My father was stationed at an AFB in Anchorage AK, Elmendorf AFB I believe, during the mid 1960's. I know that he was a trained to speak Russian & that he flew around in a C-130 intercepting Soviet radio (I'm assuming) communications.

My question is what type of communications could have been intercepted given the technology of the day? I'm assuming that they would have had to stay in international waters so I'm guessing that they would have been after aircraft & possibly ship/ submarine comms.

Any ideas? I asked my Father once & he wouldn't say.

I got bad news for you kid. You're an alien.

Quoted: I got bad news for you kid. You're and alien.

I've got bad news for you: your English sucks.

Possibly submarine and naval comms, missle test coms, and just keeping a weather eye on the bear.  

www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ec-130e.htm

www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ec-130e.htm

Yup sounds like Volant or Commando Solo
EC-130E Volant Solo / Commando Solo / Rivet Rider

Riding around in the EC listening to radio and etc traffic coming out of the USSR

You ain't gonna hear it from me!

I am sorry the knowledge you have of this operation has brought to the top of our list you must now be dispatched with extreme action please stand on the nearest street corner and wait for us.
We will use the supersoakers and water ballons to make this quick.

Quoted: My father was stationed at an AFB in Anchorage AK, Elmendorf AFB I believe, during the mid 1960's. I know that he was a trained to speak Russian & that he flew around in a C-130 intercepting Soviet radio (I'm assuming) communications. My question is what type of communications could have been intercepted given the technology of the day? I'm assuming that they would have had to stay in international waters so I'm guessing that they would have been after aircraft & possibly ship/ submarine comms. Any ideas? I asked my Father once & he wouldn't say.

It is probably still classified since a lot of countries are still using ex-Soviet military communication technology. That is all.

If we tell ya, we have to kill ya........

If he wouldn't say, then he can't say, and anyone else who does know can't say, either. Leave it at that. He did his job for his country and be proud of his service.

He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer, try to shot the seagulls and generally pissed away his time when not doing his work.

My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74.

Quoted: My father was stationed at an AFB in Anchorage AK, Elmendorf AFB I believe, during the mid 1960's. I know that he was a trained to speak Russian & that he flew around in a C-130 intercepting Soviet radio (I'm assuming) communications. My question is what type of communications could have been intercepted given the technology of the day? I'm assuming that they would have had to stay in international waters so I'm guessing that they would have been after aircraft & possibly ship/ submarine comms. Any ideas? I asked my Father once & he wouldn't say.

Most ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) is just ordinary shit. They listen to everything from walkie-talkies to telephone conversations to telemetry from missile launches. In that area, telemetry from missile launches, and mapping soviet radar and military installations would be a good bet. Mostly boring everyday military radio traffic. You can tell a lot about what is going on just from the number of walkie-talkies in one particular area.

If he doesn't want to talk about it, the most likely explanation is that there weren't too many interesting stories to tell. Russian missile goes up, they record all kinds of radio transmissions around it, somebody analyzes it and it all gets filed. No James Bond spy stories or anything. Just a whole bunch of data that you wouldn't understand even if you saw it.

How do I know? I was involved in that stuff. Interesting Top Secret stuff is the exception, rather than the rule.

BTW, one of the most interesting things I found was that they have secret magazines. Now you would think that a secret magazine would be a contradiction in terms. But the armed services have them. I thought that was pretty interesting, so I read them to see what was so secret that they would put it in a magazine.

One of the things they had was secret pictures of Russian aircraft.  Not secret aircraft, but ordinary, well-known aircraft. Whenever the Navy got near Russian waters, the Russkies would send up some ELINT bombers to follow the fleet and pick up radio signals. This was well-known to the Navy and they would scramble fighters to escort the bombers. The pilots on both sides were used to this daily routine and they would wave at each other as they flew alongside each other. In fact, in one of the pictures I saw the Russian pilot was waving at the camera.

To this day I have this question in my mind. If it was a well-known Russian aircraft, and the Russian pilots knew their picture was being taken -- why was this picture secret?

