Sad final note for a 110-foot subchaser

Posted on by One comment

On 23 May 1942, the 110-foot SC-497-class wooden-hulled submarine chaser PC-772 was laid down at the Peyton Co., Newport Beach, California, and commissioned on 15 April 1943 as USS SC-772, likely spending her wartime career in coastal patrol not far from the yard that built her.

At the end of WWII, SC-772 was transferred to the USCG briefly along with 69 sisters to serve as an unarmed Air-class air-sea rescue cutter, commissioned as the USCGC Air Mallard (WAVR 437) in December 1945 and stationed at Newport Beach with her sister, USCGC Air Martin (WAVR 438/ex-SC-775).

USCGC Air Mallard (WAVR-437). c. 1946. Off San Diego

A short-lived program for the cash-strapped agency, the Airs were soon disposed of and sold on the commercial market for use as fishing trawlers, offshore supply boats, and yachts.

So, the former subchaser meandered, headed to the Vancouver area as M/V Lady Goodiver in 1948, then serving as a barge, a salvage boat, a dive tender, and any number of houseboats and yachts, carrying assorted names over the years, including Joan Lindsay and Maplewood.

By 2010, she was undergoing conversion to become a floating bed and breakfast near Scappoose, Oregon, carrying her original Subchaser SC-772 name.

Then, in 2020, she was sunk at her moorage by a floating log that holed her under the waterline. Resting on the bottom under 16 feet of water, she was recently salvaged, an end to an era.

Pour one out to the old SC-772, boys.

A sip of fuel sometimes means more than a sip of fuel

Posted on by Leave a comment

A boat with no crew recently pulled in behind a Navy ship off Virginia and filled its tank, repeating the evolution over 100 times, ultimately transferring about 400 gallons of fuel.

NAWCWD’s Blue Water Instrumentation team ran Sealartec’s robotic refueling rig– dubbed the Towable Capture and Connection Device (TCCD)– a refueling sled/cradle towed behind the training support vessel USNS Vindicator (TSV 5).

An operator steered the MARTAC’s 38-foot T38 Devil Ray unmanned surface vessel into it. Fuel flowed, and the boat pulled away.

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, approaches a towable capture and connection device, center, towed by USNS Vindicator (TSV 5), right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

The T38 unmanned surface vessel, right, closes on a towable capture and connection device, left, under tow during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

A refueling probe on the T38 unmanned surface vessel, left, prepares to mate with a towable capture and connection device, right, during an Aug. 11 refueling demonstration off Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story, Virginia. Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s Blue Water Instrumentation program led the demonstration, part of an effort to keep unmanned vessels on station longer during long-range weapons testing. (Courtesy photo)

If you did something like this 25 years ago, it would seem like magic.

Today, it is almost anticlimactic.

The next step will be drones refueling drones, keeping autonomous fleets quietly underway for years at a time. No headlines about ships at sea for 250 days…because there won’t be a crew to complain.

You can expect more of the same on a much larger scale moving forward. Everywhere.

Unlikely Oasis Skyraider Reunion

Posted on by One comment

We’ve covered the legacy of the Toyota Wars and the saga of French Jaguar Diplomacy in blunting Gaddafi’s Libyan legions in Chad in the 1980s, but another, even more shoestring, story often goes untold.

Between 1973 and 1978, a group of a half-dozen Korean War-era ex-USN A-1N/NA Skyraiders known to history as the Sky Tchadiens were being flown for the Chadian forces by a collection of French mercenary pilots and two Gabonese Air Force president’s squadron (Groupement Aérien Présidentiel) lieutenants on loan, Jacques Borne (nicknamed “Sarcife”) and René Gras, who, of course, were all just sheep-dipped French Air Force officers.

In the below, Borne is seen in a red scarf, while Gras is seen in a green.

From left to right: Pierre Grosjean, René Gras, Fayolle, and Jacques Borne (Coll. F. Borne)

Underwing are French-designed and produced 60-pound SERAM T-10 100mm rockets, typically carried by Dassault  Ouragan or Mystère aircraft in strike roles. Combined with light GP bombs and the Raiders’ 20mm cannon, they proved strong medicine on attack runs.

