And then suddenly he hears ONE ping only.
In 1981, I had just made LT and was waiting to rotate on to shore duty we were scheduled at the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) range off Andros Island, Bahamas. We were cruising from Ft. Lauderdale over to the Bahamas overnight. I had the mid-watch (0000-0400) as Tactical Action Officer (TAO) in Combat Information Center (CIC) when I get a call from sonar.
"Combat, Sonar what's the call sign for the Shark?" We were scheduled to play against the USS Shark (SSN-591) the next day. I told the Chief not to burn the place down, make a note of the Shark's call sign, and stepped aft into Sonar.
The PO of the watch in Sonar was ST2 Nichols, a very sharp sailor. "OK, Nichols, what do you need the Shark's call sign for." "Well sir, we've got the Shark at 3200 yards on the starboard quarter and we wanted to call her on the Gertrude (underwater telephone). "How do you know it's the shark?" This very young STSN piped up pointing to the rainfall display. "Well sir, we've got this line, this line, and this line. There are only three boats in the world with those exact lines, two are in the Pacific, one is the Shark, and we're supposed to play with her in the morning.
OK, good job, solid reasoning. "Nichols, you know they won't answer." "Of course sir, but they'll know we spotted them and won't like it." "Hang on, let me clear this with the OOD." The Officer of the Deck (OOD) that night was the Operations Officer my boss, and a former enlisted diesel submarine sonar tech. I explained the situation. "They won't answer." "I told Nichols that boss." He chuckled. "Go ahead."
I gave Nichols the call sign. He called them up on the Gertrude with predictable non results. I should have known better than to ask but my brain couldn't stop my lips in time. "OK, now what Nichols?" "Well ... sir, ... we do need to test the 26 (AN/SPS-26 sonar) in active before we play tomorrow." "I absolutely need to clear this one with the boss."
I called the bridge and explained. I got the famous answer, a very stern, "One ping ONLY!!!"
I had never heard of the term "malicious compliance" before, but I think this was an excellent example. I need to give a little explanation as to why this was such a stern admonition and why the one ping that followed was so devastating. The AN/SQS-26 sonar was a VERY powerful bow mounted sonar with some very advanced features. We also happened to be in the mouth of the Grand Bahama Channel about 20NM south of Freeport, Bahamas. The channel is not very deep and has a bottom of almost perfectly flat, hard packed sand.
I watched Nichols configure the 26 sonar for bottom bounce track and keyed the ping. This meant that he focused all the power of the sonar into a little window and aimed it down to bounce off the sand and come up underneath the Shark.
I think everyone on our ship heard the ping, I'm pretty sure every vessel within 15 NM heard the ping even without a hydrophone. I KNOW everyone on the Shark heard the ping. For the Sonar techs it was like going from listening to a babbling brook to a Death metal concert turned up to 12 in a fraction of a second.
When Nichols keyed the ping, I turned and looked at the rainfall display. One line after another disappeared and then the Shark was gone. They kicked our butts the next day but even our CO thought it was worth it to get in first licks.
SpyNavy
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)