(DRAFT VERSION STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION)
© Copyright by John M. Olney, November 21, 1996. All Rights Reserved
Correspondence: 1325 Imola West, #409, Napa, CA 94559 E-mail: thewinecntryclb2@aol.com
Commissioning an Ofiicer and a Gentleman
Immediately upon graduation from Naval Officer Candidate School (OCS) in May 1965, Ensign Kip Michaels married his college sweetheart, Deborah, at the Chapel under the crossed swords of his classmates. The young couple was about to begin their honeymoon in a brand new black and white 1965 Ford Mustang convertible, a wedding gift from the bride's parents.
His initial orders were to attend additional Navy schools to undergo special training at Fleet Sonar School located in Key West, Florida. Kip and his wife would, in essence, have the luxury of a paid honeymoon as they drove down the Atlantic Ocean shoreline to the Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) training school. Following this school, the Michaels would travel to San Diego where he would receive training on the Navy's Registered Publications System.
Kip couldn't help thinking about their courtship and how it had been such a torrid love affair from the beginning back in his mid college years. Neither could keep their hands off the other. Waiting for Michaels' to graduate from OCS, a four month adventure, had been sheer sexual torment for both of them. Since their love making had become uncontrollable, they agreed it was time to marry before something happened and that being Deborah becoming pregnant. In 1965, this was not the thing to do. The Navy would definitely have frowned on his Officer behavior if he was forced to marry her because of a pregnancy.
Now married, they were only a few hours from touching again. They hastily jumped into their convertible laughing as Deborah pitched her bouquet over her shoulder and Kip tossed her garter towards his unmarried officer pals. As they started to drive away, both suddenly noticed the racket from the cans tied to the bumper and the "Just Married" signs taped to the side windows. Outside the Navy Base gates, Michaels stopped the car to cut the cans away and remove the signs.
Once back on the road, Deborah leaned back in her seat and began reminiscing about the wedding. She glanced at Kip and smiled. How handsome he had looked in his formal uniform, white gloves, and sword dangling on his hip as I approached the altar on my father's arm. She thought the day had been ideal. The weather had cooperated and the ceremony had gone off without a hitch.
Meanwhile Ensign Michaels was thinking, God, how I want her right now and here! This woman is going to be my lifetime companion, my lover, and the mother of my children. As my wife, she's going to be a major compliment to any Naval career, should I decide to pursue one. I pray our life together would be as full of happiness, joy and love as we feel at this moment.
They had been driving for three hours. Out of nowhere, Kip suddenly reached over and grasped her hand while thinking to himself, How beautiful she is -- my wife. He continued thinking how the term, My Wife, felt so good. He felt as though he had been saying it for years instead of only a few hours! Kip thought his heart would burst as they journeyed on to their first night as a married couple. He was so full of happiness and love for this woman that he had to restrain himself from stopping the car right there, beside the road, and making passionate love to her in the back seat.
"Hon, are you getting hungry?" he asked.
"Only for your body," she grinned.
"We only have a few more miles to the hotel," he said. "Can you wait, or do I stop for a bite and maybe a drink?"
"Just keep going and get me to our room, you hunk you!"
"Oh, you are a tease. I suppose the wait will be worth it."
"You can count on it, big boy."
Deborah was breathless as they approached the old San Carlos Hotel. She had been informed that it was a beautiful place and that their stay would be heavenly. The hotel truly was as magnificent as she had been told.
The valet ran up to their car. He welcomed them as he first helped Deborah out of the car, then ran to the other side, to Kip, and asked for the keys. Quickly he went to the trunk and was emptying their luggage onto the cart.
As the couple approached the entry way, Deborah commented that it looked as though it were out of a movie set. Flanking the right side of the entrance was a doorman in full regalia welcoming them to the hotel. Walking into the lobby, Deborah could hardly keep from staring. She noticed the crystal chandelier that reflected off the inlaid marble floor, polished to perfection and glistening in the late afternoon light.
When they approach the Check In Desk, the receptionist surmised, "The Michaels, with reservations for the honeymoon suite, I presume?"
"Yes," Kip answered, "but how did you know?"
"Well, you two just have that look!"
The Bell Capt. called for one of his men to handle the young couple's luggage. He then started leading the couple to the elevator. As they rode the elevator, the Bell Capt. looked at the couple and he couldn't help thinking back to his own failed marriage. He still felt a pang in his stomach each time newlywed lovers checked in. He so wished he had stayed off the bottle and away from the women who eventually wrecked his 25 year marriage. Hard to believe he let that all go just to fool around a little. He was on top of the world. Successful corporate man and then came the illegitimate child that destroyed his marriage and family! Now I'm a Bell Captain!
Suddenly jarred back to reality as the elevator doors opened, "Here we are," he said, exiting and leading the young couple down the long hallway towards the Honeymoon Suite. He opened the door and showed them around, pointing out the bar, hi fi, and fireplace in the outer room and finally leading them into the grand bedroom with its plush setting. He then drew the blinds for them and pointed out the spectacular and wide open view of the ocean.
"I think you will like your stay with us. I would stay to unpack you, but most couples seem to prefer to unpack later, right?" stated the Bell Capt. in the form of a question.
Michaels nodded in agreement and gave the Bell Capt. a five dollar tip as he walked him and the bell boy to the door. Deborah, following right behind, stepped into the hall. She remained outside while looking back at Kip.
Suddenly it dawned on Michaels. He quickly jumped into the hall, wrapped his arms around her while lifting her into a cradling position. Then with a giant step, he carried her across the threshold, and exclaimed, "Oh, how I love you, Deborah!" He was careful not to crush the orchid corsage she still wore pinned to the white, short sleeved linen jacket from her trousseau. He continued walking, with her filling his arms, through the living room and into the bedroom where he laid her down gently on the Queen size bed.
Afterwards, they laid there while just looking out the widow, both naked and glistening from their lovemaking. She moved into his waiting arms and he cradled her like only true lovers know how. They felt so complete and full of euphoria. Sated with the fulfillment of their lovemaking, the two just stared at each other in a dream like trance.
They stayed in Myrtle Beach for a week of days and nights filled with the most wonderful sex they had ever known. They then moved on to the next stop, Georgia, where they would take a tour of the old southern mansions. Following that stay, they traveled on to Florida and stopped in Miami. There, they had two more nights before he had to check in at his first school. On their first day, they walked the beaches and just sat around talking and getting to know each other better.
"Deb, can we go to our room now?" he said looking down at his pants.