Operating as a “light aviation support squadron” (Escadrille Légère d’Aviation d’Appui 1/22 “Ain”), they were officially stationed at Fort-Lamy (now N’Djamena, Chad) but forward-deployed in pairs to Faya-Largeau, an oasis in the north of the country.

At the Faya-Largeau oasis strip, the desert was so deep and loose that planes often sank to the wheel hubs and aircraft patrols took off near-simultaneously as visibility after the first plane went to full power was nil for several minutes after.

From there, they flew dune-height strafing, bombing, and rocketry runs over Libyan-backed insurgent camps and columns and lived to (not) tell the tale.

An average of 35 operational recon, strike, and support sorties were logged every month, which is impressive for two forward-deployed aircraft and just six in the whole country.

The French dubbed the 12,000-pound (empty) Skyraider “La Bête” (The Beast), and they flew them throughout the 1960s and 70s not only in Chad but also in Algeria, Djibouti, and Madagascar.

In all, they acquired 20 ex-USN AD-4s, 88 ex-USN AD-4Ns, and 5 ex-USN AD-4NAs in the early 1960s, some of which were later passed on third-hand to Cambodia, as well as the aforementioned Gabonese and Chadian planes.

At least a dozen ex-Navy Skyraiders flew with ELAA 1/22 in Chad at one time or another in the 1970s (BuNos 126882, 126912, 126935, 126959, 126969, 126970, 126979, 126994, 126996, 126997, 127888, and 127894).

Retired by the French Air Force in 1979, at least one Beast is preserved in Djibouti at Base Aérienne 188 “Colonel Massart” while another, AD-4NA BuNo 126979, which flew with EC 2/20 Ouarsenis in Algeria, is on display at the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace.

First flown by the Navy on 24 September 1952, BuNo 126979 left NAS Norfolk in April 1960, flew with EC 2/20 in Algeria as 20-QA, then with EAA 601 at Châteaudun, and later with ELAA 1/22 in Chad from 1971 through 1975 as 22-DD before she was struck off in 1976.

She reportedly still has a base coat of Navy blue under her French livery.

U.S. Navy Douglas AD-4/-4L Skyraider aircraft from Attack Squadron VA-175 Devil’s Diplomats on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CVB-42). VA-175 was assigned to Carrier Air Group 17 (CVG-17) aboard the FDR for two deployments to the Mediterranean Sea in 1951-52. U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.253.2860

Catching a nap

Posted on by One comment

Enjoy your day off, folks. You can almost smell autumn coming.

“Catching a nap aboard a Man-o-War,” in an interior compartment of a U.S. Navy battleship, circa 1907-1908. Note the fire hose and nozzle stowed on the bulkhead behind the sleeper, and his folding stool. This view may have been taken during the Great White Fleet World Cruise. Collection of Chief Quartermaster John Harold. U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command Photograph. Catalog #: NH 106078

The French Brown Water Geese of Indochina

Posted on by One comment

Following up on Tuesday’s post on USCG Grumman (G-38) JRF-5G Goose amphibians, what’s the rest of the story of the type’s journey in Indochina?

Twelve ex-USN JRF-5s were sold to France in 1952 and delivered to Escadrille 8.S, based at Cat-Lai (later a major Brown Water Navy base) near Saigon (Indochina).

Viet Minh War, 1954, a French Grumman Goose (JRF-5) aids the gunboats patrolling the inland waters of Indo-China. NH 79370

They were mainly used for medevac, transport, and liaison, but in a pinch were equipped with bombs and gun pods to operate in coastal and riverine interdiction.

Five additional ex-USN JRF-5s were delivered in 1954 and fielded at Tan Son Nhut, still under E 8.S.

JRF-5 Goose French Navy Aéronautique navale l’Escadrille 8.S Indochina

Once the French withdrew, four still-flyable JRF-5s were sent to the South Pacific colony of New Caledonia, while the rest were shipped to African colonies.

