DirkaDirka.RedGriffins.org

I had a recent viewer ask what does a Naval Aircrewman do?

For what I did in my time in the service I refer the gentle readers to this Naval Aviation News article: A Hunting We Will Go - Naval Aviation News, March-April 1997

In the S-3 Viking community, aircrewmen have the opportunity to fly on jets aboard aircraft carriers that deploy for six months at a time, sailing the world over. This is a major factor when it comes time for an AW to choose the aircraft in which to serve.

Accelerating from 0 to 140 miles per hour in 2 seconds provides an adrenalin rush all its own.

“I like to call it a kick in the pants,” quipped AW2 Thomas Bell, Sea Control Squadron (VS) 41, NAS North Island, Calif. “It beats any roller coaster you’ve ever been on.”

Assignment to a VS squadron also means greater responsibility aloft, because there is only one sensor operator who must be well versed in both acoustic and nonacoustic sensor equipment.

“The platform carries more responsibility with it in regards to the workload. In an S-3, one person does the job of three in a P-3,” Bell said.

As a post script to the article, “Zeebo” Zelasco, pictured on the first page, is sitting in the SENSO station in the S-3 Viking. Tom Bell, if I recall correctly, may have gone on to fly F-14s as a line officer. Can’t recall if he made Radar Intercept Officer or pilot, and don’t know where he is now.

Dramatic quote of the day from the article:

Imagine this. Leaders in the former Soviet Union, strapped for cash, decide to sell one of their older nuclear missile-capable submarines. Diplomats from the third world nation purchasing the sub are, in fact, a front for a fanatical, well-organized, well-funded group of international terrorists. It’s your job to help locate the sub and stop them.

You are an Aviation Warfare Systems Operator (AW), an enlisted Naval Aircrewman…

…and all of 20 years old.

Gives me chills. Ooh-rah. Thanks for the question!

Related Links:

The Cradle of Naval Aviation

So Others May Live | My Personal Heroes

So Others May Live | Personal Heroes Pt. 2

Military: Not a Social Program

Navy’s finest Combat Aircrewmen

According to the article… S-3 Vikings were originally designed as an anti-submarine warfare aircraft, but are now used mostly for maritime surveillance and as an air refueling plane.

However, some have been modified for electronic warfare and intelligence gathering.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - A US Navy surveillance jet lost its way during a counter-drug mission and strayed into Venezuelan airspace, US officials said Monday following a vehement Venezuelan protest.

Venezuelan Defense Minister Gustavo Rangel called the overflight "a deliberate action" and "another link in a chain of provocations."

Rangel said the Venezuelan air defense system tracked the S-3 Viking over the Venezuelan island of La Orchila on Saturday at 8:40 pm (0010 GMT Sunday).

The island is a military base and a presidential retreat that lies in the Caribbean just north of the Venezuelan mainland.

This is almost funnier than the time one of the Hoovers lost an engine cover over the Hotel Del Coronado….

"A US S-3 aircraft conducting counter-drugs operations lost navigational situational awareness causing it to fly into Venezuelan airspace off the mainland coast," the Joint Interagency Task Force South said in a statement.

The aircraft was assigned to the military-led task force, which directs US counter-drug operations in the Caribbean from its headquarters in Key West, Florida.

Commander Jeffrey Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman, said the S-3 aircrew was queried by Venezuelan air traffic control at Maiquetia after experiencing "intermittent navigational problems" while on a mission originating in Curacao.

The US Air Force operates a base for US counter-drug operations in Curacao, one of the Netherlands Antilles near Venezuela.

I wonder who was flying that bird. If it was truly a nav error, that’s whatcha get for not having a SENSO onboard!

Quoted from FOXNews.com - Submarine Carrying 5 Tons of Cocaine Seized off Guatemala

A submarine-like vessel filled with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocaine was seized off the Guatemalan coast, U.S. officials said.

Where’s the S-3 Viking when you need it?

Navy,submarine,ASW,DEA,Cocaine,War on Drugs

Andy Brewer passed away this year. I just wanted to put this up here in case anyone wanted to share sea stories about Andy so I can put them up on the main site. Leave a reply with your memories.

I got enough time recently to put an email I recieved up as a memorial page on the site.Two of Andy’s shipmates in that picture, Dewey Thompson and Keith Poole, were instructors of mine as I went through VS-41.

As a personal note, I met Andy at the 2004 decom ceremony. He may have passed on as a civilian, but he will always be an AW, and his legacy lives on.

Ironically, I first met Andy a week prior to my son being born and they share the same name - Andrew Charles.

