You are on a mission.....

(ArtKramr) wrote in message ...
You are on a mission. What is the most frightening thing you can hear over the
intercom? Any opinions?



Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

From a B-52D EW during an Arc Lite mission in 1969. "Hey, you guys
want to hear a SAM signal?"

Gene Myers
Old buff pilot

(ArtKramr) wrote in message
...
You are on a mission. What is the most frightening thing you can hear over
the
intercom? Any opinions?

From the pilot of our EC-130E: "The bailout signal will be me going out the
door."


Ed
"If an enemy power is bent on conquering you, and proposed to
turn all of his resources to that end, he is at war with you;
and you -- unless you contemplate surrender -- are at war with
him." --Barry Goldwater

On 9 Jul 2004 18:58:53 -0700, (buf3) wrote:

From a B-52D EW during an Arc Lite mission in 1969. "Hey, you guys
want to hear a SAM signal?"

Gene Myers
Old buff pilot

Was he going to play you a Weasel training tape?


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Ed Rasimus wrote:
(buf3) wrote:

From a B-52D EW during an Arc Lite mission in 1969. "Hey, you guys
want to hear a SAM signal?"

Was he going to play you a Weasel training tape?

And....how does a SAM signal sound?

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 16:00:26 GMT, Mike Marron
wrote:

Ed Rasimus wrote:
(buf3) wrote:

From a B-52D EW during an Arc Lite mission in 1969. "Hey, you guys
want to hear a SAM signal?"

Was he going to play you a Weasel training tape?

And....how does a SAM signal sound?


Depends upon the SAM and the RWR. Depends upon whether it's search,
track, activity or launch. Depends on whether you've got the volume
high enough to hear it over your praying.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Ed Rasimus wrote:

Depends upon the SAM and the RWR. Depends upon whether it's search,
track, activity or launch. Depends on whether you've got the volume
high enough to hear it over your praying.

Tnx. The question has probably been asked countless times before
but I was just wondering if there was a quick answer along the lines
of the "growling" or "rattlesnake" sound that an AIM-9 made when it
was locked on a target.

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 16:42:13 GMT, Mike Marron
wrote:

Ed Rasimus wrote:

Depends upon the SAM and the RWR. Depends upon whether it's search,
track, activity or launch. Depends on whether you've got the volume
high enough to hear it over your praying.

Tnx. The question has probably been asked countless times before
but I was just wondering if there was a quick answer along the lines
of the "growling" or "rattlesnake" sound that an AIM-9 made when it
was locked on a target.

An AIM-9B,M,J or P (which are the ones I carried at various
times--never had the good fortune to try all-aspect variants), made a
"growl"--sort of like a very inexpensive doorbell growl.

With SA-2 and APR-36/37 (or APR-25/26 or ALR-46) which is what I
carried, the Fan-Song search comes in low and high PRF (pulse
recurrence frequency). The audio reflects the rate of pulsing, slow
for lo-PRF and faster for hi. At hi-PRF, the sound could be likened to
a rattlesnake by someone who hasn't encountered a lot of rattlesnakes.
It's sort of a medium to high pitched chattering. Activity (the
pre-load signal for launch prep) is indicated by lights on the TDU
(threat display unit) and launch by a steady tone almost as high
frequency as a whistle.

Other radars offered different tones. Firecan (AAA fire-control) was a
low freq buzz, X-band for MiG AI radars had a different tone and
J-Band for the Gun-Dish also were different. I can't comment on the
newer equipment which has to cope with SA-2 through SA-135 or whatever
they are up to these days. Probably need to have a "bitchin' Betty" to
tell you that an SA-elebenty-nine is looking, but no threat, while an
SA-turdy-tree is about to offer a high speed digital prostate exam.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8

Ed Rasimus wrote:

Other radars offered different tones.

Let us consider, then, the blissful ignorance of the O-2 FAC in SEA who
who was alerted to the presence of active SAM radar only because it's
search cycle caused interference with the FM and VHF radios. Kind of
reassuring, don't you imagine, in a M.02 Cessna? Fortunately, I never
found out if a tracking or lock-on condition could be identified in a
similar fashion, but there may be one or two Cessna-borne FACs here who did.

O-2s were lost to SAMs as well as guns, but the guys that get my vote
for biggest balls were the O-1 (Cessna Bird Dog -- a C-170/-195/-180
hybrid) FACs who worked areas in the North and in Laos against many
small guns and large guns and SAMs, early in the war before they were
finally replaced with the somewhat more effective twins (O-2 & OV-10).

And I certainly haven't forgotten the Ravens, who just kept on with the
job with whatever they had at hand.

The FAC memorial (Hurlburt AFB) lists the names of over 200 FACs KIA in SEA:
http://www.hurlburt.af.mil/basewide/...al/index.shtml

The FAC Memorial at the Air Force Museum, Dedication Fall of 2006:
http://www.romad.com/rss/5-31-2004.htm

The FAC Association:
http://www.fac-assoc.org/


--
Jack

"Cave ab homine unius libri"

"... airlines 1234 X-ray", Shemya Approach, "Sir, understand your a
747-400, and I understand you are declaring emergency, Say your Souls
On Board?"

Steve Roberts

Was he going to play you a Weasel training tape?

And....how does a SAM signal sound?

A Fan Song has a warbly growl. When two sites have you it sounds a lot worse.

v/r
Gordon
====(A+C====
USN SAR

Its always better to lose -an- engine, not -the- engine.