Goose dets endured at Alger-Maison Blanche (Algeria), where E 8.S was relocated, as well as with 27F in Senegal, flying from Ouakam and Dakar Bel-Air until 1961, when they were finally withdrawn after a Goose making a connection between Dakar and Simti crashed on take-off and caught fire at Tambacounda, Senegal, where it had stopped over, killing six, including two crew, VADM Pierre Ponchardier and his wife, and another married couple. Ponchardier was the famed founder of the French SAS B Commando in 1945 and Dinassaut 8, both of which went on to lots of sneaky para and frogmen things in Indochina.

JRF-5 Goose, French Navy 27 Flotte, F-12, in Dakar, late 1950s. This is USN BuNo 34078, which flew with Escadrille 8S as 8S-7, and was lost with Ponchardier and five others on 27 Jan 1961.

JRF-5 Goose French Navy Aéronavale l’Escadrille 8.S in Algeria late 1950s

JRF-5 Goose, French Navy, Aéronautique navale Dakar 1960

These 12 ex-USN aircraft are confirmed to Aéronautique Navale Escadrille 8S, Indochina:
  • BuNo 04349 (French 8S-3, w/o Sep 24, 1953. SOC Spr 21, 1954)
  • BuNo 04358 (8S-1, WFU Dec 5, 1961)
  • BuNo 34078 (8S-7, later 27F-12 out of Dakar, lost 27 Jan 1961)
  • BuNo 37784 (8S-2, WFU May 24, 1960 at St Mandrier, France
  • BuNo 37791 (8S-4, later N75333, crashed Oct 9, 1974, after takeoff from Wichita, Kansas
  • BuNo 37831 (the second 8S-8; w/o Oct 4, 1956 at Cape Tenes, Algeria)
  • BuNo 84799 (8S-5, WFU Dec 5, 1961)
  • BuNo 84818 (8S-11, w/o Apr 25, 1953 at Cat Lai)
  • BuNo 87727 (8S-8, w/o Apr 3, 1952 at Nha Trang)
  • BuNo 87738 (the second 8S-11, w/o Nov 7, 1958 at St Mandrier
  • BuNo 87741 (8S-9, WFU Aug 25, 1959)
  • BuNo 87742 (8S-10, WFU Dec 5, 1961)

Hail to the King!

Posted on by Leave a comment

Like a king towering over his subjects!

A red-topped UH-3H Sea King helicopter flies near three aircraft carriers moored at Naval Station Norfolk, Virginia, on Aug. 27, 2004. The carriers are (left to right) USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75), USS George Washington (CVN 73), and USS Enterprise (CVN 65). The helo was assigned to the Search and Rescue unit at Naval Air Station Oceana, a detachment of the “Fleet Angels” of Helicopter Combat Support Squadron 2 (HC-2).

(DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st class Anthony M. Koch, U.S. Navy. (Released)

The above aircraft is BuNo 148965, a circa 1961 (SN 61-037) which entered service as an HSS-2 model before redesignation as an SH-3A. She served with the fleet for years, serving with the “Black Knights” of HS-4 and the “Eightballers” of HS-8, and was converted to SH-3H format before being stripped down to a UH-3H. She was struck off charge on 20 April 2005.

The Sikorsky S-61 first flew in 1959 and almost immediately entered service with the Navy as an ASW, SAR, and utility platform, going on to be a Cold War legend.

Retired by the USN in 2006, the “white topped” VH-3D continued to serve as Marine One with HMX-1 until 2021.

Siempre Presente

Posted on by Leave a comment

Dig those M1903s with long M1905 bayonets, M1917 Brodie helmets, Great War style leggings, and M2 gas masks, seen some 85 years ago this month on the eve of the U.S. entrance to WWII.