But secret it was, just like the copy of Time Magazine on the same desk that was stamped "Secret". Just like the Top Secret request for clay pigeons for the officers club in the ROP, just like the Top Secret note from the colonel in Nam back to a sergeant in the US, telling the sergeant to go see if the colonel's wife was cheating on him, etc. etc.

Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74.

Where the hell are they?

Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they?

What are you talking about.

If it's the spelling? I can't spell worth shit.

Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they?

They are west of the Kenny Peninsula and south of the Bring Sea and the Liberace Islands, and extend towards the Camshafta Peninsula of the former USSR.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they? They are west of the Kenny Peninsula and south of the Bring Sea and the Liberace Islands, and extend towards the Camshafta Peninsula of the former USSR.

He was in the Air Force- how secret could it be?

I know someone who flew in the back of RC-135s before the USSR fell.  

Looooooooooooooong periods of boredom with moments of, "Well, this is interesting..."

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they? They are west of the Kenny Peninsula and south of the Bring Sea and the Liberace Islands, and extend towards the Camshafta Peninsula of the former USSR.

Damn ya got me .

He was actually a Space Shuttle Door Gunner, using C-130 radio communications as a cover story.

Check you IM, snailfan
carry on

its top secret....duh

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they? They are west of the Kenny Peninsula and south of the Bring Sea and the Liberace Islands, and extend towards the Camshafta Peninsula of the former USSR. Damn ya got me .

They encompass the western side of the Golf of Alaska stretching from the Atlasta Peninsula to the island of Klaatu Verada Nikto.  I assume his father was stationed at Sajak Naval Air Base.

I ain't happy till I get you to scorch your sinuses with hot coffee.

Quoted: Quoted: I got bad news for you kid. You're and alien. I've got bad news for you: your English sucks.

NO his grammagrammar sucks.

I was in AF Comm in the late 80's. We had a Secret  piece of gear in teh shop you had to be cleared to work on. It was a blue box bigger that a microwave with a little screen on the front. My Sarge let me work on it, he said it was a piece used mostly by the Navy....you could tell you location, speed, heading, and altitude using....satellite. That was a big 'ol GPS.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they? They are west of the Kenny Peninsula and south of the Bring Sea and the Liberace Islands, and extend towards the Camshafta Peninsula of the former USSR. Damn ya got me . They encompass the western side of the Golf of Alaska stretching from the Atlasta Peninsula to the island of Klaatu Verada Nikto.  I assume his father was stationed at Sajak Naval Air Base. I ain't happy till I get you to scorch your sinuses with hot coffee.

Thanks for the laugh.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: He prolly did the same thing my dad did while he was stationed up there.  Drink beer try, shot the seagulls and generally pised away his time when not doing his work. My father was at one of the Elution Islands in 73 to 74. Where the hell are they? They are west of the Kenny Peninsula and south of the Bring Sea and the Liberace Islands, and extend towards the Camshafta Peninsula of the former USSR.

Quoted: Quoted: I got bad news for you kid. You're and alien. I've got bad news for you: your English sucks.

He's still an alien. . . .  

Quoted: To this day I have this question in my mind. If it was a well-known Russian aircraft, and the Russian pilots knew their picture was being taken -- why was this picture secret?

It was most likely secret due to the method used to obtain the photo.  Usually the information is not secret, it's how the information was obtained.

snailfan:  I did some very similar stuff in the Army to what your dad did.  You have the essential pieces there.  Anything beyond what you've written is going to be so boring you'd chew off your arm to make it stop.

Generally speaking, everyone knows everyone is spying on everyone else.  It's how the information is obtained, what information is compromised (i.e. what is being spied on), and how that information is compromised that causes things to be classified.  If something might compromise the intelligence methods, it'll stay classified, even if it seems perfectly inocuous.

As far as what, specifically, he might have been doing, it's not really important.  Suffice it to say there's a lot of military installations in the Pacific region and any number of them might have something interesting going on at any given time.

Cheers,

kk7sm

Quoted: Quoted: To this day I have this question in my mind. If it was a well-known Russian aircraft, and the Russian pilots knew their picture was being taken -- why was this picture secret? It was most likely secret due to the method used to obtain the photo.  Usually the information is not secret, it's how the information was obtained.

