A couple of notes from Ed on the early days of the IANTN CAT.
The IANTN/CAT was under the control of NCS
Balboa with the U.S. CO (0-5) being one of the Secretariat officers. We
were not affiliated with NavCamsLant NorVa. The NCS Balboa/IANTN was a
second echelon command with a USN Lt. OIC, CPO/SCPO as AOIC. Our budget
came from CNO N7 I believe with full civilian clothing allowances for
all members and a huge travel budget. During the 79-81 timeframe the CAT
installed US crypto (modified) in all SOAM countries and upgraded their
TTY speeds from 67 words per minute to the speedy 100 words per minute.
No small task, mind you. Nothing more challenging than changing out
teletype speed gears on a Bolivian UGC-48 in a comm shelter with 5 foot
ceilings at 11,000 feet above sea level. We also did HF transmitter and
receiver maintenance/training. Some countries had AN/FRT-39 10KW mitters
but most used WRC-1's or their national equivalent. Also during this
period the Farfan receiver facility (comm center downstairs) was gutted
and totally rewired. This was done entirely over ONE weekend so as not
to interrupt IANTN broadcast commitments. Travel was long and frequent.
We frequently flew on USAF C-130's or 141's US Embassy Support Flights
and became part of the aircrew. All IANTN/CAT members carried two
passports, a blue tourist passport and a red official passport. We would
normally only show the blue tourist passport. At times, however, the
official passport would become very important. Once when RMC Roger Grant
was coming into Chile from Bolivia he was detained at the Chilean border
for various reasons. Having the red official passport allowed him to
continue on to an important IANTN/CAT rendezvous in Iquique, Chile.
Hopping from country to country on those MAC flights was really fun. The
host embassy would pick the team up take them to their hotel, arrange
for shopping, etc. Once we were stranded in Rio de Janeiro for a many
hours due to a bomb threat to our C141 aircraft. The Brazilian police
towed our plane off to a remote spot and did a search while we nervously
stood by under the wing pacing back and forth because we had comsec
aboard. In some countries, the US Embassy would put us up in local safe
houses. These were private residences in local neighborhoods where US
military personnel could reside unnoticed by those would do us harm. The
terrorism threat in Caracas and Bogotá were very real.
The IANTN/CAT was responsible for the very first encrypted message
traffic between a U.S. Navy ship and a Brazilian Navy Flagship. We
slepped all of the equipment down to Rio from Farfan, installed it
onboard the ship and made a solid QSO from the ship to Farfan. An
amazing feat considering that we didn't have a lot of info on the
Brazilian Navy HF transmitter interface. Riding that ship took some
getting used to. The blue IANTN/CAT jump suits (required foreign travel
uniform) made us really stand out onboard. We spoke Spanish and they
spoke Portuguese but there weren't any problems encountered. USCOMSOLANT
had good comms with us during the entire exercise.
Ron, I could go on and on but it is getting late and I have to go to
work tomorrow. Let me know if you want more chapters. I am in contact
with some of the guys in the attached photo. One in particular is a
retired Rear Admiral Peruvian Navy who was a young LT. at the IANTN
Secretariat 25 years ago. BTW I am the one on the front right.
V/R,
Ed
We definitely had an adventure out of Panama. I
still remember having to slip a $20 bill in my passport whenever I
departed through Tocumen...you did that or you didn't get too far. On
the way back in I would always buy 3 kilos of coffee in Colombia...two
for myself and one for the Panamanian customs inspector.
Thanks ED... VR/Ron