wrote in message
...

All you Navy guys were sissies. The Coast Guard bounced around the
same water in AVPs (311ft) "Secretary" cutters (327 ft) and the WPG
(255ft).


By the mid 60s the "weather patrols" were pretty much a navy operation
anyway in white ships. I figued it was just a way to hide DoD expenses
in the Treasury and later DoT budget. We were quietly transformed into
ASW platforms. I was in the ordinance department and still never had a
clue ablut our SONAR equipment and I was in charge of the ASW
torpedos. They did assure me they could hear anything the ruskies had
and I knew if they gave me good "prersets" I could kill them. The
problem was they would kill us too.

The DEs I served on were only 315' LOA. In 1970 several of these DEs were
equipped with a then experimental system called "ITASS" (Interim Towed Array
Surveillance System). It was a towed, passive sonar system similar in
concept to an operational stationary system called "SOSUS" and consisted of
an extremely sensitive hydrophone array towed behind the ship. With three
ships operating reasonably close together (hundreds of miles) Soviet
submarines were detected and located by triangulation. Over time each
sub's (or surface vessel for that matter) unique characteristic sound was
recorded and stored in a signature library in the system computer.
Subsequent detection of the same ship or sub would also yield it's type and
eventually, its identity by name. (As depicted in Tom Clancy's "Hunt for Red
October").

The USS Van Voorhis was the first ship that had the experimental system
retrofitted and my job was that of being was part of the ITASS project team
that tweaked and peaked it to make it work. When the equipment was
eventually transferred over to the USS Lester in Naples, Italy, I went
along with the gear which is why I ended up on two of those DEs.

Now-a-days almost all of the smaller Navy surface ships has a mature version
of this system, now called "Tactical Towed Array Sonar. Subs also have a
similar system.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita.../an-sqr-19.htm

To give you an idea of how sensitive this stuff is .... back in the 60s the
stationary SOSUS grid in Bermuda could detect and identify a Soviet sub
passing through the Straits of Gibraltar.


Eisboch