“Okay. Well, please continue to fly to your waypoints that I put in. We’ll lay down the first sonobuoy pattern with DIFARs.”
“Sounds good.”
When they reached the first waypoint, a thunk sounded throughout the aircraft as the first buoy flew out the port side. A small parachute slowed its descent into the water. Several more buoys were shot out shortly after.
“AWR1, let me know when you’ve got them tuned up.”
A few moments later, he replied, “Sir, buoy number one’s tuned up. Working on the others.”
Once the sonobuoys were working, Juan hoped to be able to triangulate the position of the Colombian submarine and develop a track. The more information he got from the sonobuoy, the more he could refine the track’s course and speed. Then they would simulate a torpedo drop. The goal was to attack the Colombian submarine before it could get too close to their own ship, the USS Farragut.
AWR1 said, “Sir, we’ve got a submarine. Sounds kind of funny, but here — you should be able to start seeing something on your screen.”
“Yup. Okay, I’ve got it.” Juan began manipulating his keyboard. A few minutes later, he said, “There. Okay, we’ve got the submarine twelve miles south of our ship, headed towards her at five knots.”
“Not too shabby,” Victoria said. “Send the information back to the ship.”
Juan relayed the message to the Farragut’s controller.
“You ready to start pinging?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Victoria lined up the helicopter for the maneuver that would allow her to lower the dipping sonar into the water. They were in an out-of-ground-effect hover, the most intensive activity for a helicopter pilot. The heavy aircraft required just about maximum engine power to maintain altitude as the AN/AQS-22 Airborne Low Frequency Sonar lowered into the ocean.
“Alright, let’s start pinging AWR1.”
Victoria heard the off-key tone in her headset.
Juan began typing again. “Hmm. That’s weird.”
Victoria looked over at Juan’s screen. “What is it?”
AWR1 said, “Ah, I think the Colombians are going crazy on us.”
“Yeah… I’m getting multiple returns,” Juan said. “Do they have a decoy? Or is this just bad data?”
“I think that’s a system error, maybe.”
“How could it be a system error? This dipper is supposed to be brand-new.”
“I don’t know, sir, I just work here.”
Victoria said, “Guys, slow down. What are you seeing?”
Juan said, “The Colombian submarine is heading away from us at like… hold on… at like forty knots. That can’t be right.”
“Yeah, that’s garbage.”
“You said you’re getting multiple returns?” Victoria looked out of the aircraft to the right, scanning the surface of the water for any sign of a periscope.
“No, I think that was just the old track,” AWR1 said. “One looked like it was on the same course and speed, but I think… well, hold on.”
Victoria sighed. As well as Juan was doing, she was ten times faster. It was frustrating to sit there in a hover and have a less experienced tactician feed her slow bits of information. Teaching a subordinate something new took a lot of patience. But it pays off, she reminded herself.
“Actually, I’m not getting that second track anymore,” Juan said. “Alright, let’s set up for our attack run.”
Victoria frowned. This didn’t sound promising. They reeled up the dipping sonar and began forward flight. She looked at her copilot. “Give me somewhere to go.”
“Roger, boss. Hold on. Almost got it. There.”
Her needle spun around and she began heading towards the next checkpoint Juan had placed in the system.
“Alright, let’s do the attack checklist.” Juan began spouting off items, with the two other crewmembers responding every few seconds.
“Cutlass, this is Farragut Control. The captain wants you to return to the ship.”
Victoria shook her head. “We’re on our attack run, Control.”
“Negative, ma’am. The captain wants you guys to return now.”
Victoria frowned. This was ridiculous. It had taken them days to get ready for this rare and valuable training. “Farragut Control, please put the TAO on.”
“Roger, ma’am.”
The tactical action officer was the senior officer on duty in the ship’s combat information center.
“Boss, it’s OPS.”
The operations officer was standing TAO right now. Good, he was smart. He would help sort this out.
“OPS, hey — can you tell me what’s going on? We’re about to go on our attack run of the Colombians, and we’re being recalled to the ship. But we’re scheduled to fly for the next two hours. The next crew is supposed to fly after us.”
“Boss, the captain is cancelling the flight schedule.” His voice sounded defeated.
“Why?”
“We just got sunk, boss. The Colombian submarine radioed us a minute ago. We’re dead.”
Two hours later, Victoria and her crew stood in the ship’s combat information center with a dozen of the ships personnel. The anti-submarine warfare officer, a lieutenant junior grade, was briefing the ship’s captain on the results of the exercise.
The captain pounded his fist down on the chart table. “ASWO, you are telling me that a Colombian diesel submarine sunk our boat? Are you kidding me?”
“Yes… yes, sir,” the young officer stammered.
Victoria couldn’t believe this. It was training. Crucial training, rare training with an actual submarine. If she were the captain, she would have just asked the Colombian submarine to reset so that they could try again. But for some reason, the captain wasn’t looking at this exercise as a training opportunity, but instead as some black mark that everyone needed to be shamed for.
The captain looked around the room. His eyes got to Victoria. “Air Boss, why did this happen? Didn’t you guys find the submarine?”
“Sir, we had good contact, but then it appeared as if there were two separate tracks. They were diverging. So we went for the one that we felt was most likely the Colombians.”
“And?” said the captain in an accusatory tone.
“And… it appears that we had the wrong contact, sir.” She spoke without emotion. Better to get it over with and give the man what he wanted.
“Exactly. You were too late. Your aircrew, and everyone on this ship, failed me.” He looked at his ASW officer. “ASWO, I take this as a personal insult. Let this be a lesson to you. Do not fail me again.”
It was not often that Victoria witnessed a commanding officer treat his men like this. He was speaking to them as if they were children. The XO stayed silent behind the captain. His was a hard job. He was a good man, and his instinct was surely to say something constructive. But anything he said right now would be seen as going against the captain — as a sign of disrespect. Something that would hurt his ability to influence the captain behind closed doors.
When she saw that no one else was going to speak, she decided to see if she could salvage anything. “Captain. Sir, we had originally been scheduled to fly two bags of ASW today. With your permission, sir, I’d like to launch my second flight so that we can get some more training.”
“Your second flight, Air Boss?”
She held her breath, trying not to show any of her exasperation.
“It’s not your flight, Air Boss. It’s mine. I’m the captain. I own these aircraft. Or did you forget?”
“Sir, I meant no disrespect.”