Many Naval Security Group personnel who served during the Vietnam Era are familiar with PIRAZ station – the Primary Identification Radar Advisory Zone established in the Gulf of Tonkin (GOT) in 1966 to track hostile and friendly air traffic over North Vietnam and the GOT. PIRAZ was continuously manned from its inception until after the cessation of hostilities and the return of the POWs from Hanoi in 1973. Since any ship assigned PIRAZ duties (most were cruisers or DLGs) had a NAVSECGRU detachment, quite a few CTs earned membership in the “Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club.”
Continue reading “Peacetime Aerial Reconnaissance Program Station (PIRAZ)”
INTRODUCTION: Captain Howard C. Ehret (Howie) served in the United States Navy as a cryptologic professional from 1962 to 1992. He developed, honed, and assiduously applied his transformational leadership and unsurpassed technical cryptologic skills against the backdrop of the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and regional crises in the Middle East and the Atlantic too numerous to relate. His frame of reference was forward-deployed U.S. Naval forces operating “eyeball to eyeball” with the Soviets and other threats, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Continue reading “HALL of HONOR NOMINATION PACKAGE ICO CAPTAIN HOWARD C. EHRET (USN)”
Shortly after FLTCYBER/C10F was established on 29-Jan-2010, the staff participated in its first major exercise, integrating a planning element into C7F for Terminal Fury 2010. Led by then C10F DCOM RDML Bill Leigher, C10F’s planning element consisted of various IW SMEs who embarked on USS BLUE RIDGE while operating in the South Pacific. Photo credit: Frank Sisto
On March 31st, Hornet tied up at Alameda NAS. On this same day, the Army B-25s were flown to Alameda from Sacramento. Hornet’s normal aircraft were stored below in the hangar deck since the B-25s would not fit in there. Within 24 hours, 16 of the Army bombers were loaded onto Hornet’s flight deck and tied down in the order of their expected launch position.
Continue reading “A Painting of USS Hornet Underway with the Doolittle Raid”
While I appreciate those offering to mentor this outstanding young officer, mentorship from a LCDR, CDR, or CAPT who has not served at sea as a division officer in years is not what is needed right now. What this officer—and every officer—needs is meaningful, relevant training. Not death by PowerPoint, and not an eight-hour STALLION lab they completed years before ever stepping onboard their first ship.
Continue reading “Afloat Cryptology in Crisis:”
On 1 April 2001, a U.S. Navy EP-3 signals intelligence aircraft flying a steady cruising speed, steady on altitude and on its assigned reconnaissance track was repeatedly buzzed by a Chinese Navy J-8II interceptor fighter jet. On the Fighter Pilot’s last harassing fly-by buzz…..he flew so close to the EP-3 that his fighter canopy flew through the prop-arc of the EP-3 causing the EP-3 to abruptly roll losing altitude. Solely due to the strength the Pilot in Command, he was able to wrestle the EP-3 back into level flight. Fortunately for all, the only life lost was that of the offending Chinese Fighter Pilot.
Continue reading “April Fools – Not! The Hainan Incident”
Station HYPO 