European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 05, 1995, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Is Carlos Bengio Onn two vp-5 Squadron members stand beneath the Shadow of an air plane hangar before heading to the flight line. Embargo patrol Squadron is up in air Day and night by Carlos Bongioanni staff writer Essed up circadian rhythms Are a fact of life for members of patrol so 8 up 8currently deployed to Nas Simonella Sicily. 7 / ,._ the. Squadron Ike other patrol squadrons in the Navy typically spends six months out of the year at Remote locations like Iceland puerto. Rico and the azores vp-8 s current Mission is to help provide a continuous maritime air patrol Over the Adriatic sea where nato ships Are enforcing an arms embargo against the former yugoslavia.,. The 24 hour a Day surveillance started More than two years ago and it s not expected to let up anytime soon. The killers Are flying the Midnight missions said cmdr Glenn Fogg vp-8 s officer in charge. It s Tough when you leave and it s dark out Ancl return before the ". Sun comes  ". _ l Fogg said his 11 air Crews while in Simonella will. Constantly have to switch from Day to night shifts Bee Ause of rotating flight schedules. Each air Crew has 12 people. Vp-8 s two previous six month deployments in 1992 and 3994 were to puerto Rico where Squadron planes and Crews helped support operations to detect and Monitor vessels suspected of drug trafficking. Their Mission at Simonella is similar except now they re involved in a continuous surveillance operation. It s pretty much business As usual noted Fogg. We re still doing about the same workload except we re supporting an arms embargo instead of a narcotics embargo.". Fogg added that his Crevis actually flew More hours 720 to 10 per month while in puerto Rico than Thev Are flying now 100 to 120 hours per month. Vp-8 has nine Orion p-3 aircraft deployed to Simonella. The Squadron sends on an average three planes each Day to the Adriatic to complement patrol planes from other nato countries. Each flight lasts about Xvi hours patrol time Over the Adriatic equals six hours and travel time to and from the Adriatic is about 21/z hours. Although vp-8 is now involved primarily with spotting surface ships they can do More. When they re no helping enforce the embargo they do multinational exercises to keep skills such As drop mining anti submarine warfare and anti surface ship warfare up to Par. They also act As a command control and communications link by taking pictures for intelligence purposes.vp-8 has about 360 people including air Crews maintenance and administrative personnel currently deployed to Sig  chief Petty officer Roger Ballard the senior enlisted person in the Squadron s maintenance department said Simonella r environment is Tough to adjust to. Where we re from it s not the same he. Noted. In Brunswick,.mai-ne,. In will be 80 degrees with 30 percent humidity. It s More humid Here. Often the High will be in the 90s, and on the ramp he Black tar will make it about 115. We have to watch out Lor dehydration. Any signs of dehydration or heat exhaustion the supervisor Wilt have them come in said . However the weather is not the hardest adjustment for vp-8 Squadron personnel. The hardest part is leaving your family and Normal Way of life said Fogg trying to explain to your children Why you re leaving again is very  10 to 12 people in the Squadron expect to miss the birth of a child in their families while deployed to Simonella. Is Carlos Bongioanni airman Shauna Kramer Petty officers 3rd class James Millson and George Russell from left come in from the heat. Is 18 the stars and stripes tuesday septembers 1995 a it