NARA Local Identifier 126-PG-5G-7

Official period caption:

Members of the Puerto Rican National Guard During Maneuvers. September 1941. San Juan, Puerto Rico. San Juan, Puerto Rico. Gas masks and bayonets are the order of the day in Puerto Rico as Europe is plunged into a new war, and plans for the completion of this U.S. Territory as a “Gibraltar” are rushed. Above, members of the Puerto Rican National Guard are pictured during recent maneuvers in the island. More than $30,000,000 is being spent here for the establishment of air bases and other defenses. Because of its strategic position with respect to Europe and the Panama Canal, Puerto Rico today is considered the No. 1 defensive outpost for the U.S. on the Atlantic side. The island is the nearest to Europe of any spot under the American flag. Steve Hannagan. Puerto Rican News Bureau. San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Well before the U.S. entered the war, in October 1940, the PRNG was mobilized, called into federal service, and prepared for conflict, eventually activating its 295th and 296th Infantry Regiments, totaling over 2,700 personnel. While those units did not go any further overseas than the Canal Zone, the Commonwealth did stand up the 65th U.S. Infantry Regiment (“The Borinqueneers”), which saw extensive action in North Africa and the European theater (Naples-Foggia, Rome-Arno), and the PRNG certainly fed into the 65th.

By the end of the war, some 65,034 Puerto Ricans served in the U.S. military, with over 2,500 becoming casualties.

Can we talk ESBs?

Posted on by Leave a comment

The Navy just received the final ship in the six-hull Expeditionary Sea Base program, transferring in the delivery ceremony of the 106,664-ton (not a misprint) USNS (future USS) Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8) last week.

No other fleet in the world has anything that even comes close, not to mention having a half-dozen of them…

Expeditionary Sea Base USNS Hector A. Cafferata Jr. (ESB 8)

A peek into the hangar opening at the front of the huge topside aviation deck. You can store (at least) four CH-53s in there.

That metacentric height, tho…

While big deck commissioned (USS) ‘phibs like LHDs/LHAs, and LPDs get all the attention, the ESB, basically a converted Alaska-class oil tanker, has largely slid under the radar, and it should get more love.

Initially called the Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) and the MLP Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB), over the past decade, five other huge sister ESBs have been delivered: USS Lewis B. Puller (ESB 3), USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4), USS Miguel Keith (ESB 5), USS John L. Canley (ESB 6), and USNS (future USS) Robert E. Simanek (ESB 7).

Commanded by a Navy O-6 with a permanently embarked 250-member military crew and accommodations for up to another 298 transient personnel, these gigantic NASSCO-built platforms run as big as an aircraft carrier and can rightfully be considered a large LPH with a four-spot flight deck for MV-22s/CH-53s, a mission deck, a hangar, an ordnance storage magazine, and underway replenishment facilities.

They are designed around four core capabilities: aviation facilities, berthing, equipment staging support, and command and control assets. The ship is perfect for missions such as counter-piracy, maritime security, airborne minesweeping, and humanitarian and disaster relief, all with an emphasis on rotor-wing aircraft.

I mean, look at this 52,000-square-foot flight deck. For reference, it is the third-largest in the Navy’s inventory, just behind LHA/LHDs and CVNs. The giant hangar is forward towards the bow, so no elevators are needed. But you can imagine that deck as a great base for UAVs.

The Expeditionary Sea Base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB 4) sails in the Atlantic Ocean, Oct. 17, 2020. Photo by: Sgt. Megan Roses | VIRIN: 201017-M-JH926-303

Plus, underneath the flight deck, the ESBs have a 25,000-square-foot mission deck used for storing heavy equipment, vehicle staging, and small boats.

Yes, they are slow (just 15 knots, max), but the Navy has mitigated that low speed by forward-deploying these ships overseas (ESB 3 is in CENTCOM, ESB 4 is at FDNF Souda Bay, ESB 5 and ESB 6 are at FDNF Saipan, etc.).

However, they are criminally under-armed with just 12 .50 cal stations, but are supposed to be used in low-threat situations and, in theory, could always be escorted by a DDG or two when not.

They should probably at least get a proper weapon fit more akin to an LHA/CVN (two RAM launchers, two CIWS, two Sea Sparrow launchers, four Mk 38s/Mk 46s plus the sensors and fire control to use them as well as soft kills such as Nukla, SLQ-32B, etc.) for which they have the space to spare for sure but will add a bit of cost and require some more rates to keep running.