She followed his eyes and saw that he now had a full erection. She giggled and threw him a towel to cover himself. "Kip, shame on you! Yes, let's go right now. But, don't lose that magnificent tool."
With that they got up and ran to their waiting bed.
Fleet Sonar School, Key West Florida
Chief Andy Williams, considered the Navy's leading authority on all sonar systems, was in the process of welcoming the newest class of Officers. "Good morning gentlemen. For the next two months, I'm going to be your mentor and impart upon you everything you have always wanted to know about submarines and anything else that can float in the ocean. You're going to learn about every moving part of a submarine, particularly Soviet boats, but also subs of every other country of the world. I will give you instruction on Man of War surface Naval ships, merchant ships and finally fishing boats."
Michaels leaned over to the Officer seated next to him. "This sounds like pretty good stuff, don't you think?"
"Nah! I wanted Supply School, not this shit!" he said, with a frown on his face.
Michaels gave him a puzzled look and turned back to listen to the Chief.
"You will be attending class room sessions most of the first month you'll be here. Then for the second month, we're going to break you up into Watch Sections just like it will be when you reach your duty station."
The Chief continued. "You may have noticed a number of enlisted men running around here. They are also training to be stationed at these sites. They follow a curriculum similar to yours."
He concluded, "During that second month, you will be assigned a Watch Section of six enlisted men. Your Section will then rotate through the day, eve and mid watches conducting submarine detection, tracking and localization techniques."
The Chief paused and looked around the room. The Officers were listening to him intently.
"These enlisted men are designated as Oceanographic Technicians, or by acronym, simply “OT's." He stopped to write the terms out on the chalk board. "This is the special designation developed to cover up what these enlisted men really do. In fact, these men are the same as any other Sonar Technician or ST." Again, he paused and wrote the terms on the board. "ST's analyze the output developed through active and/or passive detection systems. However, because the system you will be operating is so highly classified, it is necessary to camouflage the work. The use of the word 'oceanographic' does just that! The Navy wants the world to think that these Naval Facilities (Navfac)) only measure temperature, salinity and other such lofty scientific things."
"Say Chief, when will we find out where we will be assigned?" asked an Ensign from the back of the room.
"In about six weeks, Sir. They wait to see which of you will really excel at this work. The best of you will go to the duty stations where the most Soviet submarine activity is detected. Unfortunately, this means that the best are sent to the remotest of sites. Kind of ironic, huh? The best go to the worst sites!"
"Where are these sites, Chief?" came a question from another Officer.
"Scattered along the East and West Coasts of the continental U.S., the Caribbean, and Aleutian Islands of Alaska ," he responded to the question.
The Chief then returned to his scripted presentation. "While you are attending class here, your personal backgrounds are being scrutinized by the FBI. Its called a Background Investigation. The results of it are the designation of the level of security clearance you will be granted. Levels like confidential, secret, top secret, Q Clearance, and so on. Some of you are already cleared at the Top Secret level. You know that if you're going to RPS training after you graduate from here."
For the remainder of the morning, the Chief gave a general background of the specialized ASW system that the Officers were about to learn. The Chief wrote the word, SOSUS, on the blackboard. Then while he underlined the letters, he explained them. "S O from the word, Sound, S U from the word, Surveillance, and S from the word, System." He elaborated, "It is a very sophisticated technology that required extensive Research & Development before a workable system could be designed and installed. It was the brainchild of joint military and defense contractor efforts that involved some of the nations largest hardware and software companies of the time." He glanced around the room and noted that the majority were following him, so he continued.
"SOSUS is a passive detection system. Passive systems collect the sounds generated by a source, or what we call a target. With an active system, we generate a sound which we call a ping. It travels away from our vessel to eventually strike a target and reflect off of it. Using a special collector, called a sensor, we then detect the return of that ping. Are you all staying up with me?"
Heads were bobbing favorably.
"To detect important targets, such as submarines, the SOSUS detection system must be made compatible to long range sound propagation characteristics. Sound propagation in sea water is a very complex subject and is dependent on a number of factors. Simply stated, sound propagation is the combination of the speed and manner by which sound travels in water and it varies due to the effects of temperature, pressure and salinity." He wrote all these terms on the blackboard.
Michaels was intently listening to every word. He really liked this stuff.
"Another controlling factor is the wave length of the signal being detected. We call it the Frequency. The higher the frequency of the sound source, the shorter the distance the sound can travel and thus be detected. Conversely, the longer the frequency wave length, the lower the frequency, and thus the greater the range at which it can be detected. Is everybody still following me?" the Chief asked, as he looked around the classroom.
Again heads were nodding.
"Very good! Boy, this is a pretty sharp class for once. Ok, here we go again. Sound waves are reflected off the surface and the sea bottom. Additionally, and because of the three variables which I mentioned previously, sound is also captured in zones created by those variables. These sounds are called refracted when this occurs. The most important two zones are called convergence and deep sound channel." Again, he wrote out the terms.
Michaels looked over at that Officer next to him again and saw that he had dozed off. What an idiot this guy is. Just then a piece of chalk came flying across the room from near the entry door to the classroom. It hit the guy next to him. It startled both men.
"Wake up Mr. Kenner and get your ass to my office, Mister." It was CDR Mathers, the XO of the Training School. "Sorry for the interruption, Chief. But you don't deserve such disrespect as this Officer has shown."
The Chief nodded his appreciation to the XO and continued his lecture. "The best condition for long range detection of submarines is to place the collection source near the deep sound channel. Sounds captured in this zone travel horizontally for very great distances, often reaching thousands of miles. Thus, a detection system could be placed on friendly shores, yet look into distant operating areas of a potential adversary."
Michaels thought to himself. Now we're getting somewhere!
"In a passive sensor such as SOSUS, the sounds generated by a submarine must be processed in order to separate broad band noise into its individual sources. The filtration process results in discrete frequencies which can be associated to different rotating machinery components. The principal noise sources are: propeller cavitation which is the result of bubbles forming and collapsing along the propeller blade surface as the pass next to the hull; the propulsion plant of a diesel powered submarine; and auxiliaries machinery components such as main coolant pumps (MCP)."
Continuing, the Chief began describing the equipment used to display these signals. "These discrete frequencies are printed on what is called LOFARGRAM consoles...." He stopped to write the acronym on the board and followed that with the full name, "..... which stands for Low Frequency Analysis and Recorder. Gram is from the Latin word 'gramma' which stands for mark or marker."
