I didn't have as much radio time during November as I would have liked, so the month's recap isn't quite as extensive as usual. Even with the reduced time around the radios, it was still an interesting month. At the end of the month, I took a nice road trip to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, FL that gave me the opportunity to listen to Mayport and Jacksonville area MilCom a bit more closely than usual.
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| PIONEER 21 (P-8A, 167956, VX-1) |
Over the weekend, I took a road trip down to Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach, FL. I left Savannah on Saturday morning and returned on Monday morning. It was a beautiful Autumn weekend for a road trip - cool in the mornings, but particularly on Sunday afternoon, warming up just into short sleeve weather. On Saturday, I enjoyed taking a boat tour around Amelia Island and Cumberland Island followed by a trolley tour of historic Fernandina Beach and a walk around the Fernandina Beach Historic District. On Sunday, I caught the sunrise on the beach, then visited Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Plaza Historic State Park, Kingsley Plantation, and Huguenot Park.
I enjoyed some good radio listening during the trip. Even though it was a weekend, I still heard some MilCom (including a terrific catch at NS Mayport). I caught some FedCom from the US Coast Guard (Sectors Charleston and Jacksonville) and National Park Service. There was a good mix of conventional and trunked public safety communications. I heard Marine VHF/Port communications from Fernandina Beach down to Jacksonville and even though I could hear train horns throughout the weekend, I only heard a bit of railroad communications.
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| US Navy DDGs (Guided Missile Destroyers) moored in the basin at Naval Station Mayport, FL |
As October passed by, it didn't seem to be all the interesting of a MilCom month, but in the last few days as I looked back over the month to compile the recap, I realized it wasn't all that bad after all. One of the squadrons at MCAS Beaufort that had been inactive due to F-35 conversion began to fly again. In somewhat related news, the 125th FW at Jacksonville IAP may have recently stood down to begin their conversion to the F-35A. A road trip to Columbia, SC gave me the opportunity to listen to things from Shaw AFB and Fort Jackson that are too far away to hear at home. There were also some nice foreign military/civil aviation catches.
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| Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC |
This road trip was supposed be in Upstate South Carolina to visit the Cowpens and Kings Mountain battlefields and take in the Autumn foliage, but unfortunately both Cowpens and Kings Mountain are still in the process of removing dangerous fallen trees from Hurricane Helene. Since the two parks were closed in the week before I left, I changed plans and visited Congaree National Park in Hopkins, SC, Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, SC, and Poinsett State Park in Wedgefield, SC on Sunday and Monday and returned to Savannah on Tuesday. Sunday, on the way up, I used I-95, but to get a bit different view and hear different things, I used US-321 to return to Savannah on Tuesday morning.
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| This road trip was across two beautiful Autumn days with the leaves in Midlands South Carolina beginning to turn. |
Due to a variety of issues, including less time around the radios than expected, September started out as a not too good military monitoring month but it turned out to be a good one, indeed. Most of September was uneventful, but the second half of the month saw the 71st Fighter Squadron and 7th Fighter Training Squadron conduct an exercise at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center. I missed most of the first week, but I was able to listen to some of the second week. VMFA-312 and VMFA(AW)-224 at MCAS Beaufort swapped deployments in Japan in the middle of the month. The end of the month saw Hurricane Helene pass through Georgia and resulted in some hurricane evacuations by aircraft from Gulfstream and the 165th Airlift Wing in Savannah. Notable during September:
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| Gulfstream Aircraft from their Factory and Service Center in Savannah evacuating to Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, PA on the afternoon of Thursday, 25 September 2024 ahead of Hurricane Helene passing through west Georgia on Thursday night and Friday morning. |
The 71st Fighter Squadron and 7th Fighter Training Squadron are back at the Savannah Combat Readiness Training Center/Air Dominance Center (CRTC/ADC) for the third time this year (previous visits were in January and May). They seem to be conducting a Sentry Savannah type exercise in the SEALORD controlled special use areas off the coast along with tanker support. This is the second week they've been here, but due to my work schedule I was unable to listen last week with the exception of Friday (and on Friday, weather kept the fighters on the ground). Last week, a 434th ARW KC-135 provided tanker support from Hunter AAF and today two 916th ARW KC-46s provided tanker support, coming from their home base at Seymour-Johnson AFB.
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| 916th ARW KC-46As, 6th AMW/927th ARW KC-135Rs, ATAC Hunters and a Kfir, and 7th FTS T-38As during the afternoon of 17 September 2024 |
Hurricane Debby made her way through Southeast Georgia in early August as Tropical Storm Debby, bringing a lot of rain to the area, particularly west and northwest of Savannah. That rain flooded areas around Glenville and Statesboro then the water flowed downriver to the coast causing flooding in the Savannah and Richmond Hill areas. TS Debby curtailed my aviation and military monitoring for almost a week, truly trivial compared to folks who whose homes were flooded and the many who were unable to leave or return home by flooded highways and local roads.
Despite TS Debby, August was indeed an eventful month on the radios. The 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade at Hunter AAF changed out how they are identifying and the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) and its Carrier Air Wing operated off the South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida coasts for much of the second half of the month. During the middle of the month, I took an overnight road trip to Warner Robins to visit the Robins AFB Museum of Aviation, so I got to listen to a bit more of what was going on up that way than usual. The end of the month saw something rare for Coastal Georgia: a visit to Savannah by the Vice President. Finally, Gulfstream began test flying a new model aircraft at the end of the month. Notable during August was:
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| AIR FORCE 2 with Vice President Harris aboard landing at Savannah-Hilton Head IAP after overflying the Hyundai Metaplant in Bryan County |