[Milsurplus] USN Ship Routine, plus AN/WRR-3B

[Mike Morrow]

> I was a passenger on the Mauretaniain the early 1960s.
> There was a daily ship’s newspaper consisting of one sheet
> (can’t remember if it was 2-sided) with headline news and
> a paragraph or two of text.
> /Miles, K2CBY

I was on USS Intrepid CVS-11 in 1971, operating above the Arctic Circle off Norway and the USSR.  We had an unclassified generally-distributed two-page Plan of the Day that contained some general world news items in addition to details of the day's ship routine and scheduled activities, plus a few words from the CO or XO.

Because of USSR close surveillance from a Kresta II cruiser and the intelligence collector Nakhodka, distribution became limited to display behind plexiglass-covered bulletin boards.  It was feared that loose copies would be lost overboard and be subject to collection by our Soviet buddies.  (Not much of a military intelligence coup.)

When I was years later on a ballistic missile submarine in the same general area, there were no worries about anything being lost overboard.  There was an odd instance of the mess crew throwing away a bunch of empty tobasco bottles with the caps on.  The bottles did not break in the trash compactor, so they imploded at deep depth after disposal.  That made surprising and unwelcome noise heard by our sonars...and possibly by others.

Both the USS Intrepid and the USS Daniel Boone had the AN/WRR-3 VLF/LF/MF receiver.  On Intrepid, one was kept tuned to 500 kHz.  On Boone, I never saw it used.  We had other VLF receivers for the important stuff, and submarines were not required to monitor 500 kHz at any time.  I consider the AN/WRR-3* to be the best of all the USN's many VLF/LF/MF receivers that became surplus from WWII to the 1980s.  However, I'm pretty sure it will not be worth the effort to fire up my AN/WRR-3B here in Alabama for the upcoming SAQ broadcasts.

Mike / KK5F