The Chief went on to describe what they would be looking at. “The processed sounds of the target on displayed on role of heat sensitive paper which burns the paper going from left to right which contains the frequency of the sounds measured in hertz. The normal console display is 0 to 150 hertz and the operator can switch to two higher bands, 151 to 300 or 301 to 450 hertz. In addition, the operator has some vernier and super vernier bands to conduct in depth analysis of the received sounds. The vernier bandwidth is in 50 hertz increments and the super vernier in 30 hertz bandwidths. (Verniers are equipment that magnifies and enhances a particular frequency range so that the operator can conduct detailed analysis of the signature.)”
The Chief looked around and saw that all were following him.
Michaels was on the edge of his chair. I know I'm really going like this work!
The Chief started up again, "The SOSUS design results in the development of target positional information by electronic steering techniques. To understand this, you need to know how the sounds are collected. A typical array system is made up of 40 hydrophones connected to a cable. They are the collectors. The hydrophones act on the same principal as our ear drum. They convert pressure to electric pulses. When a sound is generated from a source, it travels in an outward manner away from the source and is detected at each hydrophone at a slightly different time." The Chief looked up and saw puzzlement on some faces.
"Let me use an example. Picture in your mind a smooth water surface. Now drop a small pebble in the water and watch the first ring, or what we call a wave, move away from the point of impact. Now picture, if you will, a straight line a short distance away. On that line, place a half dozen boxes. The curved wave will strike each of these boxes, lined up in a straight line, at a slightly different time. By measuring the arrival time at each box, and comparing the multiple arrival times among all the boxes, one can reconstruct from which direction the sound must have originated."
Michaels was beside himself. How come I didn't like this kind of stuff in school, but I'm loving it now? He returned his mind to the Chief's presentation.
"With just one array, one can only find direction, not distance. By creating a system with multiple arrays, each located some distance apart from the others, one can then draw a detection direction line from each array out to infinity. This is called a bearing line."
The Chief drew three short lines on the chalk broad in white. He annotated each as array 1, array 2 and array 3. He then drew a long, blue colored bearing line from array 1. He continued, "Now we draw another bearing line originating from a second array location." He drew that line in yellow chalk, and continued it out until it intersected with the blue line. "As you can see, one will eventually find a point of intersection of the two lines." He then drew a green bearing line out from the third array. "The more arrays contributing intersecting lines, the more accurate the positional information for the location of the sound source. Everybody tracking me?"
The Chief noted more nodding to the affirmative.
He continued. "Even with many arrays intersecting, the precise location of a target, is still only measurable in terms of probabilities. Why, you are probably asking in your mind? Because the system is really not composed of individual bearings. Rather, the time difference readings among the hydrophones produces beams. The beams near the center of the array are the narrowest and are three degrees wide. As one moves towards the end beams, the beam width becomes quite wide. The center of each beam is given a designation of a single bearing." He then went back to his drawing and started drawing in the width of the beam containing the bearing line from each array.
"Now watch what happens! Instead of just three lines, one from each array, there are three lines from each array. The intersecting points of the outer lines from each array form the area of probability that contains the target of interest." He turned at looked around at the class.
The majority were nodding that they understood. Only a few seemed a little confused.
"Don't worry, you all will be receiving a lot more explanation of this beamwidth thing in about a week. Are there any questions?"
Michaels spoke up. "Chief, that funny looking box of probability you drew, looks pretty large. How do they find the target within it?"
"Good question, Mr. Michaels. We need a second system which can go out to the box and continue the localization process. To this end, SOSUS normally works with Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft." He wrote the term out on the chalk board. "ASW” is it's acronym," which he also wrote on the board. "These planes fly to the area of probability generated by SOSUS. Using their own hydrophone type systems, called SONOBUOYS ...," he paused to write the term on the board, "...they start localizing the target positional information." He wrote the term on the board. Then he explained. "Localizing is the iterative process of narrowing down the area of probability to a precise spot where the submarine is located. The aircraft frequently do it so well they are often able to over fly the target and obtain photographs."
He stopped and looked around at the faces of the students. He saw some confusion, so he elaborated. "The aircraft lay out a field of these sonobuoys and by measuring strength and direction of the signal, they know to place another field in a certain location that will increase the probability of where that target is located. Through an iterative process of buoy field laying, they will eventually develop the precise location of the target." He looked around and found that the majority understood.
"Thus, gentlemen, the U.S. Navy, with this ultra secret, land based acoustic detection system, coupled with the ASW aircraft, represents a first line defense against a surprise nuclear attack by the Soviet Union's ballistic and cruise missile submarine forces."
"Chief, what about this Soviet submarine threat?" Michaels asked.
"Well, that's a fair question!" the Chief responded as he walked over to the overhead projector, turned it own and fumbled through some slides. He found what he was looking for and placed it on the projector surface.
"Since the late 1950's the strain between Russia and the United States has, as I'm sure you are all aware, been running high. Submarines are being deployed by both sides at missile launch ranges that blanket both countries. What you see here, is the Soviet Submarine Order of Battle," he said, turning the on projector.
"When are these boats expected to start operations, Chief?" asked Ensign Hornbecker.
"From what our intelligence guys have been hearing, they say launching could start any month now. You'll probably see them operational within the next two, to maybe four months," the Chief responded.
"Wow, isn't that an awful lot of Soviet submarines, Chief?" commented Michaels.
"Yes. Let me try to explain. It is widely thought by our intelligence types, that the Soviets entered into a long range, high quantity, submarine production program because of the results of the Bay of Pigs incident and in response to the American ballistic missile submarine program. Although their order-of-battle significantly outnumbers that of our own, they have not yet developed a true sound isolation program to reduce the noise generated by their submarines. Consequently, the Soviet submarines are quite detectable by U.S. ASW systems and we track them with fairly good accuracy. Thus, they may have numbers but they are vulnerable because they're so noisy. Well, I see that it's just about lunch time so let's break now and I'll see you back here at 1300 hours."
For the next month the class first studied the detailed principles of sound transmission in ocean waters. They learned the basic electronic design of the entire sensor system. Finally, the class studied the entire engineering and propulsion systems of all classes of Soviet submarines. Following all the classroom training, the officers and enlisted men were divided into Watch Sections. Each officer and his enlisted gang rotated through the three Watch Section periods covering the 24 hour day. They conducted training on recognition of submarine signatures. Michaels' Watch Section drew the Mid Watch for the first week.
It was the last day of the Mid Watch cycle. Michaels drove onto base and up to the Terminal Equipment Building (also known by the acronym, TE Building. This name is derived from the fact that it is the building into which the ocean cable connects the hydrophone array to the land site.)
