Secnav Task Force Report

HANDS THE BUREAU OF NAVAL PERSONNEL CAREER PUBLICATION I' in this issue: SECNAV TASK FORCEREPORT -..- ha MAY 1966 Nav-Pers-0 NUMBER 592 VICE ADMIRAL BENEDICT J. SEMMES, Jr., USN The Chief of Naval Personnel REAR ARMIRAL BERNARD M. STREAN, USN The Deputy Chief of Naval Personnel Publication, is publishedmonthly by the CAPTAIN JOHN W. HIGGINS, Jr., USN Bureau ofNaval Personnel for the infor- Assistant Chief for Morale Services motionand interest of the naval service OS awhole. Issuance of this publication approved in accordance with Department of the NavyPublications and Printing Regulations, NAVEXOS P-35. Opinions ex- TABLE OF CONTENTS pressed arenot necessarily those of the Navy Department. Reference to regulations,orders and directives isfor infor- Articles mationonly and does notby publication Consumer Testing, NavyStyle: The Story of OpTevFor ............ 2 hereinconstitute authority for action. All originalmaterial may be reprinted as de- TheyTest Everything from MAD Gearto GEMS .................. 5 sired if proper credit is given ALL HANDS. Photo Recon: TheEyes Have It .............................. 7 Original articles of generalinterest may be forwarded-to the Editor.DISTRIBU- LittleGuys with Lots of Pull ............................... 8 TION: By Section 8-3203 of the Bureauof Meet TACCO:Man in a Marlin .............................. 10 Naval PersonnelManual, the Bureaudi- ..................................... rects thatappropriate steps be taken to NavyHospital, Saigon 13 insurethat oll hands have quick and can- Headed for DownUnder? See Chee-Chee ...................... 14 venient access to this magazine, and indi- cotes thatdistribution should be effected on the basis of onecopy for each 10 offi- SpecialFeature Roundup: The Helicopter cers andenlisted personnel to accomplish the purpose of the magazine. A Nest of Whirlybirds ..................................... 19 TheBureau invites requests for addi- ............................ tionol copies as necessary to comply with FromUgly Duckling to NavyAngel 20 the basic directives. This magazine is in- Howto Fly a Copter ....................................... 25 tended forall handsand commanding This Is Vertical Envelopment .................................. 28 officersshould take necessary steps to moke it available accordingly. In and Out of the HotSpots ............................... 29 TheBureau should be kept informedof AndNow It's VERTREP .................................... 30 changes in the number of copies required. TheBureau should olsa be advised if Centerspread: History and Development of Helicopters ........... 32 the full number of copies is not received Helicopters of Today's Navy ................................ 34 regularly. Normally copies for Navy octivities are distributedonly to those on the Standard NavyDistribution List in the expectation SpecialReport that such octivitie%-hLill make furtherdis- TheSecNav Task Force: Its Recommendations Affect Navynten and "."tributionas necessary; where special cir- cumstances warrant sending direct to sub- TheirFamilies, Ships andShore Stations, Personnel Assignment, octivities the Bureaushould be informed. CareerOpportunities and Fleet Operations ...............:. ...... 38 Distributionto Marine Corps personnel is effected by the Commandant US. Ma- rine Corps. Requests from Marine Activities should be addressed to the Commandant. Departments PERSONALCOPIES: This magazine is for Servicescope: Newsof Other Services ..................... 36 saleby Superintendent of Documents, US. Government Printing Office, Washington, TheWord .............................................. 54 D.C. 20402. The rote for ALL HANDS is 25 Bulletin Board: How to Qualify for the Naval Academy ............ cents per copy(except for the December 56 1963 Rights andBenefits issue, which is , Letters to the Editor ....................................... 60 50 cents per copy); subscription price $2.50 o year, domestic (including FPO and APO address for overseasmail); $3.50 I Taffrail Talk .............................. 64 foreign. Remittonces should bemade to the Superintendent of Documents. Sub- scriptions are accepted for one, twoor three years. John A. Oudine, Editor Associate Editors G. VernBlasdell, News Jerry Wolff, Research Don Addor, Layout & Art French Crawford Smith, Reserve 0 AT LEFT: MISSC@ MISSES-Guidedmissile cruiser USS Columbus (CG 12) pullsalongside hersister ship USS Albany(CG 10) uponentering her home port at Norfolk, Va. 0 CREDIT: All photographspublished in ALL HANDS Magazine areofficial Department of Defense photos unless otherwise designated. I WHEN THE WAR ENDED the Navy was free to consolidate and ex- pand its technical gains. First on the agenda was the “sophistication US reliability”problem. Itssolution: Tests. Not, however,just any kind of tests-newly designed equipment had always been tried out before acceptance.Henceforth, newequipment wouldonly enter theFleet after survivingwhat could accurately be calleda trial by ordeal. There would be a specialized command (OpTevFor, of course) specif- ically equippedto find faultwith new gear. Production line models of proposed equipment would be given tothis command. This equipment would be taken to sea and operated, byNavymen, under the most de- manding conditionswhich could be NOW ON DUTY-One of the projects of OpTevFor was the Dash concept. devised. It’d catch hell, in other words. And all the while the test Force,a group which had beenes- quarters building, that, test and eval- commandwould watch closely for tablishedduring thelatter. part of uation project details are worked up. signs of trouble. World War I1 to devise a defense The assignments come directly from Later, the trials would be known against kamikaze attacks. This com- the Chief of Naval Operations, who asoperational evaluations. mand, which hadnot had timeto has the responsibilityfor accepting If the test command’s negative ar- make a name for itself in its first job, or rejecting equipment whichhas gument was weak, the system tested quicklymet with success on the been proposed for Fleet use. couldsafely be manufactured and second. A fewyears later its name The command is organizedinto sent to sea with reasonable assurance was changed to the Operational Test several divisions, sections and units, it would perform as advertised. If, on and Evaluation Force-OpTevFor. each of which has a specialty-such theother hand, there were strong as command and control systems, air pointsagainst acceptance, the gear TODAY OpTevForheadquarters are warfare,mine warfare and so on. would be sent back to the manufac- in Norfolk, Va. Here the two-star OpTevFor tests just about anything turerfor improvement. Thusthe commander and his large staff keep that can be categorized as operation- Navy would avoid mass producing its track of an average 200 test projects al equipment. technicalproblems. and monitor the operation of subor- Soon afterthe Force commander Testduties were assignedto the dinate test commands on both coasts. receives an assignmentfrom CNO, U.S. Navy Operational Development It is here, in the red brickhead- he chooses one of his staff toact as VARIED WORK-Copter pilot, machine shop specialist and sonar technician represent some of the skills at test centers. MAY 1966 wellenough to criticize-the opera- HOUGH A TOUR with thedetach- tion of machineswhich other men men is considered shore duty for havedesigned andmanufactured. the enlisted men, they sometimes see As a result, they devote the first few verylittle of home and family. Be- weeks after receiving an assignment fore a project begins, the crew con- tostudying the technicalmanuals cerned may be senttoa school and generally becoming familiar with where they will learn to operate and the newgear. Often, they attend maintain the new equipment. While schools and conferwith the manu- testing is in progress, they are often facturer’s technicalrepresentatives on duty atsea or in other parts of the and officers from OpNav. country. At times, in fact,the de- This done, the two men write the tachment’sheadquarters are all but testplan, a detailed description of deserted-the mine crew off to school the operationsrequired to evaluate preparingfor tests of .a new ASW the equiment. This includes a list of mine, the sonar technicians putting a factors to be observed and the condi- submarinedetection and classifica- tionswhich should prevail for each tion system through its paces off the of the tests. coast of Labrador, and the torpedo In the meantime, Navymen in the shoptrying outa new “fish” at an testingunit which will handlethe underwater test range. projectare preparing for the forth- Because of theirextensive work coming operations. OpTevFor has a with mines and torpedoes,the Key number of subordinateunits: three West Detachment has an underwater test and evaluationdetachments, demolition team assigned. They mon- three air development squadrons and itortests from underwater and re- severalassigned experimental ships. cover pieces of equipment when tests SYMBOLIC-Mineand torpedo dec- Each command has its specialty. are complete. They also receivea good deal of extra duty-disposing of orate the entrance to the OpTevFor Representative of these are two damagedmunitions, recovering ob- Detachment HQ at Key West, Florida. commands on the Florida Keys: The Key West Test and Evaluation De- jects of allvarieties, and disarming the occasional World War I1 mine headquartersproject officer, and tachmentand, a few miles to the northeast, Air DevelopmentSquad- dredged up

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