Ummmm, they were flying alongside each other waving at each other like old friends. It was fairly obvious that the Russkie pilot was posing for the camera. The flights, and pictures, were so routine that the opposing pilots got to know each other fairly well. I even heard stories of them holding up pictures of their families to show each other. It wasn't secretly obtained any more than the pictures of your last vacation were secretly obtained.

But, even assuming that wasn't the case, there was nothing in the photo that they didn't already have in hundreds of duplicate photos. You could find damn near identical pictures in Jane's.

If I hadn't been in the service, I might find that a reasonable explanation. However, I worked in super secret installations for a few years and saw more "secret" crap than most people could imagine. They would (literally) stamp Time Magazine as being secret -- which meant that we who knew about the copy that had been stamped secret could not talk about the articles in that issue -- under penalty of prosecution.

I am sorry, but the truth is that there is an awful lot of silliness that goes on when you give people rubber stamps that say "Top Secret" and decree by law that anything that stamp touches is truely top secret.

Quoted: He was in the Air Force- how secret could it be?

It could be, and was, very secret.  A good bit of it still is.





5sub

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: To this day I have this question in my mind. If it was a well-known Russian aircraft, and the Russian pilots knew their picture was being taken -- why was this picture secret? It was most likely secret due to the method used to obtain the photo.  Usually the information is not secret, it's how the information was obtained. Ummmm, they were flying alongside each other waving at each other like old friends. It was fairly obvious that the Russkie pilot was posing for the camera. The flights, and pictures, were so routine that the opposing pilots got to know each other fairly well. I even heard stories of them holding up pictures of their families to show each other. It wasn't secretly obtained any more than the pictures of your last vacation were secretly obtained. But, even assuming that wasn't the case, there was nothing in the photo that they didn't already have in hundreds of duplicate photos. You could find damn near identical pictures in Jane's. If I hadn't been in the service, I might find that a reasonable explanation. However, I worked in super secret installations for a few years and saw more "secret" crap than most people could imagine. They would (literally) stamp Time Magazine as being secret -- which meant that we who knew about the copy that had been stamped secret could not talk about the articles in that issue -- under penalty of prosecution. I am sorry, but the truth is that there is an awful lot of silliness that goes on when you give people rubber stamps that say "Top Secret" and decree by law that anything that stamp touches is truely top secret.

You're getting the institutional paranoia factor. It plays a very large part in otherwise meaningless gestures.

Okay. There IT is. I should have read your whole post first.

tag.  Oddly enough, my grandfather-in-law did the same thing

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: To this day I have this question in my mind. If it was a well-known Russian aircraft, and the Russian pilots knew their picture was being taken -- why was this picture secret? It was most likely secret due to the method used to obtain the photo.  Usually the information is not secret, it's how the information was obtained. Ummmm, they were flying alongside each other waving at each other like old friends. It was fairly obvious that the Russkie pilot was posing for the camera. The flights, and pictures, were so routine that the opposing pilots got to know each other fairly well. I even heard stories of them holding up pictures of their families to show each other. It wasn't secretly obtained any more than the pictures of your last vacation were secretly obtained. But, even assuming that wasn't the case, there was nothing in the photo that they didn't already have in hundreds of duplicate photos. You could find damn near identical pictures in Jane's. If I hadn't been in the service, I might find that a reasonable explanation. However, I worked in super secret installations for a few years and saw more "secret" crap than most people could imagine. They would (literally) stamp Time Magazine as being secret -- which meant that we who knew about the copy that had been stamped secret could not talk about the articles in that issue -- under penalty of prosecution. I am sorry, but the truth is that there is an awful lot of silliness that goes on when you give people rubber stamps that say "Top Secret" and decree by law that anything that stamp touches is truely top secret. You're getting the institutional paranoia factor. It plays a very large part in otherwise meaningless gestures. Okay. There IT is. I should have read your whole post first.

I am not paranoid. I am perfectly comfortable with the fact that they are out to get me.

We would tell you but then we would have to kill you and then the thread would get locked !!!!