Quoted from Knoxville News Sentinel:

Charles A. (Andy) Brewer

BREWER, CHARLES A. (ANDY) - age 43, of Holtsville, California, passed away Sunday, March 25, 2007. He served in the United States Navy 10 years and most recently with Homeland Security as a U.S. Customs Officer.

Preceded in death by his father, Bill Brewer. Survived by wife, Linda; daughters, Elise and Carley Brewer, Courtney and husband, Leo Jimenez; son, Devin Brewer, all of California; mother and stepfather, Bobbie and Bill Laugherty of Knoxville, Tennessee; brother, Greg Brewer and wife, Vicki of Colts Neck, New Jersey; brother, Jeff Brewer and wife, Dixie of Wheatland, Wyoming.

Family and friends will meet at Woodlawn Cemetery on Monday for 11:00 AM graveside services, Dr. William Sheil, Pastor of First Baptist Church presiding. Arrangements by Berry Funeral Home, Chapman Highway

www.berryfuneralhome.com

We have a memorial letter from an attending AW that was published on redgriffins.org.

THE HANGAR - website for AWs

Space for the RedGriffins.org site has been donated by 3nW Corporation. Here’s a little about the company.

3nW Corporation - Focusing On Disruptive Technology:

Disruptive Technology is defined as any technological advance that attempts to meet at least two of the three following conditions: be ten times cheaper than any alternative, provide ten times higher performance, or provide ten times higher functionality. Meeting all three conditions is optimum.

Disruptive Technology is typically not favored by the previous controlling interest or monopoly, and potential users must learn of the benefits through cooperative business development marketing strategies. Disruptive Technology is highly valued by the business or consumer who benefits from lower costs and higher profits. We believe the goals set forth in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) focus of the United Nations will disrupt global operations and business strategy in such a way where within five years, the markets that have held conventional influence will be irrevocably changed.

3nW Corporation has a relentless commitment to quality and seeks to provide clients with new and innovative methods of solving unique problems with the application of new, disruptive technologies. 3nW Corporation remains dedicated to bringing these concepts to the mainstream markets, providing its clients with an edge in the early adoption phase of technology and procedures. Researching and developing new Disruptive Technologies is the internal software development focus of 3nW Corporation.

The project involving veterans is called Vets2Vines and is located in Solano County. 3nW Corporation is a privately held California C Corporation that qualifies for Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise bidding preference by California state, county, and city municipalities.

For those of you who want to wade through the movie without supporting it… Here’s the script.

Another great resource is the Fah. 9/11 Teacher’s Guide. Basically when the questions you ask the class aren’t true then what you get is an emotional learning experience not based on fact but based on propaganda.

Quote from Michaelmoore.com’s Teacher’s Guide page:

The lessons and activities in this GUIDE are designed to help students develop a critical analytical ability, historical perspective, and applied math skills that will open their minds beyond the current issues covered in Fahrenheit 9/11.

I found about 40% of the Teacher’s Guide to be misphrased or absolutely incorrect. That’s at first glance without actually diving in and debating every single list, I could be off by about 5%, but I know certain ‘facts’ were misrepresented horribly about the events leading up to 9/11.

One example had dates listed wrong for the amount of time that we had enforced the no-fly zone over Iraq - by about SEVEN years. I know because I was there. It also stated it was a ‘United States’ operation, not authorized by the United Nations.

(from the Teacher’s Guide)

Situation #10 (1998-2002) No-Fly Zone

The U.S. and Britain (France withdrew from this coalition), without United Nations authority, have been patrolling and bombing in “no-fly zones” in Iraq. The U.S. and Britain say that they patrol these regions to protect the lives of minority groups that Saddam might threaten. The U.S. and Britain engage in almost daily attacks on Iraqi anti-aircraft emplacements. They launch major bombing episodes in response to alleged significant movements of Iraqi armor in border areas. U.S. and Britain allow pilots to strike any part of the Iraqi air defense system, not just those directly targeting U.S./British aircraft by firing on them or by “locking on” radar detectors to U.S./British planes. The result is up to 5 tons of bombs dropped on Iraq per month with 144 civilians (members of minority groups in the region) killed and 446 injured in 1999 alone.

Critics say the bombings violate the United Nations Charter by using military force to allegedly “police” illegal “no-fly” zones that have never been authorized by the U.N. Security Council or by the U.S. Congress. Will the U.S. continue to enforce these “no fly zones?” What will the U.S. government do?

Really? Resolution 688 of the UN Security Council is what I was there in 1992 to enforce. That went into effect with direct UN authority. I see a direct fallacy posed in that ’situation’.

… and our universities and places of higher education are using this as curriculum? I know this because of a friend who’s a film student told me her film class at SDSU dealt with Fah. 9/11.