ONE IF BY LAND
TWO IF BY SEA
THREE ZOOMIN’ IN...
BY STOOF
The Navy S2F-1 "Tracker" selected to fly us to Havana was JA-12 (coincidently, my first two initials and
the ordinal number of the day of my birth). This "Stoof " was selected because its maintenance history had some how
“mysteriously” given it special aerodynamic properties. It had sustained a prang-in crash on a hard carrier
landing earlier in its flight history which required a wing replacement and some extensive airframe structural “body
shop” repair and reconstruction work. Somehow JA-12’s crash and subsequent structural repair work bestowed
improved aerodynamic properties on its refurbished airframe. That S2F could cruise at ~40 knots faster then normal
S2Fs, and had an equivalently faster maximum speed. This latter characteristic would come in handy on this special INTEL gathering
sortie.
We took off from Boca Chica
Field at Zero-Dark-Thirty in the morning and headed south southwest under RF/Radar/Radio EMCON silence. We didn’t
even talk to the Boca Chica
Tower on the radios when we taxied out and took off. We taxied to the
edge of the runway, did our engine run up and Mag-checks, and flashed our aircraft lights when we were ready for take-off.
Because we were an EMCON “VIP” flight for that pre-dawn early morning departure, the Boca Chica Tower
signaled back at us out of the tower window by flashing a handheld mini-searchlight to tell us we were cleared for take-off.
Like
Paul Revere, it was one if by land, two if by sea and three if by Stoof.
We taxied into position, started
our take-off roll, lifted off turning to take up a southerly heading as the wheels-went-THUMP-into-their-wells. After we got
out over the open-ocean we descended to approximately 25 feet above the ocean surface. This low flight altitude was designed
to maintain a very low Radar target horizon thereby presenting a short Radar detection range for the Cuban Coastal Radar to
keep them from detecting us until the very last moment, if at all.
DO
THE RADAR MATH: Doing the Radar Horizon Math using our S2F at ~25' above sea level, and the elevation of Havana
Airport at ~200' above sea level, yields a Radar Horizon of ~27 miles and a Visual Horizon of ~23 miles.
Unlike Key West’s Duval Street,
which doesn't run both ways, the very short 27 mile RF/Radio/Radar Horizon we presented to the Cubans was also our short RF/Radio/Radar
Line-of-Sight Horizon for Radio Frequency Navigation Aids (NAVAIDs) behind us back on Key West. As a result, Line-of-Sight
NAVAIDs like TACAN/VOR were not available to aid the pilots in their navigation after we had “steamed”
a few tens of miles south away from Key West. The earth hugging
LF Radio beacon Ground Wave LOB (Lines of Bearing) received on the S2F AN/ARN-3 Navigational Receiver stayed with us a bit
longer. It was the second-to-last electronic NAVAID information source to go. Key West’s
LF beacon became weaker and weaker as we continued tracking down our ocean-hugging Key
West-to-Havana course just above the wave tops.
Finally, the radio bearing
needle began spinning aimlessly indicating we had lost signal phase lock. There was just one, last electronic NAVAID still
functioning. That “electronic NAVAID” was under the Operational Command of young scope-jockey, "Joltin’
Joe." That’s why they needed to bring OLD…er-r-r-r…I mean, YOUNG Radar Operatin’ ATR-2(AC), "Watashi,"
along. I was there to Radar Navigate and “electronically aid” them in navigating to and into Havana’s narrow harbor entrance.
My pop-up Radar “peeks”
started to faintly paint the highlands along the Cuban coast line, and finally, at around 50 miles out, its coastline geographic
features. Between the glow of Havana’s city lights and my Radar Map, LOBs and vectors
we continued on course closing ever closer to the entrance of Havana
Bay.
My radar horizon, viewed via
my APS-38 PPI Radar Scope, exceeded the pilot’s visual horizon out of the front wind screen by ~4-miles. Thus, the pilots
needed and used the Radar Map-Fixes and bearings I kept feeding them from my APS-38 PPI presentation to supplement, tweak,
stabilize and cross-check the dead-reckoning (DR) navigation plot on the Stoof’s GTP-4 navigation plotter, and the running
manual DR plot the co-pilot was maintaining on the folded up chart on his knee board.
I operated the APS-38 Radar
in the Pop-Up Transmit mode, as we tracked toward Havana.
I would come out of Stand-By, crank up the magnetron, take a few, quick sector sweep paints, then crank the magnetron back
down and go back into Stand-By again. This was the same Pop-Up Transmit Radar tactic the AF-2/3S “Killer”
aircraft employed using their wing-mounted low-power APS-30 Radar when in the final stages of closing in on a submarine bogey.
