HORIZONS UNLIMITED

there are many things you will need to know on your way to becoming an operation specialist and this is one of the first every creature every person every nation depends for survival on its ability to perceive and react to danger by nature the sea can be a dangerous environment full of immense and uncontrollable energies a ship in the service of the United States Navy is not only exposed to the natural dangers of the sea it's also on the perimeter of national defense compared to supersonic planes or missiles the ship could be a sitting target unless unless you can anticipate danger long before it happens even in a storm even in poor even hundreds of miles away on board nearly every ship in the Navy there's a nerve center like this one it's a place you're going to be learning quite a lot about the combat Information Center CIC this is where the ship's radar operations are carried out these men are members of the CIC team their rate is one you'll be interested in their operations specialists [Music] the scene is confusing at first 7 rain the laws of science and electronics paint a message on a radar screen the message is read aloud heard and recorded and reviewed simultaneously other information is being organized in the same way alphabet 3 4 5 rain 17,500 yards Bravo bear green three seven twenty eight thousand yards at a glance a trained evaluator can grasp the whole situation and make his decision the bridge this time [Music] where do before Conda we have the time highway we have a duty on golf three intercept looks good Bonecrusher Roger Fox one Fox two Grand Slam of golf three bilayers Grand Slams all three with Kevin report to alpha which the end of the bridge away splash the rain to the north form alpha whiskey our cap is resuming state in the late 1930s the US Navy began to outfit it ships with a primitive radar at the time it was one of the best-kept secrets in the world and for a very good reason in the next few years it would change all the rules and dimensions of naval warfare some say radar was the weapon that won the war the great battles of world war ii like the Battle of Coral Sea were fought with increasing reliance on radar information the radar became so precise an operator could see the path of his own shells if they fell short of the target he could report the corrections to gunnery during the night actions around Guadalcanal it became apparent that radar was so important it had to have a compartment of its own [Music] the combat Information Center quickly became a clearinghouse for all sorts of information and messages passing throughout the ship and between other vessels by the end of World War two the CIC had become the nerve center of combat operations today the demand for long-range detection and instant response has emphasized the importance of the operation specialists as operation specialists you will inherit three decades of increasing responsibilities and a central role in the ship's operations morning class at the training center you will learn the fundamentals necessary for your combat effectiveness as a member of the CIC team the same as every search radar we have your instructors have had all the experience in the book collection within and a lot you won't find in books now this week particular we'll be working with the SBA 25 repeater you'll find that most of the students here really enjoy this portion of the work that this is their first chance of getting a hands on to any of these operating equipment the radar is our primary means of gathering information to all the operation specialists has to be able to operate a repeater with accuracy he has to be able to do it rapidly and get the right information out of it the first time because it might be there his targets move all time when he's slow he had trouble with repeater he cannot get an accurate target information from them all right gentlemen we're going to start the fly a performance test you've had ample time in the classroom to prepare at night brew night class instructors available to you right now it's all up to you we're going to see how well you perform on a the actual equipment the performance test first thing I'd like you to do is get a bearing arrange to any contact my philosophy on getting a trainee through this school is to not so much get him through here with a high scholastic average but to have a good feeling for the equivalent when he goes to see if you're having any problems we have guide instructors available to you until about 2200 hours the instructors also might be able to help down the passageway you have of course you've just asked you are going to find there are many different kinds of radar and some very specialized information systems that go along with them aircraft and missiles can approach at incredible speeds twenty and thirty miles each minute air search radar can see over the horizon and give warning air plot takes this raw information and refines it into usable facts the location of any ship or low-flying aircraft is pinpointed by surface search radar this information is then translated to course and speed using a plotting table like this dead reckoning tracer or DRT even minute the DRT gives a precise picture of surface contacts and electronic intercepts he's a friendly make sure you got friendly symbols down there everyone be working CPAs this morning cpa closest point of approach with the maneuvering board computations can be made to determine a targets closest point of approach in relation to your own share on your line the captain must know how close were gonna come to you from that ship without moving your parallel move it over to the center and always reading in the same direction one of your most important skills will be communications using operational terminology and proper communications procedures this being week twelve when we're nearly through with school it is the most important for us to go into our complex section of our race now ASW is used to deny the enemy the effective use of his submarine now this can be a cop all of the things you learn will give you a foundation for advanced radar and CIC tasks where we go out and try to locate and destroy his submarine perhaps the most valuable and exciting moments in the whole training process will occur when you begin simulated training exercises in the CIC mock up all the information made available from the radars and refined by the various plotting techniques is coordinated so the evaluators can make their recommendations to command here in a glance is the surface status surface summary vertical plot the air status and other boards including a record of the communications channels throughout the information network communications is necessarily a primary function of the CIC after you've learned radars language you become an interpreter for everyone else who needs that information so it's up to you to get the news in and out quickly and accurately to do that you'll be using sound powered phones multi-channel intercom circuits and radio telephones you'll learn to use all of them and know how to construct messages and how to keep track of all the message traffic this is where all the individual pieces of training will come together this is where you will begin to know the satisfaction that comes from efficient teamwork the work itself will become second nature to you as you fill every job in the CIC and fill it well stand by the marks gunk also bearing zero zero one degrees twenty nine thousand yards what I like about the lockup is that you're putting everything you've learned to practice as you do Sandoval's a little bit even though you're in a building somewhere you do get a sense of some sort of a sense of reality of what you're going to be doing on the ship right yeah I enjoy that very much Wow being right where the action is being like where everything is going on being where the decisions are being made I've enjoyed the school I'm in this life you learn like basics more than particulars and everything changes so rapidly you don't ever really get bored with what you're saying anymore on navigation one week and then I'll scope the next week I'm down communication and it keeps your interest by keeping your interest you do pick up a great deal right now that I'm graduating I already have my ship assignment and I'm going to Charleston yes Lord Allah destroy your honor and I feel very good about it how long about this time everybody is beginning to wonder where they're headed next well you can count on one thing there's a ship in your future I took my training at a school Great Lakes they give you the basics there it's just you have to supplement that with whatever knowledge they give you after that well our responsibility mainly is to give the recommendations to the officer deck to make the best tactical recommendation at the time and at the base it on all information on hand that's what our training is all about we're not prepared well might as well not go out next month I will be attending one classes advance CIC procedures it all depends on what you make of it if you want to go far you can go far because this room this rate is wide open they look for a man who telogen he's able to cope with pressure situations for the most part they come with a very good knowledge every day changes come into pubs publications doctrine procedures and the operation specialist has to keep himself abreast of all these different changes in order to do his job in a correct way with our defensive posture it requires personal a good fundamental knowledge of what they're doing and then they've got to be able to almost instantaneously react and get out the proper recommendations to command and control as you begin the training that will one day lead each of you to a ship heading out to sea try to keep in mind the whole picture [Music] a ship is a small island moving in a vast and unpredictable water world where everything depends on how well the men who serve aboard can work together even though you're not yet aboard a ship your job has