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Posted on 07/11/2003 1:46:57 AM PDT by snippy_about_it
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 are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.
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 Pukin' Dogs  Clic on pic for high resolution  - First, about the name: In late 1980s and early 1990s, the squadron's unique and somewhat irreverent nickname was the subject of many heated debates. Some thought the name was in poor taste and questioned the Navy's judgment on allowing a fighter squadron to carry such an appellation. Of course, there were many Dog supporters who vehemently disagreed. The decision came down from the Navy was to have VF-143 drop the Pukin' part, thus the squadron is now officially known only as the Dogs. Naturally this upset a lot of former and current Dogs, and many Dog lovers. However, in the era of pervasive political correctness, the change was inevitable.  The good news is that sometime in late 1996, VF-143 was once again officially recognized as the Pukin' Dogs by the Navy. It seems that the PC police has lost a round! May the Dogs puke forever! The History of the VF-143 World Famous Pukin’ Dogs.  The world Famous Pukin’ Dogs were originally commissioned in 1949 as VF-871, a reserve squadron, and were known as the “Griffins.” From their home at NAS Alameda, the Griffins were called to active duty on 20 July, 1950. The squadron took the F4U-4 Corsair to war in Korea from the decks of the USS PRINCETON (CV 37) in early 1951 and the USS ESSEX (CVA 9) in 1952. During the next eleven years, the squadron changed aircraft and designations twice; designated as VF-123, flying both the F9F-2 Panther and F9F-8 Cougar, and then as VF-53, flying the F3H-2 Demon. On 20 June, 1962, the squadron was redesignated VF-143 and transitioned to the F4H-1 Phantom II ( later redesignated the F-4B). VF-143 first went to sea aboard USS CONSTELLATION in February 1963, for a WESTPAC cruise. Operating as part of CVW-14, the following year, the squadron became involved in the Gulf of Tonkin incident and flew in the Pierce Arrow attacks on North Vietnamese naval facilities on 5 August 1964. In the succeeding years, the Pukin’ Dogs moved on to the F-4J and recorded seven combat deployments to Vietnam. The squadron, stationed at NAS Mirimar, CA, flew massive air strikes and Combat Air Patrol (CAP) missions before trading in their Phantoms for Tomcats. On April 1, 1975, after completion of F-14A Tomcat transition training, the Pukin’ Dogs permanently moved to their present home at NAS Oceana, VA. As part of CVW-6, VF-143 made its first F-14 carrier deployment aboard USS AMERICA from 15 April to 25 October 1976. During this Mediterranean deployment, the squadron participated in “Operation Fluid Drive”, providing CAP for the evacuation of American citizens from Beirut in 1976. After a subsequent south Atlantic cruise (10 June to 19 July 1977) and Mediterranean cruise (29 September 1977 to 25 April 1978), the Pukin’ Dogs moved on to a new carrier and airwing. ![](http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid67/pe1783e69d3ea7625f5bc6d430f611049/fbca88c5.jpg") In the fall of 1978, VF-143 joined USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69) and Carrier Air Wing SEVEN. In 1979, they made IKE’s first major deployment to the Mediterranean Sea from 16 January to 13 July. VF-143 and the IKE spent 152 days continuously at sea after replacing USS NIMITZ during the 1980 cruise. The squadron then made a brief Norlant cruise, between 17 August and 7 October, and participated in NATO’s Exercise Ocean Adventure. During the following 1982 Mediterranean deployment, the Pukin’ Dogs, with three Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS) equipped aircraft, once again provided CAP for the evacuation of American citizens from war-torn Beirut in June of that year. During the 1983 MED deployment, VF-143 TARPS played a vital role in providing the Multinational Peacekeeping Forces in Lebanon with invaluable intelligence of enemy troop movements and artillery positions in the mountains outside of Beirut. The Dogs completed 45 combat TARPS missions over Lebanon. VF-143 then made two Caribbean and Norlant cruises before returning to the IKE and the MED on 11 October 1984 where they again found themselves involved in a worsening Lebanon situation. After a lengthy break from sea operations, VF-143 returned to the IKE for a MED cruise from 29 February to 29 August of 1988. In 1989, the Dogs made the transition to the Navy’s newest Tomcat, the F-14B, with the new GE F110-400 series engines capable of producing up to 30,000 pounds of thrust each. The Pukin’ Dogs found 1990 to be a highly successful year as they won the FFARP trophy for the second consecutive year and achieved the highest score in FFARP history. VF-143 also won the Tactical Reconnaissance (TACRECCE) trophy, an unprecedented dual victory in the same year. The squadron was also nominated for the Navy’s 1990 Arleigh Burke Award and the 1990 Department of Defense Phoenix Award for aviation maintenance.  