The White Falcon - 23.05.1964, Side 5

4
WHITE FAEGON
Saturday, May 23, 1964 Saturday, May 23, 1964
WHITE FAEGON
5
LB-10 is off on another mission.
Three VP-7 planes are undergoing checks and preventive maintenance.
LB-7 is off the coast of St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Capt. L. P. Pressler, Commander, Fleet Air Wing 11 inspects VP-7.
Welcome Aboard Detachment 13 Of Patrol Squadron 7
Patrol Squadron Seven, home-based at NAS Jacksonville,
Fla. is an important part of the vast organization to protect
the United States and its allies against the great submarine
threat posed by those who would destroy America and its
way of life. Basically, VP-7’s mission is all-weather anti-
submarine warfare with aerial minelaying as its secondary
mission. It has 11 SP-2E aircraft (formerly called the P2V-
5FS Neptune) assigned under the operational control of
Commander, Fleet Air Wing Eleven. These aircraft are
manned by 12 aircrews.
Each crew is generally responsible for maintaining its
own aircraft. If there is any major work to be done the
shops give the crew a hand. Each crew will normally fly
about 60 hours per month. At certain times when fleet exer-
VP-7’s LB-5 is just barely ahead of a tropical storm as it lifts off from
Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico on another mission.
VP-7’s Commanding Officer
Cdr. Thomas A. Graham.
cises are taking place a detachment of planes, and ground
personnel will deploy to another Air Station, and usually,
each year the squadron goes to Roosevelt Roads Naval
Station in Puerto Rico to conduct competitive exercises
which result in its standing in the fleet in comparison with
other ASW patrol squadrons. About every 15 months the
squadron deploys overseas for a period of 5 months.
About 50 officers and nearly 300 enlisted men form
the squadron’s three departments: Operations, Mainten-
ance and Administrative, which direct their appropriate
allowances of personnel in the fulfillment of the squadron’s
missions. There are normally four duty sections which
perform after-hour work required.
Brief History
The Squadron was commissioned originally as VP-119
in August 1944, at Camp Kearney, Calif, where it under-
went training in PB4Y aircraft until December 1944, when
it was transferred to Kaneohe, Hawaii for further train-
ing.
Since its commissioning, Patrol Squadron Seven has
built a record for itself as an outfit that can get the job
done. VP-7 demonstrated this once again in September
1960 when, without notification, it was called upon to keep
a thii’teen day, 24-hour shipping surveillance. Men were
called back from leave and were soon working around the
clock to keep VP-7 in the air. During this period the squad-
ron accumulated some 613 hours of flight time, besides main-
taining their normal ASW/SAR alert status.
Patrol Squadron Seven took part in ice reconnissance
and many other patrols that fall and November found
the squadron with some fifty-two enlisted men advancing
in rate. Cdr. L. H. Thomas, commanding officer, recog-
nizing this achievement, originated an initiation for these
men. Similar to the “Crossing of the Line Ceremony”, the
“Royal Order of the Crow” came into being with King
Odin, Legendary Sea God of the North, presiding at the
festivities. In the midst of flares and smoke laid by heli-
copters, King Oden, his court, and his henchmen arrived
via Navy crash boat in colorful array. There to meet them
were Rear Admiral Moore, COMBARLANT, Captain Gil-
lette, CFAW-3, many men, and friends attached to the
Naval Station. After passing in review, the King of the
North settled down to the more serious work of screening
each new petty officer. At a party later that evening each
received a plaque officially making him a member of the
“Royal Order of the Crow.”
In late August 1961, VP-7 received orders to shift its
home base of operation from NAS Brunswick, Maine to
NAS Jacksonville, Fla. This move, the eighth since the
squadron’s commissioning, was completed in just over a
month’s time; by September 30, the squadron was in an
operational status under the control of FAW-11.
VP-7 immediately took part in operational patrols, and
in October 1961 the squadron flew in Operation GOLDEN
BEAR. In late November VP-7 played host to members
of the Canadian Maritime Patrol Squadron 404 from Green-
wood, Nova Scotia, and in December VP-7 sent an aircraft
to Greenwood to complete the exchange of ideas. Also dur-
ing November and December 1961, Patrol Squadron
Seven maintained a five-plane detachment at NAS Guan-
tanamo Bay, Cuba, under the operational control of Com-
mander, Caribbean Sea Frontier.
