European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - April 20, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse P-3c Orion being loaded at the naval air station at Sigo Nelta Italy or a Aub nun Tang Mission in the med. Busiest Man on Board tactical coordinator Tracy Smyer. Pilot John Dufreche the Altston commander of Flat with Bill Haney in the cockpit. Acoustic sensors aboard an Orion is Well equipped Lor its prime Rale at finding and destroying enemy subs. Additionally Iho narc rail is outfitted or its other roles mine laying surface surveillance of merchant and warship movements search and Rescue and communications command and control. 11 need be it can sink surface Sholpa with is Harpoon missile. The p-3 a Lour Turboprop engines give it a Range of 4,000 Nauli col Miles 4,600 Mil Sand in can Fly Tor 13 hours without refuelling. Today s Mission is expected to take eight hours 11 ends up being nine. A typical Mission Day is Long for Orion Crews. Prelli Ghl busts and preparations take Thiee hours flight Dino averages about 10 hours and poll Hughl debriefing fueling Etc lakes another hour said cmdr. Scott Semko. The Squadron s commander while at Sig Oriella his p-3s Are responsible for covering a vast area of the Mediterranean from the Center of Spain s Balearic islands to the Middle East Tim p-3s get valuable assistance from the Anil submarine warfare operations Center Assoc at Sigo Nolla 11 briefs and debrief Dews provides them with tactics and environmental information and acts As a command and control Center. Soho 5 Squadron also deploys to Bermuda but he said ins 65 officers and 280 enlisted men and women in his unit feel lot Unale in being Able to come to Simonella the Mediterranean As recent history has shown is whore the action is said Semhon. 33, of Jack son we Fla this site challenges us to perform every Mission tha aircraft can do sometimes on the same Day. There is More intensity Here. We have a p-3 on one hour ready Alert. It launches 50 percent of the time we have planes up Lor on average of 35 hours per Day the Orion has a 12-person Crew three i ols for Wichet purpose two naval flight officers a tactical coordinate and a navigator communicator two Fig he engineers again for Relief purpose two acoustic operators a Nan acoustic operator radar Ethan inflight technician and an ordnance Man. On the ride out to the station the spare Pilot and Engineer hit the plane 3 bunks so they will is Well rested when their turn comes. Others pass tha Lime Reading or playing cards. The transit is bumpy making chores difficult Lor Pelly officer 2.c. Craig Guindon the ordnance Man he did a to o his work loading the piano s so to buoys before Takeoff and now he s preparing a meal for the Crew. Traditionally in is lha ordnance Man who Cooks because nearly All my work is done on the ground said the 28-year-old Dearborn Mich native. Once we get airborne i Don l have much to do until a is Lime to drop the buoys except look out the window potatoes Are my specially. The Crew loves my a Gratin potatoes and Western Omo Lellos. I Don l have logo by a recipe card like the Cooks in the Galley do i Cook things the Way the Crew mates them on today s flight Guindon turns out Steak accompanied by potatoes irid in egg with a bit of onion. Good grub. The p-3 arrives on station and descends to relieve another p-3 circling the sub Al about 2,000 feel. Just before the handover Contact with the sub is lost Semko s air Salt drops a pattern of buoys in the area where the sub should he the buoys Era microphones in the water thai gather in All sorts of sounds whales propellers and is sound of submarines trying to move Leaf Lily through the water. The Job of making sense of All he sounds transmitted Back to the p-3 from the buoys and of finding the sub belongs to the sensor operators. Petty a nicer 2.c Randall Bennett 23. Tom Pittsburgh a. And Petty officer 3 c. Dans pots ton. 22. Irom san Diego p-3 totes 48 song buoys on the outside of the plane and 36 inside. Because the buoys normally Are fired irom the plane by the use of explosive charges dropping Thorn is the ordnance Man s Job Tho buoys Aie dropped in patterns determined by tha area to be covered. The buoys can be set to broadcast on dil Lornt frequencies and to drop 1o various Depths in the water. The buoys transmit for set lengths of time then a Solf do Sluice mechanism sinks them so that they won t pose a Hazard to navigation. Each sensor operator can Monitor tour buoys Al a hmm and. Because each buoy is broadcasting on a Dill rent frequency Tho operators know which buoys Are picking up noises irom the sub. When the p-3 is on station it is under Iho control of the plane s tactical . 25-year-old i Tracy Smylis. He coordinates All functions of the tactical Crow has no Relief and clearly is the busiest Rajtar inboard. He tells the pills where to Fly the plane and orders the placement of buoys. It All comes together Here said the native of Boyd Tex. They ate hot someone shouts meaning that Tho sensor operators Aro recording sounds irom the soviet sub the submarine passes within 200 Yards of one of the buoys. Hour after hour the p-3 Vilics circular patterns at about 1.800 Leet ii continues of top buoys and to track the sub. It also runs simulated torpedo attacks on its Quarry. The sub never surfaces. The goal of the aircraft s Crew a Ofp-3c Orion aircraft a. April 20,1988 the stars and stripes Page 15