The successes of 1990 became more evident in early 1991 when VF-143 was awarded COMNAVAIRLANT’s 1990 Battle “E” as the Atlantic Fleet’s finest fighter squadron. In addition, the Pukin’ Dogs were awarded the Chief of Naval Operations Rear Admiral Joseph C. Clifton Award which designated VF-143 the Navy’s finest fighter squadron. Making history in May 1991, during the Air Wing’s second detachment to NAS Fallon, NV, the Dogs became the first fleet Tomcat squadron to drop live air-to-ground ordinance. In September, the squadron deployed to the Arabian Gulf in Support of Operation Desert Storm where new standards were set in joint operations between the Navy, Air Force, and numerous coalition air forces. The Pukin’ Dogs returned to the Gulf in October of 1991. The cruise took them into the North Atlantic and Norwegian Sea where NATO forces and the IKE Battle Group teamed up above the Arctic Circle for cold weather operations during “TEAMWORK 92” In August 1992, the Pukin’ Dogs and the rest of Carrier Air Wing SEVEN were reassigned to the USS GEORGE WASHINGTON (CVN 73), the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier. VF-143 deployed on the GW on her maiden “shakedown” cruise, and then again for her very first Mediterranean deployment in May 1994, where she took part in the 50th anniversary commemoration of the D-Day invasion and Operation Deny Flight. This cruise was highlighted by the stellar performance of the squadron in both Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Arabian Gulf, particularly for the crucial TARPS imagery it provided. In December 1995, the World Famous Pukin’ Dogs completed their turnaround training cycle and departed on their second cruise in fifteen months. The preparation quickly paid off as the Dogs found themselves flying over Bosnia in support of Operation Decisive Endeavor and the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. Carrier Air Wing SEVEN relied heavily on the Pukin’ Dogs to fill every role providing aircraft and personnel for TARPS, FAC(A), air superiority, and air-to-ground missions. Additionally, the Pukin’ Dogs participated in joint exercises with the Netherlands, Spain, France, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia. The Pukin’ Dogs returned to Oceana in July 1996, having flown over 1400 missions while enjoying an unprecedented 99.3% sortie completion rate. These extraordinary successes are a tribute to the professionalism and pride of all Pukin’ Dog personnel.  clic on pic for high resolution VF-143 Flyover Virginia Beach, Va., Aug. 14, 2002 — Ten F-14 Tomcats of "Pukin' Dogs" of Fighter Squadron One Four Three (VF-143) fly over Naval Air Station Oceana, Virginia Beach, Va., prior to landing, ending a six-month deployment embarked in USS John F. Kennedy (CV 67) as part of Carrier Air Wing Seven (CVW 7). The air wing and the carrier deployed in mid-February in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. After disembarking additional squadron personnel, John F. Kennedy continued on to her homeport of Mayport, Fla. U. S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Charles Hill. The Pukin’ Dogs recently returned from the maiden deployment of the USS JOHN C. STENNIS (CVN 74). Over 131 days were spent in the Arabian Gulf in support of Operation Southern Watch. VF-143 played key roles using LANTIRN, night vision goggles, and digital TARPS. TARPS (Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System)  The TARPS (Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance Pod System) is carried on the F-14 Tomcat. The 17-foot, 1,850-pound gray pod is actually a protective aluminum case manufactured by Grumman. Inside its shell, three camera sensors are mounted in sturdy equipment racks. They aim down at passing terrain, using infrared to capture images at night. In the air, the aluminum pod protects the cameras from vibrations and soaking by hydraulic fluid and JP-5 jet fuel. It must withstand buffeting by winds at twice the speed of sound. When a Tomcat returns from a reconnaissance mission, the pod is opened and film is rushed to processing. The shipboard record for processing turnaround, from landing to finished print, is 13 minutes. 3,350 feet of new film is placed in the pod, and it is ready to go again.  The front of the pod carries is a two-position (vertical and forward oblique) KS-87 frame camera. Aft of the frame camera is a KA-99 low-altitude panoramic camera, followed by a AAD-5 imaging infrared sensor. The pod is carried on the F-14's #5 weapon station (the right rear Phoenix station). F-14 TARPS remains the fleet's primary organic recce asset, and continues to respond to USMC, SOF (Special Operating Forces), and JFACC (Joint Forces Air Component Commander) requirements. Since the early 1980s F-14s have had provision for the attachment of the Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS), carrying optical and infrared cameras and permitting the aircraft to perform the photo reconnaissance role without degrading its performance in other roles. The only