Belknap (DLG 26) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 68 text:

OPERATIQ S DEPARTME T . xH,z'f x M I ..41

Page 67 text:

'!' R. HARRIS M. HOLLAND D. KLEAVER H. LAFRANCE YN 1 QM 2 HM 3 YNSN 152: 4' E 4f'X !,,,3 if M,MM G. MILLER R. PETERS SA PC1 W' , O.K., knock off the zoo jokes! Q T H L. PIPER M. STREBECK PN1 QMSN R. TREMAIN B. WALKER SN PN3 Whatdoyoumean, recruiting duty in Aniakchak Crater AIaska!?!?

Page 69 text:

The Operations Department, centered in Combat information Center CCICI, is tasked with providing the ship with the tactical and operational information necessary to complete her assigned duties. In other words, CIC's job is to know what's going on, and what our part is to play in it. The Operations Specialists' first source of information is the various books tusually big, thick onesl that explain how to perform various tasks such as hunting submarines, controlling aircraft, or ordering formations, or which give special instructions for the particular exercise in which we happen to be involved. It addition, the OS's plow through reams of messages that contain day-to-day intelligence and orders from our superiors. The OS's depend heavily on the sophisticated surface and air search radars and communications equipment that the Elec- tronics Technicians are responsible for main- taining. Being an ET is one of those jobs where nobody notices you until something goes What bogey? V i C. SELLC-REN LCDR wrong, although no other rate, except perhaps the engineers who move the ship and supply her power, play a role more vital in keeping BELKNAP a viable Man o' War. The EW's fElectronic Warfare Techniciansl have their own little corner of CIC which has more dials and buttons than the rest of CIC put together. Their job is to detect and analyze the electronic emissions of other ships and aircraft, and to help in identifying them. In a shooting war, we hope that the EW's would be the first to detect-an incoming missile. One of the capabilities that sets BELKNAP apart is her complicated computer program. The computers receive data through the various consoles in CIC and process it foryready use, converting, for example, data about a sur- face contact's position into its course, speed, and CPA. BELKNAP also has the capability of automatically transmitting by radio the data we have collected to other similarly equipped ships and planes, so that each can have the big picture. The Data Systems Technicians fDS'sI are responsible for maintaining the computers and their programs. It's a big job. We might add fwith a winki that in spite of all the fancy electronics, things seldom go as smoothly as the books suggest. But, things always seem to get straightened out, and we end up having had a pretty good time to boot.