He approached the door then reached over to the code box on the wall and punched in the code for that week. The door swung open and immediately Michaels got a whiff of the carbon air. This odor was generated by the 40 LOFARGRAM consoles with their electrically charged styli crossing the paper and forever burning in the underwater acoustic signals being generated by mother nature, her creatures and mans' great naval ships and boats. It reminded him of the smell he once knew from the operations of his electric train when he was growing up. Michaels then turned his thoughts to the air he was breathing. Every time he came off watch, he would go home with a black powdery soot collected in his ears and around his nostrils. He often wondered how his lungs must look.
The morning hours went by as usual. The OT's were drawing lines horizontally across the gram. Then using a red pencil, they would draw what looked like a check mark along the horizontal line for each discrete frequency that belonged to a particular target. The collection of such lines is called a 'signature' for a particular target.
It was not uncommon to see ten targets, each with multiple check marks, on high profile beams that were aimed at particular harbors or coastal operating areas. Other beams would have only a few target lines in any given hour. Each man was assigned to eight LOFARGRAM consoles. His job was to analyze all the lines that were appearing on those consoles and attempt to associate them to a particular vessel. In most cases, the majority of the detected lines were generated by passing, and noisy, fishing boats.
Each identified line, or group of lines, was assigned a target number. Each target was assigned a classification, as either fishing boat, merchant (freighters and tankers), naval surface or submarine. The interval of reporting of the target to Staff Headquarters depended upon the target classification. Soviet Submarines were highest priority and were reported every four , or more frequently, depending upon their proximity to the continental U.S.A, and its territories, and their operating parameters. At the other end of the precedence scale were fishing boats that were reported at six hour intervals, or until Headquarters instructed to quit reporting them and maintain tracking information locally.
Theoretically Staff Headquarters would receive similar information from each of the Navfac’s and attempt to correlate the targets being detected by each Navfac to determine if it was the same target as being held by other Navfac’s. But, in this case all the information was canned training tapes and such correlation had already been completed. Chief Williams and his staff, who were conducting the evaluation of each participant's capabilities, performed the role of Staff Headquarters. All Chief Williams had to do was feed the trainees pre-composed message traffic.
The training week passed fairly quickly and Chief Williams was now going to show only the officers who would be stationed at the forward Navfacs, close to Soviet ports, how to draft a Soviet submarine detection report to higher authority. “Ok, Mr. Michaels, let’s say you’re on duty and a Sov sub is detected coming through the Kuril Islands, got it?”
“Yes Chief.”
“Then this is what you might to say to higher authoruity.” he said as he placed a slide on the overhead projector.
The Chief then went on to explain the acronyms contained on the overhead slide. “So, the letters, ‘ATT’ stand for ‘at this time,’ and that group of letters….” he pointed to the six letter group (UNODIR) …. “stands for ‘unless otherwise directed‘ and is pronounced when spoken like ‘you know dear’, got it?”
“Got it, Chief”
“Very good, Ensign! You’re a natural for this stuff, Sir. Now then, as for the word ‘Flash, ’ it is required whenever a Soviet submarine is first detected. Flash is the highest precedence for message traffic handling. It is to be sent and processed by each relaying communications station before all other types of traffic. Navfac, Adak in the Pacific and Keflavik in the Atlantic hold an unusual reporting structure and that was because of their arrays being located so close to Soviet submarine ports and transiting lanes. Normally a Navfac reports only to COSP or COSL, but Adak and Keflavik were given special exemption to report ‘Action’ to COSP or COSL with ‘Info’ addresses being every other superior command in the business of worrying about Soviet submarine threats to the USA. This reporting responsibility would continue until other Pacific or Atlantic SOSUS Navfac arrays were also detecting the Soviet submarine. At that point reporting responsibility shifts to COSP or COSL. You still follow me?”
“Not a problem, Chief, got it!”
Michaels and his section continued this training for the next two weeks and it passed quickly as the young couple consumed their off time making love over and over. They experimented in their lovemaking. They found new positions for their couplings that drove them to new heights. They truly loved, trusted and enjoyed each other.
One day he came home early. As he bounded in the door of their motel room, he exclaimed, "Honey, we've got our orders. Come here and we'll open it together."
"Right away my love," she answered as she came running from the make up table in the bathroom. She was wearing only a pair of light pink panties which Michaels could see right through.
He watched her bobbing breasts and dark patch between her legs as she approached him. "My God, you're beautiful. Maybe we'll read the orders later."
"Oh no you don't," she said as she reached him and he tried to touch her breasts. "We read the orders first and then we play."
"That's blackmail!"
"Certainly is. Now open the orders."
Michaels fumbled with the envelope.
Deb grabbed it from him and opened it. She began reading out loud. “You are ordered to proceed to U. S. Naval Facility, Adak, Alaska, following completion of RPS School. You are authorized four days proceed time and four days travel from the time of RPS Certification. Airline vouchers and your pay records are to be picked up by you at the Keys Naval Air base on or before August 4, 1965. You must report to RPS School, San Diego, no later than August 18, 1965.” She stopped reading out loud and looked up at Michaels whose hands were now firmly placed on her naked breasts. "Hon, where is Adak?"
"I don't know. Somewhere in Alaska."
Deb dropped the letter, turned into Michaels, and pulled him back onto the bed. It was a day of intense love making.
Immediately upon graduation from Naval Officer Candidate School (OCS) in May 1965, Ensign Kip Michaels married his college sweetheart, Deborah, at the Chapel under the crossed swords of his classmates. The young couple was about to begin their honeymoon in a brand new black and white 1965 Ford Mustang convertible, a wedding gift from the bride's parents.
His initial orders were to attend additional Navy schools to undergo special training at Fleet Sonar School located in Key West, Florida. Kip and his wife would, in essence, have the luxury of a paid honeymoon as they drove down the Atlantic Ocean shoreline to the Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) training school. Following this school, the Michaels would travel to San Diego where he would receive training on the Navy's Registered Publications System.
Kip couldn't help thinking about their courtship and how it had been such a torrid love affair from the beginning back in his mid college years. Neither could keep their hands off the other. Waiting for Michaels' to graduate from OCS, a four month adventure, had been sheer sexual torment for both of them. Since their love making had become uncontrollable, they agreed it was time to marry before something happened and that being Deborah becoming pregnant. In 1965, this was not the thing to do. The Navy would definitely have frowned on his Officer behavior if he was forced to marry her because of a pregnancy.