modifications required are wiring changes and cockpit readouts. In 1989, the Navy decided to phase out the F-14's reconnaissance mission in favor of using F/A-18 Hornets. During Operation Desert Storm in January-February 1991, however, F-14s  Beginning in April 1993, the Navy has flown many F-14 Tactical Aerial Reconnaissance Pod (TARPS) sorties over Bosnia-Hercegovina as part of Operation Deny Flight. Operating from aircraft carriers stationed in the Adriatic Sea, the TARPS aircraft photographed hundreds of square miles of disputed territory, using thousands of feet of film. After the aircraft recovered aboard the carrier, Intelligence Specialists provided the commander and other senior decisionmakers the location and types of belligerent arms, equipment, and forces. The Intelligence Specialists also produced annotated TARPS photos for carrier and shore-based strike team leaders to assist in planning potential contingency operations. Navy F-14 TARPS provided the only U.S. tactical reconnaissance asset over Bosnia, thus providing an invaluable service to the European Command who were able to show the unclassified TARPS pictures to the international press. Units also responded to the Mississippi River Valley caused by record rainfalls in July 1993. In a two-day mission requested by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, two Navy F-14 Tomcat fighters based at Naval Air Station Oceana (from Fighter Squadron 103 and Fighter Squadron 143) flew reconnaissance missions over the St. Louis, Mo., area. The fighters, equipped with Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System (TARPS) cameras, flew additional missions over cities in Iowa. The TARPS photography will enable rescue and relief workers to determine the hardest-hit areas, helping to identify areas requiring assistance.  TARPS pods are routinely carried under the fuselage of F-14D Tomcat fighter jets as they fly Operation Southern Watch missions, enforcing the United Nations-sanctioned "no-fly" zone over Southern Iraq. The heat of the Arabian Gulf, where average noon temperatures hover in the high 90s, can cause some simple equipment problems. When film is moved from an air conditioned area out to the flight deck it can fog, jam, or adhere to surfaces around it. Film transport and shuttle speeds are also simple fixes. But other "glitches" are more challenging, requiring circuit card troubleshooting. GENSER JDISS (Joint Deployable Intelligence Support System) and high quality digitizers have been used to send tactical reconnaissance imagery acquired by F-14 TARPS to recipients in soft copy in near-real time. This capability eliminated the requirement to make multiple hard copies in the photo lab and fly them off to a shore site for further distribution. The TARPS digital imagery (DI) electro-optical (EO) improvement represents an interim, but limited, capability. However, there is a need to move to a production EO capability with a larger format backplane that provides both better resolution and a larger target area field-of-view. The TARPS CD development would provide such a capability at significantly less cost than a Navy purchase of the Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System (ATARS). Based on the successful results from the interim DI efforts, CD will provide an EO tactical manned reconnaissance capability to replace the current film-based F-14 pods. The Navy plans to build 24 Tactical Air Reconnaissance Pod System-Digital Imagery (TARPS-DI) pods by 2003 at a cost of between $6-8 million. One of the principal uses for TARPS-DI will be to locate and identify hostile targets so they can be quickly neutralized by aircraft, cruise missile or naval gunfire strikes. Each image displays the latitude and longitude of the location photographed. That information would be invaluable in a combat situation. The advantages of TARPS imagery over satellite reconnaissance is that the satellites make one pass over an area, and have to be reprogrammed. With new TARPS digital imagery, anything a jet with a pod ‘sees’ can be sent back by radio signal. Specialists can interpret the images and use it almost immediately, and can send the pilot back for another look. The Navy's 211 F-14As are due to be phased out of service by 2004. Of the 13 existing F-14A squadrons, six are at Miramar and seven are at Naval Air Station Oceana, VA. The Navy's four F-14D Super Tomcat squadrons were all based at NAS Miramar, CA. Miramar based squadrons are currently moving to Oceana. By 1 October 1997, NAS Miramar will transition to MCAS Miramar. The F-14D, which rolled off the production line in the early 90s, has upgraded avionics and a more powerful engine.  TARPS Desert Storm Imagery Thank you to our own FReeper Pukin Dog for giving us the idea for this thread. Please join the thread today Pukin Dog and have fun!      |
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Today's classic warship, USS König Wilhelm II/USS Madawaska (ID 3011)/USAT Madawaska/USAT U.S. Grant/USS U.S. Grant (AP-29)
König Wilhelm II class Screw Steamer
Displacement: 15,010 t.