The "Killer" aircraft's
AF-2W “Guppy Hunter” flight-mate would detect bogey targets at long-range by flying High-CAP airborne
maritime patrol using the 1 Megawatt APS-20 Long-Range Search Radar in combination with the APA-69 ECM, and then would direct
the weapons laden AF-2/3S "Killer" to the target datum.
This basic AF-2W/S ASW Team
tactic was used by the high-flying AF-2W “Hunter” to detect a submarine “bogey”
target at long stand-off ranges. The “bogey” would then be handed off to the duet’s low flying,
electronically silent AF-2/3S “Killer” for terminal target prosecution. The “Killer”
aircraft would then execute final localization down to attack criteria and weapons release.
WALKIN'
ON HAVANA HARBOR, FLIGHT BOOTS THREE FATHOMS ABOVE THE BAY: Like "Navy Clock Work," as dawn was breaking
and the sun started to pop its fiery head above the ocean horizon, we arrived just off the East-West running shoreline of
Cuba in the area where Havana
is located.
I can see why the old Spaniards
picked that particular piece of maritime geography as a safe harbor for their wooden sailing ships. Access to Havana Harbor is through a very narrow, approximately
400+/- yard wide, “mouth” and mile long channel that leads into a weather protective, expansive bay with
finger channels that extend off of it. These natural features made, and still make, Havana
a great Safe Harbor for riding out the hurricanes and ocean storms so prevalent in the Caribbean and Gulf
of Mexico.
There on my on my large AN/APS-38
Radar PPI Scope was the glowing rare-earth, electronic-green land returns that ringed a dark, black hole with a telltale long
dark neck that was Havana Harbor. It was time for us "Stoof Sea Cowboys,” to saddle-up.
Our crew of Sea-Going
Cowboys cinched our seat belts and shoulder harnesses up extra tight as we prepared to commence our run into the black,
dark “mouth of the beast” and down the throat of Havana Harbor.
I zig-zag Radar PPI-map-vectored
the pilots from out in the open-ocean of the Florida Straits, onto a heading that matched the southeasterly run of the harbor’s
entrance channel. We came in fast at near max-military air speed, skimming along just a few feet above the wave tops. The
pilots finally called out to me that they had a clear visual on the relatively obscure, narrow mouth of Havana Harbor and took over the “CONN.”
They adjusted their heading so as to come in dead-center on the channel center-line as they stoked up Engine RPMs one last
notch, adjusted propeller pitch angle-of-attack, and I brought my magnetron up to full “Military” RF
Transmit power as we commenced execution of this Red, White…and Blue & Gold U.S. Navy Air penetration of Havana Harbor.
CAN
YOU HEAR ME NOW?: Permit me a short digression from my Cold War-Fighting Stoof Sea Story. The mental vision
of stoked-up “Stoof” engine RPMs and propeller pitch angle of attack adjustments stirred some brain-based
“Stoof” audio memories.
STOOF
“WHISPERED” SWEET NOTHINGS: Only sweet boudoir whispers from my June-Bride-For-Life,
Dolores, sound better than or can get my All-American Bluejacket blood pumping hotter than the distinctive staccato “Stoof”
sound of a synchronized pair of 1525 HP Lycoming (Curtiss-Wright) R-1820-82A “Lovelies” vibrating their
sweet nothings vibrato through a pair of three bladed props at full military power. The many FLYIN’
'EM, FIXIN’ 'EM & FINDIN’ 'EM hours
I spent strapped betwixt and between those two hot-hummer beauties, bestowed the “gift” of “Stoof
Aviation Dip” upon this Golden CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? sea dog. No, I can’t hear you, now, at least
not as well as before my “Stoof” love affair.
MARK
ON-TOP, NOW…NOW…NOW! MADMAN! MADMAN! POLIAKON AWAY!: My Stoof Aviation Dip is of no real consequence.
The Navy Aviation hymn I hope I will hear reverberating as they lower this Lone Sailor’s
bones beneath Robert E. Lee’s front lawn, is the up-doppler-then-down-doppler staccato sound of the low-flying
Lone Stoof dispatched to fly this ASW Pioneering Lone Sailor's Spirit to that Navy Wings of Gold HUK ASWEX in the
sky.
Mark
On-Top, Now…Now…Now! Madman! Madman! Poliakon Away!