Now married, they were only a few hours from touching again. They hastily jumped into their convertible laughing as Deborah pitched her bouquet over her shoulder and Kip tossed her garter towards his unmarried officer pals. As they started to drive away, both suddenly noticed the racket from the cans tied to the bumper and the "Just Married" signs taped to the side windows. Outside the Navy Base gates, Michaels stopped the car to cut the cans away and remove the signs.
Once back on the road, Deborah leaned back in her seat and began reminiscing about the wedding. She glanced at Kip and smiled. How handsome he had looked in his formal uniform, white gloves, and sword dangling on his hip as I approached the altar on my father's arm. She thought the day had been ideal. The weather had cooperated and the ceremony had gone off without a hitch.
Meanwhile Ensign Michaels was thinking, God, how I want her right now and here! This woman is going to be my lifetime companion, my lover, and the mother of my children. As my wife, she's going to be a major compliment to any Naval career, should I decide to pursue one. I pray our life together would be as full of happiness, joy and love as we feel at this moment.
They had been driving for three hours. Out of nowhere, Kip suddenly reached over and grasped her hand while thinking to himself, How beautiful she is -- my wife. He continued thinking how the term, My Wife, felt so good. He felt as though he had been saying it for years instead of only a few hours! Kip thought his heart would burst as they journeyed on to their first night as a married couple. He was so full of happiness and love for this woman that he had to restrain himself from stopping the car right there, beside the road, and making passionate love to her in the back seat.
"Hon, are you getting hungry?" he asked.
"Only for your body," she grinned.
"We only have a few more miles to the hotel," he said. "Can you wait, or do I stop for a bite and maybe a drink?"
"Just keep going and get me to our room, you hunk you!"
"Oh, you are a tease. I suppose the wait will be worth it."
"You can count on it, big boy."
Deborah was breathless as they approached the old San Carlos Hotel. She had been informed that it was a beautiful place and that their stay would be heavenly. The hotel truly was as magnificent as she had been told.
The valet ran up to their car. He welcomed them as he first helped Deborah out of the car, then ran to the other side, to Kip, and asked for the keys. Quickly he went to the trunk and was emptying their luggage onto the cart.
As the couple approached the entry way, Deborah commented that it looked as though it were out of a movie set. Flanking the right side of the entrance was a doorman in full regalia welcoming them to the hotel. Walking into the lobby, Deborah could hardly keep from staring. She noticed the crystal chandelier that reflected off the inlaid marble floor, polished to perfection and glistening in the late afternoon light.
When they approach the Check In Desk, the receptionist surmised, "The Michaels, with reservations for the honeymoon suite, I presume?"
"Yes," Kip answered, "but how did you know?"
"Well, you two just have that look!"
The Bell Capt. called for one of his men to handle the young couple's luggage. He then started leading the couple to the elevator. As they rode the elevator, the Bell Capt. looked at the couple and he couldn't help thinking back to his own failed marriage. He still felt a pang in his stomach each time newlywed lovers checked in. He so wished he had stayed off the bottle and away from the women who eventually wrecked his 25 year marriage. Hard to believe he let that all go just to fool around a little. He was on top of the world. Successful corporate man and then came the illegitimate child that destroyed his marriage and family! Now I'm a Bell Captain!
Suddenly jarred back to reality as the elevator doors opened, "Here we are," he said, exiting and leading the young couple down the long hallway towards the Honeymoon Suite. He opened the door and showed them around, pointing out the bar, hi fi, and fireplace in the outer room and finally leading them into the grand bedroom with its plush setting. He then drew the blinds for them and pointed out the spectacular and wide open view of the ocean.
"I think you will like your stay with us. I would stay to unpack you, but most couples seem to prefer to unpack later, right?" stated the Bell Capt. in the form of a question.
Michaels nodded in agreement and gave the Bell Capt. a five dollar tip as he walked him and the bell boy to the door. Deborah, following right behind, stepped into the hall. She remained outside while looking back at Kip.
Suddenly it dawned on Michaels. He quickly jumped into the hall, wrapped his arms around her while lifting her into a cradling position. Then with a giant step, he carried her across the threshold, and exclaimed, "Oh, how I love you, Deborah!" He was careful not to crush the orchid corsage she still wore pinned to the white, short sleeved linen jacket from her trousseau. He continued walking, with her filling his arms, through the living room and into the bedroom where he laid her down gently on the Queen size bed.
Afterwards, they laid there while just looking out the widow, both naked and glistening from their lovemaking. She moved into his waiting arms and he cradled her like only true lovers know how. They felt so complete and full of euphoria. Sated with the fulfillment of their lovemaking, the two just stared at each other in a dream like trance.
They stayed in Myrtle Beach for a week of days and nights filled with the most wonderful sex they had ever known. They then moved on to the next stop, Georgia, where they would take a tour of the old southern mansions. Following that stay, they traveled on to Florida and stopped in Miami. There, they had two more nights before he had to check in at his first school. On their first day, they walked the beaches and just sat around talking and getting to know each other better.
"Deb, can we go to our room now?" he said looking down at his pants.
She followed his eyes and saw that he now had a full erection. She giggled and threw him a towel to cover himself. "Kip, shame on you! Yes, let's go right now. But, don't lose that magnificent tool."
With that they got up and ran to their waiting bed.
Fleet Sonar School, Key West Florida
Chief Andy Williams, considered the Navy's leading authority on all sonar systems, was in the process of welcoming the newest class of Officers. "Good morning gentlemen. For the next two months, I'm going to be your mentor and impart upon you everything you have always wanted to know about submarines and anything else that can float in the ocean. You're going to learn about every moving part of a submarine, particularly Soviet boats, but also subs of every other country of the world. I will give you instruction on Man of War surface Naval ships, merchant ships and finally fishing boats."
Michaels leaned over to the Officer seated next to him. "This sounds like pretty good stuff, don't you think?"
"Nah! I wanted Supply School, not this shit!" he said, with a frown on his face.
Michaels gave him a puzzled look and turned back to listen to the Chief.
"You will be attending class room sessions most of the first month you'll be here. Then for the second month, we're going to break you up into Watch Sections just like it will be when you reach your duty station."
The Chief continued. "You may have noticed a number of enlisted men running around here. They are also training to be stationed at these sites. They follow a curriculum similar to yours."
He concluded, "During that second month, you will be assigned a Watch Section of six enlisted men. Your Section will then rotate through the day, eve and mid watches conducting submarine detection, tracking and localization techniques."
The Chief paused and looked around the room. The Officers were listening to him intently.