Length: 508’2”
Beam: 55’3”
Draft: 27’6”
Depth of Hold: 31’8”
Speed: 15 k.
Complement: 211
Troop Capacity: 1,244
Armament: 4 5"; 2 1-pdrs; 2 machine guns
KONIG WILHELM II--renamed MADAWASKA in 1917 and U. S. GRANT in 1922--was a steel-hulled screw steamer launched on 20 July 1907 at Stettin, Germany, by Vulcan Aktiengesellechaft. Built for the transatlantic passenger trade, KONIG WILHELM II operated between Hamburg, Germany, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, under the house flag of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, until the outset of World War I in 1914. Voluntarily interned at Hokoben, N.J., to avoid being captured by the Royal Navy, the passenger liner was seized after the United States entered the war on 6 April 1917, as were all other German vessels in American ports. Before agents of the Federal Government took possession of the ship, her German crew unsuccessfully attempted to render her unusable by cracking her main steam cylinders with hydraulic jacks.
Following repairs to the damaged machinery, KONIG WILHELM II was assigned the identification number 3011 and commissioned on 27 August 1917, Lt. Charles McCauley in temporary command pending the arrival of Comdr. Edward H. Watson. Renamed MADAWASKA on 1 September--the ship was assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force of the Atlantic Fleet. During World War I, she conducted 10 transatlantic voyages in which she carried nearly 12,000 men to Europe.
After the armistice of 11 November 1918, MADAWASKA made seven more voyages, bringing 17,000 men home from the European theater. She completed the last of these runs upon her arrival at New York on 23 August 1919. She was decommissioned on 2 September and simultaneously transferred to the War Department.
Sailing for the Pacific soon thereafter, MADAWASKA embarked elements of the Czech Legion at Vladivostok, Russia, early in 1920, as part of the evacuation of that force in the wake of the Russian Civil War in Siberia. The ship sailed to Fiume, Yugoslavia, and disembarked her Czech passengers to return to their homeland. Subsequently sailing for New York, MADAWASKA was inactivated and turned over to the Shipping Board for lay-up.
The following year, however, the War Department reacquired the vessel and authorized a major refit for her before she could resume active service. During this overhaul, which would last through the spring of 1922, the ship was fitted with modern marine watertube boilers for greater safety in operation and to enable the ship to make increased speed. On 3 June 1922, at Brooklyn, N.Y., the transport was renamed U. S. GRANT; Princess Cantacuzene, wife of Major General Prince Cantacuzene, Count Speransky of Russia, and a granddaughter of General Ulysses S. Grant, christened the ship.
For almost two decades, U. S. GRANT soldiered on in the Army Transport Service, maintaining a regular schedule of voyages carrying troops, passengers, and supplies along a route which included calls at San Francisco, Calif.; Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii; Guam; Manila, Philippine Islands; Chinwangtao and Shanghai, China; the Panama Canal Zone, and New York. For many of these years of service in the Pacific, U. S. GRANT served as the sole source of refrigerated stores from the United States. Her periodic arrivals at Apra Harbor invariably produced a temporary improvement in the diet of Americans living in Guam.
On one voyage to Guam, the transport was nearly lost. On the late afternoon of 19 May 1939, U. S. GRANT ran aground on the dangerous inner reef in the as-yet unfinished harbor. Fortunately, the accident did not occur during typhoon season. The combined efforts of minesweeper PENGUIN (AM-33) and oil depot ship ROBERT L. BARNES (AG-27) failed to budge the ship off the coral, leading the Acting Governor of Guam, Comdr. George W. Johnson, to hit upon a plan of action in collaboration (by radio) with Capt. Richmond K. Turner, in heavy cruiser ASTORIA (CA-34), which was then en route to the island.
For 21 hours, members of the U.S. Naval Insular Force and local stevedores unloaded 300 tons of cargo from the grounded U. S. GRANT, while much of her fuel was transferred to ROBERT L. BARNES and ADMIRAL HALSTEAD. ASTORIA--en route for the United States after carrying Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Saito's ashes back to his homeland--arrived at 0630 on 21 May. She took up her assigned position, as did PENGUIN, ROBERT L. BARNES and ADMIRAL HALSTEAD; at 0809 U. S. GRANT lurched free of the coral reef, to the accompaniment of cheers from the transport's crew. The island's newspaper, The Guam Recorder, subsequently reported in its June 1939 edition: "The short time in which the difficult operation was carried out was due to the efficient cooperation of all . . . involved, the Army, Navy, and Merchant Marine." All cargo was soon reloaded, and U. S. GRANT resumed her voyage.