Hell, maybe they should get some VLS cells for quad-packed ESSMs (the San Antonio-class LPDs were designed for such a thing but not fitted with them), or strike-length TLAMs.

Now that could get very interesting.

Sometimes, you get to shoot something really special…

Posted on by One comment

While hanging out at an industry event in Idaho, we came across a fairly rare and very quiet German-made rimfire rifle and just had to shoot it.

Attending SilencerCo’s Summer Camp at the Day Mountain Ranch outside of Preston (oddly enough, the small town where Napoleon Dynamite was filmed), we had a chance to get some trigger time on some amazing platforms, most of them shooting out to extended ranges. Like starting at 200 yards and punching well out to 1,300.

Day Mountain Ranch
I mean, with these hills, you aren’t running many 15-yard flat ranges. (All photos: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

One exception to that was a station that had some great little rimfire guns that attendees used offhand on spinner and groundhog plates at like 25 yards, squinting into the morning sun.

Volquartsen-enhanced Ruger 22/45, complete with an everlasting SilencerCo Sparrow can.
There was this great Volquartsen-enhanced Ruger 22/45, complete with an everlasting SilencerCo Sparrow can.
Sparrowed FN 502 MRD with a matching Steiner MPS and TLR-7A
Then there was this Sparrowed FN 502 MRD with a matching Steiner MPS and TLR-7A.

But the real gem was a Heckler Koch HK270…

What is the HK270?

Travel with us back to the late 1970s. Back to when HK was the global powerhouse when it came to 7.62 NATO battle rifles, with its Gewehr 3 (G3) being standard not only in the West German Bundeswehr but in more than 50 other militaries around the globe. The G3’s little brother, the 9mm but still roller-locked MP5, was almost as popular with the black balaclava gang worldwide.

So why not market a rimfire blow-back action sporting rifle with a G3-style turret “castle” style rear sight that could be used for training, small game hunting, and sporting purposes?

Boom. That gives you the HK270.

HK270
SilencerCo’s engineers kept the gun as original as possible, save for threading the barrel to accept a modular Switchback suppressor.

More in my column at Guns.com. 

Glamorous Goose

Posted on by One comment

Some 75 years ago this month, aboard Coast Guard Air Station San Francisco, September 1951.

How about a sharp original period Kodachrome of a beautiful Grumman (G-38) Goose amphibian JRF-5G, USCG Hull No. 4792 (MSN B-87, Navy BuNo 84792).

Photo by William T. Larkins, via WikiCommons

Powered by Pratt & Whitney R-985-AN-6 radials, the USCG contracted for 24 JRF-5Gs beginning in early 1941, following up on 10 JRF-2/3s purchased in the late 1930s.

The Navy also purchased 160 of the type and transferred at least three JRF-5Gs in 1950 that were surplus to its needs, including the above hull.

Circa 1943 Kodachrome of a camouflaged blue/white Vought OS2U Kingfisher with landing gear instead of floats, a Howard NH-1 (militarized DGA-15) trainer in “yellow peril” scheme, a blue Grumman JRF-5 Goose (militarized G-38), and three PBM Mariner flying boats at NAS, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 80-GK-14313

As noted by the CG Aviation History Assoc:

Prior to World War II these aircraft carried out search and rescue as well as aerial mapping flights and participated in the Coast Guard’s contribution to the enforcement of the Neutrality Patrol. During the war, the JRFs conducted search and rescue operations, transported supplies and personnel, and were utilized for ASW operations. Depth Charges or Bombs were carried externally under the wing.

Survivors of a torpedoed ship hailing a U.S. Coast Guard JRF amphibian. Artwork by Hunter Wood NARA 026-g-021-061-001

Most of the remaining Coast Guard’s JRF-2/3s were disposed of shortly after the end of World War II, while many of the JRF-5Gs remained in service with the Coast Guard until 1954, when they were replaced by another Grumman amphibian, the HU-16 Albatross.

BuNo 84792 was Withdrawn From Use on 21 September 1955. A former Navy plane; others in her batch went to France to fly with Escadrille 8S in Indochina.

But that is a post for later in the week.

« Older Entries