"These enlisted men are designated as Oceanographic Technicians, or by acronym, simply “OT's." He stopped to write the terms out on the chalk board. "This is the special designation developed to cover up what these enlisted men really do. In fact, these men are the same as any other Sonar Technician or ST." Again, he paused and wrote the terms on the board. "ST's analyze the output developed through active and/or passive detection systems. However, because the system you will be operating is so highly classified, it is necessary to camouflage the work. The use of the word 'oceanographic' does just that! The Navy wants the world to think that these Naval Facilities (Navfac)) only measure temperature, salinity and other such lofty scientific things."
"Say Chief, when will we find out where we will be assigned?" asked an Ensign from the back of the room.
"In about six weeks, Sir. They wait to see which of you will really excel at this work. The best of you will go to the duty stations where the most Soviet submarine activity is detected. Unfortunately, this means that the best are sent to the remotest of sites. Kind of ironic, huh? The best go to the worst sites!"
"Where are these sites, Chief?" came a question from another Officer.
"Scattered along the East and West Coasts of the continental U.S., the Caribbean, and Aleutian Islands of Alaska ," he responded to the question.
The Chief then returned to his scripted presentation. "While you are attending class here, your personal backgrounds are being scrutinized by the FBI. Its called a Background Investigation. The results of it are the designation of the level of security clearance you will be granted. Levels like confidential, secret, top secret, Q Clearance, and so on. Some of you are already cleared at the Top Secret level. You know that if you're going to RPS training after you graduate from here."
For the remainder of the morning, the Chief gave a general background of the specialized ASW system that the Officers were about to learn. The Chief wrote the word, SOSUS, on the blackboard. Then while he underlined the letters, he explained them. "S O from the word, Sound, S U from the word, Surveillance, and S from the word, System." He elaborated, "It is a very sophisticated technology that required extensive Research & Development before a workable system could be designed and installed. It was the brainchild of joint military and defense contractor efforts that involved some of the nations largest hardware and software companies of the time." He glanced around the room and noted that the majority were following him, so he continued.
"SOSUS is a passive detection system. Passive systems collect the sounds generated by a source, or what we call a target. With an active system, we generate a sound which we call a ping. It travels away from our vessel to eventually strike a target and reflect off of it. Using a special collector, called a sensor, we then detect the return of that ping. Are you all staying up with me?"
Heads were bobbing favorably.
"To detect important targets, such as submarines, the SOSUS detection system must be made compatible to long range sound propagation characteristics. Sound propagation in sea water is a very complex subject and is dependent on a number of factors. Simply stated, sound propagation is the combination of the speed and manner by which sound travels in water and it varies due to the effects of temperature, pressure and salinity." He wrote all these terms on the blackboard.
Michaels was intently listening to every word. He really liked this stuff.
"Another controlling factor is the wave length of the signal being detected. We call it the Frequency. The higher the frequency of the sound source, the shorter the distance the sound can travel and thus be detected. Conversely, the longer the frequency wave length, the lower the frequency, and thus the greater the range at which it can be detected. Is everybody still following me?" the Chief asked, as he looked around the classroom.
Again heads were nodding.
"Very good! Boy, this is a pretty sharp class for once. Ok, here we go again. Sound waves are reflected off the surface and the sea bottom. Additionally, and because of the three variables which I mentioned previously, sound is also captured in zones created by those variables. These sounds are called refracted when this occurs. The most important two zones are called convergence and deep sound channel." Again, he wrote out the terms.
Michaels looked over at that Officer next to him again and saw that he had dozed off. What an idiot this guy is. Just then a piece of chalk came flying across the room from near the entry door to the classroom. It hit the guy next to him. It startled both men.
"Wake up Mr. Kenner and get your ass to my office, Mister." It was CDR Mathers, the XO of the Training School. "Sorry for the interruption, Chief. But you don't deserve such disrespect as this Officer has shown."
The Chief nodded his appreciation to the XO and continued his lecture. "The best condition for long range detection of submarines is to place the collection source near the deep sound channel. Sounds captured in this zone travel horizontally for very great distances, often reaching thousands of miles. Thus, a detection system could be placed on friendly shores, yet look into distant operating areas of a potential adversary."
Michaels thought to himself. Now we're getting somewhere!
"In a passive sensor such as SOSUS, the sounds generated by a submarine must be processed in order to separate broad band noise into its individual sources. The filtration process results in discrete frequencies which can be associated to different rotating machinery components. The principal noise sources are: propeller cavitation which is the result of bubbles forming and collapsing along the propeller blade surface as the pass next to the hull; the propulsion plant of a diesel powered submarine; and auxiliaries machinery components such as main coolant pumps (MCP)."
Continuing, the Chief began describing the equipment used to display these signals. "These discrete frequencies are printed on what is called LOFARGRAM consoles...." He stopped to write the acronym on the board and followed that with the full name, "..... which stands for Low Frequency Analysis and Recorder. Gram is from the Latin word 'gramma' which stands for mark or marker."
The Chief went on to describe what they would be looking at. “The processed sounds of the target on displayed on role of heat sensitive paper which burns the paper going from left to right which contains the frequency of the sounds measured in hertz. The normal console display is 0 to 150 hertz and the operator can switch to two higher bands, 151 to 300 or 301 to 450 hertz. In addition, the operator has some vernier and super vernier bands to conduct in depth analysis of the received sounds. The vernier bandwidth is in 50 hertz increments and the super vernier in 30 hertz bandwidths. (Verniers are equipment that magnifies and enhances a particular frequency range so that the operator can conduct detailed analysis of the signature.)”
The Chief looked around and saw that all were following him.
Michaels was on the edge of his chair. I know I'm really going like this work!
The Chief started up again, "The SOSUS design results in the development of target positional information by electronic steering techniques. To understand this, you need to know how the sounds are collected. A typical array system is made up of 40 hydrophones connected to a cable. They are the collectors. The hydrophones act on the same principal as our ear drum. They convert pressure to electric pulses. When a sound is generated from a source, it travels in an outward manner away from the source and is detected at each hydrophone at a slightly different time." The Chief looked up and saw puzzlement on some faces.
"Let me use an example. Picture in your mind a smooth water surface. Now drop a small pebble in the water and watch the first ring, or what we call a wave, move away from the point of impact. Now picture, if you will, a straight line a short distance away. On that line, place a half dozen boxes. The curved wave will strike each of these boxes, lined up in a straight line, at a slightly different time. By measuring the arrival time at each box, and comparing the multiple arrival times among all the boxes, one can reconstruct from which direction the sound must have originated."
Michaels was beside himself. How come I didn't like this kind of stuff in school, but I'm loving it now? He returned his mind to the Chief's presentation.