She continued under the aegis of the Army Transportation Service through 1940. Then as war clouds gathered in the Pacific and Atlantic, U. S. GRANT was subsequently reacquired by the Navy. Armed with seven 3-inch guns (she had been unarmed while serving as an Army transport), the vessel was refitted at the Mare Island Navy Yard, Vallejo, Calif., and was commissioned on 16 June 1941, Capt. Herbert R. Hein in command. Continuing her service as a transport, the ship received the classification of AP-29.
U. S. GRANT operated between ports on the west coast and into the Aleutian Islands through the outbreak of war in the Pacific on 7 December 1941. She carried passengers and cargo to Alaskan ports as the United States built up its defenses in that area against possible thrusts by Japan. In February and March 1942, U. S. GRANT conducted voyages to the Hawaiian Islands. During the former month, she returned some 1,000 enemy aliens (mostly Japanese with a sprinkling of Germans) for placement in internment camps in the southwestern United States. Among these passengers was prisoner of war number one, Lt. Kazuo Sakamaki, whose midget submarine had run aground off Barber's Point, Oahu, on 7 December 1941. In April, U. S. GRANT resumed trips to Alaskan ports carrying troops from Seattle to American bases on the Alaskan mainland and in the Aleutians and continued this vital routine until the spring of 1942.
The Battle of the Coral Sea during May 1942 convinced the Japanese that a thrust at Midway Island was imperative, in an attempt to draw out the American fleet--particularly the dwindling number of vital carriers. Consequently, a powerful Japanese fleet sailed for Midway, while a smaller task force headed northward for the Aleutians to launch a diversionary raid. Carrier-based planes from the carrier RYUJO struck Dutch Harbor, Alaska, on 3 June, and Japanese troops occupied Attu and Kiska islands on the 7th.
During this time, U. S. GRANT carried troops to Kodiak, Alaska, and Cold Bay into the summer. She narrowly escaped being torpedoed while proceeding from Seattle to Dutch Harbor in convoy on 20 July. Alert lookouts picked out the tracks of two torpedoes and evasive action enabled the ship to avoid the deadly "fish" which passed close aboard, from starboard to port.
The venerable transport disembarked Army troops at Massacre Bay on 14 June, three days after the initial landings. The following month, as American and Canadian troops prepared to assault Kiska, Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell broke his flag in U. S. GRANT as Commander, Task Force 51.
During this operation, U. S. GRANT served as combination transport and communications vessel. The Americans eventually discovered that the Japanese had stolen away like nomads, leaving only a few dogs to "contest" the landings, and had completed their evacuation, undetected by the Allies, by 28 July. During the Kiska landings, the transport not only carried Army troops, but also a Mexican liaison group; a detachment of Canadian troops, and a group of civilian correspondents.
After a period of repairs in late 1943, which lasted into 1944, U. S. GRANT resumed coastwise voyages to Alaska. From April to December, she shifted to the eastern Pacific to operate between Hawaii and the west coast. She often embarked medical patients to return them to the west coast from Hawaiian area hospitals. Arriving at San Francisco after one such voyage on 23 January 1945, U. S. GRANT disembarked passengers and got underway the same afternoon without passengers or escort, bound for the Caribbean. Transiting the Panama Canal, after embarking passengers at Balboa, the ship operated in the Caribbean for the next six months, between the West Indies and New Orleans, La., until the end of the war.
U. S. GRANT returned to Pacific duty in September, departing San Francisco on the 18th for Okinawa, via Eniwetok. She arrived at Okinawa on 12 October, in the wake of a destructive typhoon, and took on board 1,273 passengers for transportation to the United States, getting underway from the island on 21 October.
Arriving at San Francisco on 7 November, U. S. GRANT disembarked her passengers soon thereafter. One week later, on 14 November, the transport was decommissioned and returned to the War Department. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 28 November.
Turned over to the Maritime Commission, the erstwhile transport and veteran of two world wars was sold to the Boston Metals Co., on 24 February 1948 for scrapping.
U. S. GRANT received one battle star for her World War II service.
Wonderful job. I'll be around today to answer questions, and I asked a few of my mates to come by and check it out. Thank you, Snippy. It looks great.
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