Two S-3B jet squadrons being retired at North Island Naval Air Station

Two S-3B jet squadrons being retired at North Island Naval Air Station
By James W. Crawley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 16, 2004

JOHN R. McCUTCHEN / Union-Tribune
Sailors from Sea Control Squadron VS-29 at North Island Naval Air Station moved a Harpoon anti-ship missile across the tarmac for attachment to one of several S-3B Viking jets on display for today’s joint unit shutdown ceremony with Squadron VS-38.

For the first time in 54 years, the status board in the VS-38 squadron ready room is blank.

No jets poised for takeoff. No aircraft in the hangar for repair. No flight plans pending.

Sea Control Squadron VS-38 and hangar mate VS-29 at North Island Naval Air Station are shutting down today as the Navy begins retiring its S-3B Viking squadrons, a process that should be completed in five years or less.

Already, the squadrons’ aircraft have been flown off to the military’s plane graveyard in Arizona, consigned to museums or disassembled for parts. Most of the pilots, flight officers and enlisted personnel have shipped out to other duty stations.

The sun is setting on the Navy’s Viking units for two interrelated reasons – age and money.

“We want to get out of the old airplanes,” said Rear Adm. Mark Fitzgerald, the Navy’s director of air warfare. “The F-14s, EA-6s and the S-3s, all came on line in the 1970s. The aircraft are starting to show wear and tear, and we need to replace them with aircraft that cost less to maintain.”

Fitzgerald acknowledged that the S-3s still have years of useful life, but said that in retiring the Vikings by 2009, the Navy can save nearly $1 billion. That’s money that can be used to buy the newer F/A-18 Super Hornet and the yet-to-come Joint Strike Fighter.

The Vikings’ fate was foreshadowed in 1999, when the Navy stopped using them for hunting enemy submarines – the plane’s initial mission. The aircraft stayed on primarily as aerial tankers. Then, in 2003, Navy planners decided new squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets could handle the refueling job.

JOHN R. McCUTCHEN / Union-Tribune
Since the first Viking joined the fleet in 1974, the plane has performed anti-sub and maritime patrol duties and served as an airborne listening post, long-range transport and, in its latest role, aerial refueler.

To replace the Vikings, the Navy will use three aircraft already in the inventory or on the drawing board, Fitzgerald said. Sub-hunting duties already have been taken up by carrier-based helicopters and shore-based P-3 Orion patrol planes.

Aerial tanker work will be done by the Super Hornets, which can carry bombs and fuel at the same time.

Fitzgerald said future unmanned aerial vehicles, similar to the Global Hawk, probably will provide aircraft carrier strike groups with over-the-horizon surveillance now conducted by the S-3s.

While the remaining 103 jets are being retired, their crews of aviators, maintenance, supply and administrative personnel are being recycled.

“We’re working the personnel impacts,” said Capt. Greg LaBuda, who oversees West Coast-based sea control squadrons.

Before the 11 Viking squadrons based in San Diego and Florida disestablish – the Navy term for shutting down a unit – personnel officials will have to find new jobs and careers for about 400 aviators and more than 2,500 enlisted men and women.

Some transfers, such as supply and administrative positions, will be easy to coordinate. Others, for pilots and mechanics, will require retraining for a different type of aircraft, which takes time and money.

“Learning a new aircraft will be a challenge,” said Lt. Ben Charles, a naval flight officer who operates electronics. He eventually wants to fly the Super Hornet, either as a pilot or back-seat weapons officer.

For structural mechanic Antonio Gaag, the S-3s’ retirement is full of new opportunities.

“It’s a gain for me because it’s a chance to change (aircraft),” said the petty officer second class, who has served for four years. He has orders to become a helicopter mechanic after completing a two-month training course.

But for Petty Officer 1st Class Rico Estacio, a 16-year veteran who will move to another Viking squadron at North Island for a year, he may have to leave San Diego before he can retire in four years.

He said, “I don’t want to spend the last three years away from San Diego,” which has been a longtime home for his wife and three children.

With help from Navy personnel experts, about 95 percent of the enlisted sailors in his squadron were happy with their new jobs, said Cmdr. Sean Kelly, VS-38’s skipper.

