Post by MattWiser on Jun 7, 2004 1:59:13 GMT -5
Call this a sea/air story, but I heard this from a cousin who is a USN F/A-18 Hornet pilot (one of the first women to go to sea and fly off a carrier in combat). She told me that her squadron CO before her first cruise in 1995 stated to her and the other new pilots in the squadron that there was more to the Triangle than meets the eye. He was an ensign at the time on a carrier headed for a Med deployment in either 1980 or '81 when a Tu-95 Bear-D MR aircraft came down from Murmansk (Kola Peninsula), flew between Iceland and the UK, and into the Atlantic to look for the carrier. My cousin's CO flew A-7s at the time, and he and his CO launched with two F-14s to intercept. (The A-7s were rigged as buddy refueling tankers to back up the KA-6Ds) They intercepted the Bear, and as they approached the carrier, the Americans and Russians were talking on GUARD and the Russians were asking what it's like to be on a carrier, and the Americans were asking the Russians if they'd screwed up to get assigned to Kola. The A-7 CO then said:
"Hey Ivan, do you guys know that on your way to Havana you'll be flying thru the Bermuda Triangle?"
One of the Russians-either a diehard communist or a Political Officer with NO sense of Humor responded:
"The Bermuda Triangle is nothing but a tool the Capitalists use to scare the masses!"
"OK Ivan. If that's the way you feel...But if you run into something, and your instruments go out and your compasses start spinning, don't say I didn't warn you."Everyone had a laugh and as the Russians flew off towards Cuba, the Tomcats and A-7s headed back to the carrier. The next day they got a message from LANTFLT in Norfolk asking for the Bear's last known position, course, airspeed, altitude, and condition. They asked for a reason and were told that the Soviet Naval Attache was in Norfolk with a request for information-the Bear had not arrived in Cuba-No SOS, nothing. Several Soviet merchant ships went to the area, along with a number of Soviet subs, the Soviet Navy's Caribbean Flotilla from Cuba (only a cruiser, destroyer, and a supply ship), and several Bears already in Cuba. Other Bears came up from Angola, while a few more came down from Murmansk. Of course the Navy and Coast Guard watched the Russians, while searching themselves-despite the Cold War, the code of the Sea still applied-people were out there in trouble, and politics is secondary. A week of searching turned up the usual-no wreckage, no bodies, no life rafts/jackets, no oil slick (Bears carry a LOT of fuel), no nothing. This was a Bear-D Maritime Recon plane, not a Bear-F ASW aircraft, as the Big Bulge Radar fills the weapons bay. Only thing they found unusual was a P-3 crew seeing what they thought was a green flare-but this flare stopped, and then sped off. The carrier's planes went searching as well-they didn't find a thing (or see anything unusual).
"Hey Ivan, do you guys know that on your way to Havana you'll be flying thru the Bermuda Triangle?"
One of the Russians-either a diehard communist or a Political Officer with NO sense of Humor responded:
"The Bermuda Triangle is nothing but a tool the Capitalists use to scare the masses!"
"OK Ivan. If that's the way you feel...But if you run into something, and your instruments go out and your compasses start spinning, don't say I didn't warn you."Everyone had a laugh and as the Russians flew off towards Cuba, the Tomcats and A-7s headed back to the carrier. The next day they got a message from LANTFLT in Norfolk asking for the Bear's last known position, course, airspeed, altitude, and condition. They asked for a reason and were told that the Soviet Naval Attache was in Norfolk with a request for information-the Bear had not arrived in Cuba-No SOS, nothing. Several Soviet merchant ships went to the area, along with a number of Soviet subs, the Soviet Navy's Caribbean Flotilla from Cuba (only a cruiser, destroyer, and a supply ship), and several Bears already in Cuba. Other Bears came up from Angola, while a few more came down from Murmansk. Of course the Navy and Coast Guard watched the Russians, while searching themselves-despite the Cold War, the code of the Sea still applied-people were out there in trouble, and politics is secondary. A week of searching turned up the usual-no wreckage, no bodies, no life rafts/jackets, no oil slick (Bears carry a LOT of fuel), no nothing. This was a Bear-D Maritime Recon plane, not a Bear-F ASW aircraft, as the Big Bulge Radar fills the weapons bay. Only thing they found unusual was a P-3 crew seeing what they thought was a green flare-but this flare stopped, and then sped off. The carrier's planes went searching as well-they didn't find a thing (or see anything unusual).