Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; December 2024

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and has a Happy New Year and a wonderful 2025 ahead. Due to the Christmas holiday, December was a bit of a limited month MilCom-wise; most of the activity was in the first half of the month. A mid month road trip to Jacksonville provided the opportunity to hear a bit more than I would have otherwise. This month, I'll be taking a week-long road trip to Florida's Space Coast, so look for a post about it after I return from the trip. I'm looking forward to listening to space related communications for a week!

The remains of the JA Jones Construction shipyard slipways in Brunswick, GA, where Liberty Ships were built during World War II

Road Trip Radio Report - A Foggy Jacksonville Road Trip; December 2024

I recently took a road trip down to Jacksonville, FL to visit the Jacksonville Zoo and do some military aviation watching. Unfortunately, the weather was not conducive to good military aviation watching or listening. A thick fog persisted for much of the time, as evidenced in this photo looking across the St Johns River from Huguenot Park towards NS Mayport illustrates. The trip didn't turn out, however, to be a complete bust on the radio side of things. From where I was staying on the north side of Jacksonville, I could hear plenty of railroad and port communications.

The fog during this road trip to Jacksonville was so thick that I could barely see the ships at NS Mayport from across the St Johns River at Huguenot Park

Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; November 2024

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. 

PIONEER 21 (P-8A, 167956, VX-1)

Road Trip Radio Report - Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach; 23-25 November 2024

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. 

US Navy DDGs (Guided Missile Destroyers) moored in the basin at Naval Station Mayport, FL

Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; October 2024

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. 

Shaw AFB in Sumter, SC

I also came across some interesting World War II Military History while walking some trails at the Harris Neck Wildlife Refuge in Coastal Georgia in October; some of my readers may be interested in that, so I'll include it at the end of the recap.

Road Trip Radio Report - Columbia, SC 20-22 October 2024

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.

This road trip was across two beautiful Autumn days with the leaves in Midlands South Carolina beginning to turn. 

Coastal Georgia Military Monitoring Recap; September 2024

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: 

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.

Coastal Georgia was inconvenienced by Hurricane Helene; at home and work we were out of power for several days, landline phones were out of service for several days, and cable TV/internet is still out but damage to homes and people was limited. That wasn't the case for communities farther inland and closer to Helene's track. Those communities will dealing with the Helene's effects for quite some time; there as significant property damage; power will be out for an extended period, landline phones will be out for an extended period, and cellphone coverage remains spotty. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers, and if able, consider donating to a reliable and trustworthy organization doing work in those communities.