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Lartique, July 1954

There's been considerable e-mail chatter over the past few days about the so-called "joint exercise" with the French during the 1954 deployment to the Med. Most of the squadron relocated from Halfar to the French Air Base, Lartique, located south of Oran for the 7 to 10 days duration of the exercise. Most of the e-mail dialog has been about the base rather than the actual operation. Hopefully most of those comments will be repeated here.



Dave Reed got it started with an inquiry about the date it occurred and I responded as follows:



____________________



Oh yes indeed I do remember Lartique - can't forget. It was, supposedly, an

exercise with the French during the summer of '54. We marveled at those

bright and shiny French P2V-5s parked on the ramp - hardly used. Our

planes were faded, dirty and worn. We were flying 10 hour missions to

simulate harbor mining, I believe, on the south coast of France but I don't

think the French ever made it off the ground. However, I did see one crew

crank up like they were getting ready to taxi but - - they just shut it down

and scattered.



Yes, most, or all, of the crews deployed, temporarily, to Lartique from

Halfar. I was on crew 7 (Ifft) at the time. Shortly after our return to

Halfar Ifft succeeded Ettinger as CO.



I can't fail to mention the base "latrine" which was an "experience" hard to

forget. Suffice it to say, there were only two (2) flushes per day (morning

& evening) - water shortage - Algerian desert in the summertime!!!!

Drinking water had to be flown in for us - the French drank cheap wine.



I might add that exercises with the Italians had similar results - we were

the only participant. And there was never an exercise with the Brits!!



I've got a photo or two that I'll send when I find 'em.



As I recall Gordon Peterson was there and probably spent more time at the

base than I did so I'll send a copy of this to him. He may be able to

elaborate on the joys of desert living.

Re: Lartique, July 1954


O yes I remember those days, The wine at lunch and supper, did raise hell with doing are duty, One funny thing happened, LCDR Ralpf Herms, was pissed at us becuose we showed up at the truck for a flight Slitly gassed,( Chit Faced) and we were told to keep are mouths shut Secuety was vary tight. So the Gard asked for the pass word, And Hrems sied "Paris" (no actsent) the gard cocked and pointed his gun and I think it was me that sied Parie (with the actsent)

The gard then goes (wee misure) and lets us in. You Know I still think they had P2V 6s, we were in the 5s and 5fs. It's been a long time. Norm Roinestad

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

There's been considerable e-mail chatter over the past few days about the so-called "joint exercise" with the French during the 1954 deployment to the Med. Most of the squadron relocated from Halfar to the French Air Base, Lartique, located south of Oran for the 7 to 10 days duration of the exercise. Most of the e-mail dialog has been about the base rather than the actual operation. Hopefully most of those comments will be repeated here.



Dave Reed got it started with an inquiry about the date it occurred and I responded as follows:



____________________



Oh yes indeed I do remember Lartique - can't forget. It was, supposedly, an

exercise with the French during the summer of '54. We marveled at those

bright and shiny French P2V-5s parked on the ramp - hardly used. Our

planes were faded, dirty and worn. We were flying 10 hour missions to

simulate harbor mining, I believe, on the south coast of France but I don't

think the French ever made it off the ground. However, I did see one crew

crank up like they were getting ready to taxi but - - they just shut it down

and scattered.



Yes, most, or all, of the crews deployed, temporarily, to Lartique from

Halfar. I was on crew 7 (Ifft) at the time. Shortly after our return to

Halfar Ifft succeeded Ettinger as CO.



I can't fail to mention the base "latrine" which was an "experience" hard to

forget. Suffice it to say, there were only two (2) flushes per day (morning

& evening) - water shortage - Algerian desert in the summertime!!!!

Drinking water had to be flown in for us - the French drank cheap wine.



I might add that exercises with the Italians had similar results - we were

the only participant. And there was never an exercise with the Brits!!



I've got a photo or two that I'll send when I find 'em.



As I recall Gordon Peterson was there and probably spent more time at the

base than I did so I'll send a copy of this to him. He may be able to

elaborate on the joys of desert living.

Re: Re: Lartique, July 1954


Well now! I'm just back from a short trip to Kansas attending my High School Alumni for the 62 nd year. All went well. We have 12 survivors out of a class of 21. 6 girls and the rest boys.



Lartique, with the French. Never in my time in the Navy was i so taken back when the Senior Officer of the Electronics shop told me they could repair ARC-1 tranceivers & had the know how. I was repairing VP-21 ARC-1 transceivers, finishing the job and nothing to do I decided to help the French repair theirs. Fixed a couple and then this is when the event happened. The ranking French told me personally not to repair any more as they didnot want to go to Viet Nam. You must remember the politics of the French and their military was divided. So,now that is the way it was.