“They did miracles to meet the needs of the individual sailors, if they could,” he added.

Marks of distinction
The Vikings are distinctive among the jets crowding the 4½-acre flight decks of the Navy’s carriers on four counts – appearance, endurance, versatility and sound.

The aircraft features a tall vertical tail, which can be folded over to fit inside a carrier’s hangar deck, and twin turbofan jet engines hanging from pylons beneath its wings. The large cockpit canopy provides visibility for up to four crew members. A rounded nose contains high-powered radar that is sensitive enough to detect submarine periscopes.

Engines, similar to those on commercial jetliners, can’t push the S-3s to supersonic speeds like a Super Hornet strike fighter. However, the engines are so fuel-efficient that Vikings can fly five-hour missions without refueling, something the fighters and bombers can’t do.

Since the first Viking, designated the S-3A, joined the fleet in 1974, the plane has been modified for several new duties. Besides their original anti-sub and maritime patrol roles, S-3s have been modified to serve as airborne listening posts, snooping on enemy military communications; long-range transports; and, in their latest role, aerial refueling.

“It’s been the utility infielder for the carrier air wing,” said Cmdr. Keff Carter, commanding officer of VS-29.

As a warplane, the Viking has been armed with anti-submarine torpedoes, mines, sonar buoys and, in recent years, anti-ship Harpoon and laser-guided Maverick missiles.

During the Iraq war, a VS-38 Viking destroyed Saddam Hussein’s presidential yacht with a Maverick missile – the first time in the plane’s career that it has fired a weapon in combat. As a side note, the missile-firing Viking also refueled its F/A-18 Hornet escort before and after hitting the yacht.

And then there are the distinctive Viking sounds.

Anyone sunning on the beach near the Hotel del Coronado, below North Island Naval Air Station’s approach pattern, knows the whirring, vacuum-cleaner-like sound of a landing S-3B. That’s why the Viking is affectionately called “the Hoover” by its crews.

“I’m going to miss the ‘hoop-hoop’ sound,” said Gaag, referring to the sound the engines make when power is increased during landing.

For the American and world public, the S-3 may best be remembered for one of the jet’s shortest flights: President Bush’s landing May 1, 2003, in a Viking aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln off San Diego to mark the end of major combat in Iraq.

With victory over the Iraqi military and Bush’s flight, the past year has been the pinnacle for the S-3 community. So, the pending shutdown of squadrons has been emotional for the men and women who fly and maintain the jets.

Helping the squadrons’ morale was their involvement in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

VS-38’s final deployment, aboard the carrier Constellation, was busy. Pilots averaged three flights per day, with seven of the unit’s eight aircraft flying up to four times per day.

Kelly said his unit flew one-fourth of the war missions from the Constellation, which was decommissioned after its Iraq tour.

“To have the last deployment so successful was so important to the squadron,” he said. “We ended up on top.”

With only one-third of the usual complement, each day is another farewell as sailors leave for new jobs or training.

“Every day you say goodbye to someone you’ve seen every day for 3½ years,” Gaag said. “It’s like a big family that’s breaking up.”

Both North Island units are ending more than four decades of service with today’s joint shutdown ceremony. VS-38 began in 1950 as a reserve torpedo bombing squadron, while VS-29 was established in 1960. Both units switched to the Viking in the mid-1970s.

Nowadays, the offices and ready room are largely bare. Bare patches mark where pictures of deployments past hung on walls. The safes that held classified records stand empty.

With his tools and equipment packed up and shipped out, Gaag arrives for work each morning to an office containing a computer, a desk and two chairs.

Besides painting and cleaning in preparation for this week’s ceremony, the sailors have bided their time watching crews from two helicopter units get set to move into their hangar. Pieces of tape mark sofas, desks, refrigerators and file cabinets that will be reused by the new tenants.

“I guess they can’t wait for us to leave,” Gaag said.

However, don’t expect the disestablishment ceremony – equivalent to a ship decommissioning – to necessarily be a solemn occasion.

“It’s like a funeral – you can either go there and cry or you can go and celebrate their life,” LaBuda said. “We want to celebrate their life.”

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