The White Falcon - 26.11.1962, Page 4

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WHITE FALCON
Monday, November 26, 1962 Monday, November 26, 1962
WHITE FALCON
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WV-2 enroute to airborne early warning patrol of the North Atlantic Barrier.
Outstanding Crew on Routine Patrol
By W. R. Green, JOCA, USN
(1Photographed, by M. C. Rankin,
PH3, USN)
Near the Arctic Circle — some-
where between Iceland and Europe
— we are about 6500 feet above
the ocean. Stars sparkle in the
midnight darkness. Ice forms on
the wings, props, and fuselage as
we pass through clouds in zero
Fahrenheit weather. Rising from
a horizon of clouds at eye level
with the airplane, the Aurora
Borealis radiates a shimmering
spectrum of light high in the sky
There are 26 of us in the air-
plane, 24 crew members plus a
photographer and a journalist.
This flight is strictly operational,
strictly routine. Crew ONE of
AEWRON ELEVEN is patrolling
the airborne early warning bar-
rier in the North Atlantic. The
photographer and journalist are
working on an assignment to get
facts and photographs for a story
about the barrier.
During the past 12 months Crew
ONE has won two six-month com-
petitions for the Commander Bar-
rier Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet,
“Outstanding Crew Award.” Only
this morning Rear Admiral R. B.
Moore, COMBARFORLANT, pre-
sented the trophy to Crew ONE.
The first crew to win the trophy
a second time, Crew ONE enjoys
the added distinction of winning
it in consecutive competitions.
Crew ONE mans a military
modification of the Lockheed
“Super Constellation,” first devel-
oped as a civilian airliner in the
late 1930’s. Its official Navy name
is WV-2 “Warning Star.” Crews
more often call it a “Willie Victor”
and describe it as a “Pregnant
Camel” because radar equipment
bulges very visibly from the top
and bottom of its fuselage.
While jet airliners and even jet
cargo planes may speed through
the sky and zip past the WV-2 or
its civilian counterpart, no other
aircraft is as practical for the
maintenance of the airborne early
warning barrier. Generating a
total of 13,000 horsepower from
four engines, the WV-2 lifts about
70 tons of airplane, men, and
equipment into the air in any kind
of weather.
As it cruises along the barrier
for 12 hours and more, the WV-2
functions as a mobile, airborne,
radar station. It has generators
providing enough electrical power
to light a city block of apartment
houses and a heating system cap-
able of warming a block of resi-
dential homes.
Within the fuselage of the big
airplane is a Combat Information
Center, a nest of men and machin-
es that monitor the skies within
a 250-mile radius and report every
movement detected in the area.
Aboard the WV-2 are bunks
and seats where men may rest
when they are relieved from their
positions. There is a flight galley
for preparing hot meals. And
there is ample space for storing
parachutes, life-preserver vests,
exposure suits, two big rafts, fire
extinguishers, and other miscel-
laneous items. Also stored in the
airplane is the crew’s luggage
which they would need if directed
to land elsewhere than the airfield
from which they departed on the
flight.
No Flight Cancellations
Runways may be packed with
snow or glazed with ice — storms
reduce visibility to absolute zero
— a rash of mechanical failures
may ground some of the airplanes
— and still the WV-2’s must patrol
the barrier day and night, every
day.
Why can’t a barrier patrol be
cancelled? Two historial events il-
lustrate the answer: (1) Nazi
armies marched around the Mag-
inot Line to attack France, and
(2) Japanese aircraft devastated
Pearl Harbor by attacking with-
out warning.
Early warning systems to pre-
vent surprise attacks are constant-
ly maintained in the Pacific, across
North America, and in Europe.
Radar devices scan the skies and
detect and identify all approaching
aircraft. Interceptor aircraft and
retaliatory weapons are poised to
engage an enemy attack. The
radar warning system and its
back up defense forces serve to
discourage enemy attacks and the
combined system of warning, int-
erception, and retaliation is called
deterrent-defense.
If the system were not extended
across the North Atlantic, it would
be a vulnerable “Maginot Line”
around which an enemy could at-
tack. The G-I-UK Line (Green-
land-Iceland-United Kingdom),
patrolled by the Barrier Force
Atlantic, fills the wide gap be-
tween the deterrent-defense sys-
tems in North America and Eu-
rope.
Barriers, Ancient and Modern
Barriers are an ancient mode
of defense. More than 2,000 years
ago work began on the Great Wall
of China. For centuries the Chin-
ese continued to build the massive
barrier. When completed about
the year 1600, it extended 1400
miles, 20-30 feet high, 15-20 feet
thick.
It is interesting to compare the
Chinese Wall with the North At-
lantic AEW barrier. The old wall
was inert stone. The modern bar-
rier is a living-moving force of
men, aircraft, and electronic equip-
ment. Compared in size, the Great
Wall is dwarfed. The AEW bar-
rier in the North Atlantic is more
than 2,000 miles long, 500 miles
wide, 100 miles high.
Trophy Competition
Approximately 25 crews com-
pete for the BARFORLANT Out-
standing Crew Award. Winning
the trophy once is impressive.
Winning it twice in succession is
a remarkable feat of consistently
effective performance. Just to
qualify for competition, a crew
must accomplish at least 12 pat-
rols during the six-month scoring
period without a single aircraft
accident or breach of communica-
tions security.
To surpass the other crews in
two consecutive competitions, Crew
ONE had to cope with more con-
tingencies than a ball club en-
counters in repeating a pennant
win. For example, three of the
many possibly upsetting conditions
of crew competition in the BAR-
FORLANT league are weather,
personnel changes, and just plain
luck.
Unpredictable caprices of Arc-
tic weather are frequent and haz-
ardous along the barrier. Almost
without warning, storms of howl-
ing winds, lightning, and freezing
rain or hail sometimes rage in
the North Atlantic sky and then
suddenly subside. Crews must fly
(Continued on Page 6.)
The 17 men who for the second consecutive time won the “Outstanding Crew Award” stand behind Cmdr.
C. C. O’Hearn, Plane Commander, left, and Rear Adm. R. B. Moore, Commander Barrier Force, Atlantic,
right. Adm. Moore gave his personal congratulations and presented each man with an “Outstanding Crew
Certificate.”
LTJG Giles shoots the stars with
a periscopic sextant.
Personnel at work in the Combat Information Center
aboard the airplane.
Plotters Stroud (left) and Ravan translate contacts
into geographic locations.
Technician McCasland checks elec-
tronic equipment.
ENS Garrett logs navigational data.
CIC Officer Murphy monitors a radarscope.
Radioman sends message to Operational Control Center at COMBAR-
FORLANT headquarters.
During a rest period ECM operator McCarty enjoys a steak yhile
Electrician Engleman reads a news magazine.
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CDR O’Hearn (left) and LT Harding just before leaving the cocKpit
following the flight.