"With just one array, one can only find direction, not distance. By creating a system with multiple arrays, each located some distance apart from the others, one can then draw a detection direction line from each array out to infinity. This is called a bearing line."
The Chief drew three short lines on the chalk broad in white. He annotated each as array 1, array 2 and array 3. He then drew a long, blue colored bearing line from array 1. He continued, "Now we draw another bearing line originating from a second array location." He drew that line in yellow chalk, and continued it out until it intersected with the blue line. "As you can see, one will eventually find a point of intersection of the two lines." He then drew a green bearing line out from the third array. "The more arrays contributing intersecting lines, the more accurate the positional information for the location of the sound source. Everybody tracking me?"
The Chief noted more nodding to the affirmative.
He continued. "Even with many arrays intersecting, the precise location of a target, is still only measurable in terms of probabilities. Why, you are probably asking in your mind? Because the system is really not composed of individual bearings. Rather, the time difference readings among the hydrophones produces beams. The beams near the center of the array are the narrowest and are three degrees wide. As one moves towards the end beams, the beam width becomes quite wide. The center of each beam is given a designation of a single bearing." He then went back to his drawing and started drawing in the width of the beam containing the bearing line from each array.
"Now watch what happens! Instead of just three lines, one from each array, there are three lines from each array. The intersecting points of the outer lines from each array form the area of probability that contains the target of interest." He turned at looked around at the class.
The majority were nodding that they understood. Only a few seemed a little confused.
"Don't worry, you all will be receiving a lot more explanation of this beamwidth thing in about a week. Are there any questions?"
Michaels spoke up. "Chief, that funny looking box of probability you drew, looks pretty large. How do they find the target within it?"
"Good question, Mr. Michaels. We need a second system which can go out to the box and continue the localization process. To this end, SOSUS normally works with Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft." He wrote the term out on the chalk board. "ASW” is it's acronym," which he also wrote on the board. "These planes fly to the area of probability generated by SOSUS. Using their own hydrophone type systems, called SONOBUOYS ...," he paused to write the term on the board, "...they start localizing the target positional information." He wrote the term on the board. Then he explained. "Localizing is the iterative process of narrowing down the area of probability to a precise spot where the submarine is located. The aircraft frequently do it so well they are often able to over fly the target and obtain photographs."
He stopped and looked around at the faces of the students. He saw some confusion, so he elaborated. "The aircraft lay out a field of these sonobuoys and by measuring strength and direction of the signal, they know to place another field in a certain location that will increase the probability of where that target is located. Through an iterative process of buoy field laying, they will eventually develop the precise location of the target." He looked around and found that the majority understood.
"Thus, gentlemen, the U.S. Navy, with this ultra secret, land based acoustic detection system, coupled with the ASW aircraft, represents a first line defense against a surprise nuclear attack by the Soviet Union's ballistic and cruise missile submarine forces."
"Chief, what about this Soviet submarine threat?" Michaels asked.
"Well, that's a fair question!" the Chief responded as he walked over to the overhead projector, turned it own and fumbled through some slides. He found what he was looking for and placed it on the projector surface.
"Since the late 1950's the strain between Russia and the United States has, as I'm sure you are all aware, been running high. Submarines are being deployed by both sides at missile launch ranges that blanket both countries. What you see here, is the Soviet Submarine Order of Battle," he said, turning the on projector.
Type Platform Quantity ClassThe Chief continued. "We understand that the Soviets are about to introduce three new classes of submarines. The Yankee Class -- powered by nuclear propulsion and equipped with 16 ballistic missile tubes with each missile having a range of about 1300 nautical miles. The Charlie Class -- powered by a nuclear propulsion plant but equipped with an underwater cruise missile launch capability. The Victor Class -- a fast attack ASW nuclear submarine."
Ballistic missile, -------nuclear propulsion--------------------13 Hotel
Ballistic missile,------- diesel-electric prop.-------------------35 Golf & Zulu conversions
Guided missile, ------- nuclear prop. -------------------------- 25 Echo I & II
Guided missile, ------- diesel--electric prop ------------------ 22 Juliet & Whiskey conversions
Attack, --------------- nuclear prop. ---------------------------- 12 November
Attack, --------------- diesel or diesel electric prop. --------- 300 Foxtrot, Quebec, Romeo, ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Whiskey& Zulu
"When are these boats expected to start operations, Chief?" asked Ensign Hornbecker.
"From what our intelligence guys have been hearing, they say launching could start any month now. You'll probably see them operational within the next two, to maybe four months," the Chief responded.
"Wow, isn't that an awful lot of Soviet submarines, Chief?" commented Michaels.
"Yes. Let me try to explain. It is widely thought by our intelligence types, that the Soviets entered into a long range, high quantity, submarine production program because of the results of the Bay of Pigs incident and in response to the American ballistic missile submarine program. Although their order-of-battle significantly outnumbers that of our own, they have not yet developed a true sound isolation program to reduce the noise generated by their submarines. Consequently, the Soviet submarines are quite detectable by U.S. ASW systems and we track them with fairly good accuracy. Thus, they may have numbers but they are vulnerable because they're so noisy. Well, I see that it's just about lunch time so let's break now and I'll see you back here at 1300 hours."
For the next month the class first studied the detailed principles of sound transmission in ocean waters. They learned the basic electronic design of the entire sensor system. Finally, the class studied the entire engineering and propulsion systems of all classes of Soviet submarines. Following all the classroom training, the officers and enlisted men were divided into Watch Sections. Each officer and his enlisted gang rotated through the three Watch Section periods covering the 24 hour day. They conducted training on recognition of submarine signatures. Michaels' Watch Section drew the Mid Watch for the first week.
It was the last day of the Mid Watch cycle. Michaels drove onto base and up to the Terminal Equipment Building (also known by the acronym, TE Building. This name is derived from the fact that it is the building into which the ocean cable connects the hydrophone array to the land site.)
He approached the door then reached over to the code box on the wall and punched in the code for that week. The door swung open and immediately Michaels got a whiff of the carbon air. This odor was generated by the 40 LOFARGRAM consoles with their electrically charged styli crossing the paper and forever burning in the underwater acoustic signals being generated by mother nature, her creatures and mans' great naval ships and boats. It reminded him of the smell he once knew from the operations of his electric train when he was growing up. Michaels then turned his thoughts to the air he was breathing. Every time he came off watch, he would go home with a black powdery soot collected in his ears and around his nostrils. He often wondered how his lungs must look.