Patrol Squadron Seven sent a Mining Reconnaissance
flight to the harbor of NS Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico
on Jan. 9, 1962 as part of the squadron’s ORI for that
year. The squadron began its annual intensive training
there as part of Operation SPRINGBOARD 62. Within a
week of its return to the continental United States after
SPRINGBOARD, the squadron took part in Operation
SLAMEX.
In preparation for its forthcoming deployment to the
Mediterranean, Patrol Squadron Seven sent two liason
crews and aircraft to NAF Sigonella, Sicily on Feb. 21,
1962. Meanwhile that same week, the squadron was given
its annual Administrative/Material inspection prior to
leaving the NAS Jacksonville area. Following this, VP-7
aircraft departed the United States on February 28, 1962
to relieve the deployed squadron VP-44 at NAF Sigonella,
Sicily on March 3. Within three days, VP-7 was taking
part in exercises with the Sixth Fleet and in joint opera-
tions with NATO units.
Being assigned under the operational control of COM-
FAIRMED, the squadron’s primary mission became the
provision of ASW cover for the Sixth Fleet, with secondary
emphasis placed on NATO training and support and ship-
ping surveillance. An eight-plane detachment was sent to
the Royal Hellennic Air Force Base at Soudha, Crete on
March 26 for the purpose of an intensive Sixth Fleet exer-
cise in the eastern Mediterranean.
During this time VP-7 flight crews and ground support
personnel were berthed in spaces aboard the USS ALA-
MEDA COUNTY (AVB-1) which was deployed to Soudha
Bay for that purpose. Meanwhile, the regular continuous
ASW alert contingent was maintained in NAF Sigonella,
and upon the return of the Soudha detachment to Sigonella,
a two-plane ASW alert status was held at Soudha until
units of the Sixth Fleet departed the eastern Mediter-
ranean area.
Several crews and ground support individuals were af-
forded the opportunity to further their education concern-
ing the people and the places of the Mediterranean through
overnight visits and Med Fams to such cities as Athens,
Istanbul, Aviano, Venice, Rome, Pisa, Naples, Marseilles,
Cannes and Nice. On April 9, 1962 the city of Athens be-
came the staging area for a VP-7 detachment of aircraft
working with NATO units of the Royal Hellennic Navy.
Shortly after this, VP-7 crews began training in operating
techniques to be utilized in their anticipated duties in the
forthcoming Mercury manned space shot, MA-7.
On May 2, 1962 Cdr. L. B. Grayton, Jr., relieved Cdr.
W. F. Abernathy as Commanding Officer of Patrol Squad-
ron Seven, and as Commander, Fleet Air Detachment, NAF
Sigonella, Sicily. On May 14, aircrews and ground support
personnel of Patrol Squadron Fifty-six arrived in Sigonella
from the normally assigned deployment base at NS Rota,
Spain, to take part in a joint ASW. exercise with the Sixth
Fleet, which began the following day.
Eight VP-7 aircraft departed Sigonella on May 16 for
their respective staging bases at Ben Guerir AFB, Morocco,
and Lajes AFB, Terceira Island, the Azores, in prepara-
tion for Mercury Test MA-7. In the following two weeks,
air units of VP-7 flew nearly 500 hours providing ASW
coverage for the Sixth Fleet, search operations in support
of MA-7, joint NATO exercises for the Royal Hellennic
Navy, and individual shipping surveillance flights.
At one period of time, VP-7 aircraft was deployed in
five areas: Lajes AFB, Azores; Ben Guerir AFB, Morrocco;
Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain; NAF Sigonella, Sicily; and
Athens, Greece.
Returning to NAS Jacksonville in August 1962, the
Squadron sent a six-plane detachment to NAS Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba in September, followed by a seven-plane detach-
ment to NS Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico in October and
November for surveillance Operations at the height of the
Cuban Crisis.
Patrol Squadron Seven received congratulations from
Rear Adm. J. M. Carson, Commander, Fleet Air Jackson-
ville and from Capt. G. J. Frauenheim, Commander, Fleet
Air Wing Eleven, for its part in the U. S.-imposed quaran-
tine of Soviet vessels carrying offensive weapons to Cuba
during the month of October and November 1962.
Detachment 13 of VP-7 arrived at Keflavik in the evening
of May 4 with Officer in Charge Cdr. Wycliffe D. Toole,
Jr. Cdr. Thomas A. Graham headed the other VP-7 de-
tachment for the Naval Air Station at Rota, Spain after
leaving Jacksonville.
VP-7 Crew 3 arrives at the Naval Air Facility Sigonella, Sicily.
VP-7’s Executive Officer
Cdr. Wycliffe D. Toole.