return times, and the last update included the stop in Iwakuni. If the Air Force wanted to know the location of my plane, all they had to do was contact Air Traffic Control. I added, “You can tell General Schmuckatelli what I just said or I will… after a beer or two with my crew. The operations officer turned and walked away. Nothing else was said. Yes, Navy pilots are cocky.
P.S. The North Koreans never launched that rocket.
Copyright © 2023 by Ray Fowler