REMEMBER
THE MAINE: We delivered a Reveille wake-up call to folks along Havana's Malecón, courtesy of the U.S. Navy,
just before plunging into the narrow harbor mouth. The two old Spanish forts, Fort of the Three Kings [El Morro] and Fort
San Salvador [La Punta], that stand sentinel on both sides of the mouth to Havana Harbor's shipping channel flashed by us
on each side as we penetrated the channel.
At that point, we were flying
so low and so fast that the prop wash from our propeller blades was kicking water up from the channel surface leaving
a fine water spray “Rooster-Tail” trail behind us. We were VX-1 “Pioneers,” but that rooster-tail spray made us
look like we were Golden-Tailed VS-37 "Sawbucks."
The rooster-tail spray we
were kicking up behind us as we Hiyako’ed down the center of the harbor’s shipping channel was the signature
water spray “Rooster-Tail” of the Air Antisubmarine Squadron Thirty Seven (VS-37) “Golden Rooster-Tailed
Sawbucks." I had not yet heard of the Golden Rooster-Tailed VS-37 "Sawbucks" squadron, but approximately three
years later VS-37 would launch me onto a "Golden" path in life as one of their "Golden Rooster Chicks."
Once we were into the Central Harbor area
we “dirtied up” with some flaps, and pulled back on the throttles to bring our airspeed down to a slower
speed suitable for the tight flight maneuvering required to photo-rig the Soviet freighter in the crowded harbor.
THAR
SHE BLOWS, THAT BE THE “RED” WHALE MOBYSKI DICKSKI: Yeehaw, now this is what Stoof Sleddin’ is all about, Stoofmates!!!
Into that dark hole, midst the electron energized, electric-green rare-earth land returns that framed and defined Havana’s Main Harbor
and shipping channel on the AN/APS-38 PPI display we went in Zoomin’ S2F “Tracker” style. That was it, we were in and “Stoof” tooling around the perimeter
of the Main Harbor area at around 20± feet above Havana
Harbor.
Thar she blows! Thar
be the RED Whale, Mobyski Dickski! Thar, on
his Smoke Stack BLOW HOLE, be a Soviet Star. Click, Click…Click, Click. Make another pass so we can get a few more shots
of those tarpaulin covered crates there on the main deck! Click, Click…Click, Click.
We closed on, flew passed
and around the Russian ship in a photo-rigging pattern at near water-level, variously below and then slightly above the eye-level
of the Russky sailors who were lounging about on the merchant’s main deck. I suppose, those swabbies were gathering
around and waiting for morning quarters. The Russian sailors looked at us from the ship's railing waving and smiling CHEESE
as we Click, Click, Click…Click, Click, Click photo-rigged them and their ship.
I expect at first the crew
thought we were just some crazy, flat-hatting Cuban military aircraft until they saw NAVY and the circled U.S. star bracketed with Red, White and Blue bars marking on the fuselage. We got
the 35MM roll of 8 X 10 Glossies we went in for, “cleaned up” and “poured on the cobs”
as we made a steep power-on banking U-TURN.
It was "balls-to-the-wall"
as we reverse-traced our incoming wave-skimming track back down the shipping channel on our way out. We headed north out of
the mouth of the harbor at full military power, making tracks at ~260 knots towards our Boca Chica Naval Air Station home
and safe harbor. I maintained a sector scan to our “six o’clock,” continuously jockeying the Radar
tilt control up-and-down to see if I could detect any fast moving radar targets at aircraft or sea elevation levels closing
behind us.
Nothing detected, Nada, Zilch,
only “Clean & Green”
sea and land returns. As Martha Stewart
might say, “This is a good thing, ‘Stoof Sledding' Fans.”
WE
DID IT!!! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: Nary a shot
fired and no scrambled Cuban "Sea Fury" fighters detected in hot pursuit. No POWs. No “Stoof”
parts & pieces or Troika of Bluejacket-Filled Body Bags to parade around on National TV. No Miami Herald Headlines. Nicely and SKILLFULLY done or was it nicely and LUCKILY done?
One thing I’ve learned
in life, Stoofmates, when given the choice between SKILL AND LUCK…ALWAYS CHOOSE LUCK.
After departing Havana we were back home and on the ramp at Boca Chica Field in about a half hour. We refueled and
re-filed for a follow-on flight up to Patrick AFB to drop off that precious roll of film at what today is, AFTAC (Air Force
Technical Applications Center). We flew that roll of film containing our snapshots of the Russky Medium Range Ballistic
Missiles (MRBM) crates on the freighter's deck up to Patrick AFB. AFTAC developed and analyzed the photos. Their analysis
ended up reporting that those tarpaulin covered crates on main deck of that ship we photo-rigged in Havana Harbor, did contain
Russian MRBM missiles.
