Paul Revere (APA 248) - Naval Cruise Book

Page 39 text:

The Operations Department, the nerve center of any ship, is assigned the responsibility of manning and maintaining all of the communications equipment, the radars, and the various tactical maneuvering devices of the Combat Information Center. The tasks of the Operations personnel are as interesting as they are varied. Up on the signal bridge, OS Division's signalmen transmit visually the messages of the command. Against the night a muted amber light or the yardarm blinker relays the Word. By day, coded flaghoists or the familiar waving, red-yellow semaphore flags are utilized. In- valuable methods, these - rapid, accurate, secure, and invaluable too are the men behind them. The Combat Information Center is a dark place, and to the layman a confusing maze of radar scopes, plotting tables, status boards and radio telephone systems. The radarmen of OI Division work here, compiling data on the small pips of light on the radars that indicate the presence of other ships out on the sea. A plot is drawn, courses and speeds are determined, and the necessary recom- mendation is made to the conning officer on the bridge. Added to, and in conjunction with this primary task of assisting the OOD in maneuvering the ship, the CIC team navigates by radar, controls the ship's boats in an amphibious operation, plots and evaluates aircraft contacts, and mans the voice radio tactical circuits. LCDR WILLIAM B. COBB, USN OPERATIONS OFFICER But these men, as well as the radiomen of OR Division, who communicate on the complex systems spread through Radio Central, can be effective only when their machines are Working faultlessly. The elec- tronics technicians of OE Division are bur- dened With this responsibility: to maintain in a state approaching perfection, the elec- tronic equipment employed by the other men of this department. Coordination, then, is the keyword of these four factions of the Operations De- partment, for one depends fully on the others, as the ship depends on them all.

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lf DIVISIC ,if s 2 1 l E 5 I i x f 1 I I A S si I E 1 5 I, Posing in the pilot house are: Glen R. Rose QMl, Mark T. Kreitzinger SN Cresting his eyesl, .loel L. Culbreth, Earl C. Emeott QM3, and Larry R. Garis QM3 Nosing in the portholes are Sherman I. Franklin QM2, and Navigator, Ltfjgl John C. Cranath. GEORGE T. HAMILTON, JR., QM2 '3

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S? i ' O J ff 'D I G 5 OE DI ISIO 0 Kneeling: Thomas M. Jones ETN2, Robert F. Taylor ETN3, Walter S. Mroz ETRSN, and Brian E. Stuckey SN. Standing are Division Officer CWO2 Audrey G. Coslett, Stephen F. Rockefeller ETNSN, Dennis C. Moncrief ETR3, Freeman D. Gilmore ETRSN, Alva B. Chastain, Jr. ETNSN, Charles A. Medlock ETN3.