The morning hours went by as usual. The OT's were drawing lines horizontally across the gram. Then using a red pencil, they would draw what looked like a check mark along the horizontal line for each discrete frequency that belonged to a particular target. The collection of such lines is called a 'signature' for a particular target.
It was not uncommon to see ten targets, each with multiple check marks, on high profile beams that were aimed at particular harbors or coastal operating areas. Other beams would have only a few target lines in any given hour. Each man was assigned to eight LOFARGRAM consoles. His job was to analyze all the lines that were appearing on those consoles and attempt to associate them to a particular vessel. In most cases, the majority of the detected lines were generated by passing, and noisy, fishing boats.
Each identified line, or group of lines, was assigned a target number. Each target was assigned a classification, as either fishing boat, merchant (freighters and tankers), naval surface or submarine. The interval of reporting of the target to Staff Headquarters depended upon the target classification. Soviet Submarines were highest priority and were reported every four , or more frequently, depending upon their proximity to the continental U.S.A, and its territories, and their operating parameters. At the other end of the precedence scale were fishing boats that were reported at six hour intervals, or until Headquarters instructed to quit reporting them and maintain tracking information locally.
Theoretically Staff Headquarters would receive similar information from each of the Navfac’s and attempt to correlate the targets being detected by each Navfac to determine if it was the same target as being held by other Navfac’s. But, in this case all the information was canned training tapes and such correlation had already been completed. Chief Williams and his staff, who were conducting the evaluation of each participant's capabilities, performed the role of Staff Headquarters. All Chief Williams had to do was feed the trainees pre-composed message traffic.
The training week passed fairly quickly and Chief Williams was now going to show only the officers who would be stationed at the forward Navfacs, close to Soviet ports, how to draft a Soviet submarine detection report to higher authority. “Ok, Mr. Michaels, let’s say you’re on duty and a Sov sub is detected coming through the Kuril Islands, got it?”
“Yes Chief.”
“Then this is what you might to say to higher authoruity.” he said as he placed a slide on the overhead projector.
FLASH, FLASH, FLASH
GET WAY TO WRITE JULIAN TIME AS USED FOR
MESSAGES October 3 1968
TOP SECRET
TO: COMOCEANSYSPAC
FROM: Navfac
ADAK
INFO TO:
COMSUBPAC (Commander Submarines Forces Pacific)
COMNAVAIRPAC (Commander Naval Air Forces Pacific)
COMASWFORPAC
(COMMANDER Anti Submarine Warfare Forces Pacific)
CINCPACFLT (COMMANDER in
Chief Pacific Fleet)
CNO (Chief of Naval Operations)
SUBMARINE ALERT
-- SUBMARINE ALERT
New target designated Xray 12: Soviet Nuc sub detected
1117Z passing through Kuril Islands into Pacific. Specific class undetermined
ATT but suspect November class fast attack originating from Vlad based on fast
sustained operating speed of 17 knots. UNODIR reporting will be made at four
hour intervals due to distance from continental USA and lack of confirming
evidence sub will actually transit to open Pacific Ocean transit.
The Chief then went on to explain the acronyms contained on the overhead slide. “So, the letters, ‘ATT’ stand for ‘at this time,’ and that group of letters….” he pointed to the six letter group (UNODIR) …. “stands for ‘unless otherwise directed‘ and is pronounced when spoken like ‘you know dear’, got it?”
“Got it, Chief”
“Very good, Ensign! You’re a natural for this stuff, Sir. Now then, as for the word ‘Flash, ’ it is required whenever a Soviet submarine is first detected. Flash is the highest precedence for message traffic handling. It is to be sent and processed by each relaying communications station before all other types of traffic. Navfac, Adak in the Pacific and Keflavik in the Atlantic hold an unusual reporting structure and that was because of their arrays being located so close to Soviet submarine ports and transiting lanes. Normally a Navfac reports only to COSP or COSL, but Adak and Keflavik were given special exemption to report ‘Action’ to COSP or COSL with ‘Info’ addresses being every other superior command in the business of worrying about Soviet submarine threats to the USA. This reporting responsibility would continue until other Pacific or Atlantic SOSUS Navfac arrays were also detecting the Soviet submarine. At that point reporting responsibility shifts to COSP or COSL. You still follow me?”
“Not a problem, Chief, got it!”
Michaels and his section continued this training for the next two weeks and it passed quickly as the young couple consumed their off time making love over and over. They experimented in their lovemaking. They found new positions for their couplings that drove them to new heights. They truly loved, trusted and enjoyed each other.
One day he came home early. As he bounded in the door of their motel room, he exclaimed, "Honey, we've got our orders. Come here and we'll open it together."
"Right away my love," she answered as she came running from the make up table in the bathroom. She was wearing only a pair of light pink panties which Michaels could see right through.
He watched her bobbing breasts and dark patch between her legs as she approached him. "My God, you're beautiful. Maybe we'll read the orders later."
"Oh no you don't," she said as she reached him and he tried to touch her breasts. "We read the orders first and then we play."
"That's blackmail!"
"Certainly is. Now open the orders."
Michaels fumbled with the envelope.
Deb grabbed it from him and opened it. She began reading out loud. “You are ordered to proceed to U. S. Naval Facility, Adak, Alaska, following completion of RPS School. You are authorized four days proceed time and four days travel from the time of RPS Certification. Airline vouchers and your pay records are to be picked up by you at the Keys Naval Air base on or before August 4, 1965. You must report to RPS School, San Diego, no later than August 18, 1965.” She stopped reading out loud and looked up at Michaels whose hands were now firmly placed on her naked breasts. "Hon, where is Adak?"
"I don't know. Somewhere in Alaska."
Deb dropped the letter, turned into Michaels, and pulled him back onto the bed. It was a day of intense love making.
3 comments:
You need the perspective of an enlisted man and his experiences in the Terminal Bldg. We viewed the job differently . Our experiences in the compound with attempted security breaches could throw some humor into this novel.
You could use the perspective of an enlisted man. Our observations and take on the job itself , could be different. We often stopped attempts by security to breach the Terminal Bldg and the cable vault. Some of us were followed on liberty by would be NIS hopefuls, attempting to get us to mention the word SOSUS or discuss our mission while on liberty in town.1959 to 1962 were my years in Sonar Oceanography, as we called it then.
In the 1961-62 time frame, those of us in the less classified part of FSS referred to this training as being behind the Green Door. Hence, the song with that title was at times popular at the dances at the USO and NCCS. It was very hush, hush, but sometimes, rumors would emerge, such as the unanticipated results flowing from the enrollment of some Canadian WRENs in that training.
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