THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 5, 1994 TAG: 9410040524
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 58 lines
FAREWELL TO SEA DRAGONS: After 23 years of service, Helicopter Mine Countermeasures Squadron 12 has been dissolved, bringing an end to the Navy's first airborne mine-hunting squadron, known as the Sea Dragons. The squadron was disestablished Friday in ceremonies at Norfolk Naval Air Station after seeing duty in Vietnam during 1972, where it used CH-53 helicopters to clear the harbors of North Vietnam; in 1974 in the Suez Canal; and in the Persian Gulf in 1991. As a fleet-replacement squadron, it trained and qualified 768 pilots, 1,280 air crew and 11,900 maintenance personnel. It logged more than 75,000 mishap-free flight hours, a record unsurpassed in the helicopter community.
AIR FORCE GRANT TO HAMPTON U.: Air Force officials have awarded a $3.75 million grant to Hampton University, which is teamed with Hughes Training Inc., to establish an aero-science institute to train minorities, women and displaced workers for various commercial aviation jobs, such as aviation maintenance, flight training, air-traffic control, aviation management, safety and meteorology. The institute will offer certificate and license, or baccalaureate degrees. It will be located at the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport.
- Staff report
COMINGS & GOINGS
HOME FROM CARIBBEAN:
The Portsmouth-based Coast Guard cutter Tampa returned home Tuesday following more than two months of duty in the Caribbean, where it located 73 rafts and rescued 610 Cuban migrants. Tampa also took aboard 553 Cubans rescued by other ships and took them to the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
BACK FROM NATO DUTY:
The guided-issile cruiser Bainbridge, the Navy's oldest active nuclear cruiser - which celebrates its 32nd birthday Thursday - returned home to Norfolk Friday after serving as flagship for NATO's Standing Naval Forces Atlantic. It is being replaced by another Norfolk-based ship, the guided-missile cruiser Yorktown.
Bainbridge left Norfolk April 1 and participated in Operation Sharp Guard, the United Nations' effort to enforce trade sanctions against the former republic of Yugoslavia. It is scheduled for a two-month leave and maintenance period before deploying to the Caribbean.
BY THE NUMBERS
Graphic
STAFF
SO YOU WANT TO BE AN ASTRONAUT
Here's what the Air Force looks for in their pilot astronaut candidates.
SOURCE: AFMPC [For complete graphic, please see microfilm] by CNB