New subject:



This is good as any time to fish for more information:



When we were in Pax River we received new airplanes P2V-6 and they were only half equiped and no one was doing anything about missing equipment. The squadron was going to deploy, missing Electronics and no ARC-1 tranceivers. Without VHF you could not go into practially bases over seas. So I decided to do something about all this mess. I convinced the power to be to let me see if we could instal one ARC-1, downing the plane for a couple weeks With the Electronics crew mainly Krug( hat on back of head & hair protruding)started the instalation with no blueprints. I helped with the layout and Krug with a couple AT's set to work and we got one plane equiped for deployment. Sucess (thank god) I could have wound up with pie on my face.



How to receive all the missing Electronics; Well, I went up to the Station supply Officer and laid the problem out and convinced him we were flying in Harms way and needed the equipment ( which was in supply marked hold do not issue. Here again I could have wound up with pie on my face as this was a command decision. To make a long story short our planes were equiped for deployment and I wound up in the hospital for 6 to 8 weeks with phnemonia & then detachment chief. That's the way it was.



David Sends//

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:


O yes I remember those days, The wine at lunch and supper, did raise hell with doing are duty, One funny thing happened, LCDR Ralpf Herms, was pissed at us becuose we showed up at the truck for a flight Slitly gassed,( Chit Faced) and we were told to keep are mouths shut Secuety was vary tight. So the Gard asked for the pass word, And Hrems sied "Paris" (no actsent) the gard cocked and pointed his gun and I think it was me that sied Parie (with the actsent)

The gard then goes (wee misure) and lets us in. You Know I still think they had P2V 6s, we were in the 5s and 5fs. It's been a long time. Norm Roinestad

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

There's been considerable e-mail chatter over the past few days about the so-called "joint exercise" with the French during the 1954 deployment to the Med. Most of the squadron relocated from Halfar to the French Air Base, Lartique, located south of Oran for the 7 to 10 days duration of the exercise. Most of the e-mail dialog has been about the base rather than the actual operation. Hopefully most of those comments will be repeated here.



Dave Reed got it started with an inquiry about the date it occurred and I responded as follows:



____________________



Oh yes indeed I do remember Lartique - can't forget. It was, supposedly, an

exercise with the French during the summer of '54. We marveled at those

bright and shiny French P2V-5s parked on the ramp - hardly used. Our

planes were faded, dirty and worn. We were flying 10 hour missions to

simulate harbor mining, I believe, on the south coast of France but I don't

think the French ever made it off the ground. However, I did see one crew

crank up like they were getting ready to taxi but - - they just shut it down

and scattered.



Yes, most, or all, of the crews deployed, temporarily, to Lartique from

Halfar. I was on crew 7 (Ifft) at the time. Shortly after our return to

Halfar Ifft succeeded Ettinger as CO.



I can't fail to mention the base "latrine" which was an "experience" hard to

forget. Suffice it to say, there were only two (2) flushes per day (morning

& evening) - water shortage - Algerian desert in the summertime!!!!

Drinking water had to be flown in for us - the French drank cheap wine.



I might add that exercises with the Italians had similar results - we were

the only participant. And there was never an exercise with the Brits!!



I've got a photo or two that I'll send when I find 'em.



As I recall Gordon Peterson was there and probably spent more time at the

base than I did so I'll send a copy of this to him. He may be able to

elaborate on the joys of desert living.

Re: Lartique, July 1954


There things stick in my mind when I recall our adventure at Lartique:...1. Bread and wine for breakfast...(not too bad I guess)...2. Sleeping under mosquito nets..(bad)...and, 3. The crap holes in the latrine....(the pits)

--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

Replying to:

There's been considerable e-mail chatter over the past few days about the so-called "joint exercise" with the French during the 1954 deployment to the Med. Most of the squadron relocated from Halfar to the French Air Base, Lartique, located south of Oran for the 7 to 10 days duration of the exercise. Most of the e-mail dialog has been about the base rather than the actual operation. Hopefully most of those comments will be repeated here.



Dave Reed got it started with an inquiry about the date it occurred and I responded as follows:



____________________



Oh yes indeed I do remember Lartique - can't forget. It was, supposedly, an

exercise with the French during the summer of '54. We marveled at those

bright and shiny French P2V-5s parked on the ramp - hardly used. Our

planes were faded, dirty and worn. We were flying 10 hour missions to

simulate harbor mining, I believe, on the south coast of France but I don't

think the French ever made it off the ground. However, I did see one crew

crank up like they were getting ready to taxi but - - they just shut it down

and scattered.



Yes, most, or all, of the crews deployed, temporarily, to Lartique from

Halfar. I was on crew 7 (Ifft) at the time. Shortly after our return to

Halfar Ifft succeeded Ettinger as CO.



I can't fail to mention the base "latrine" which was an "experience" hard to

forget. Suffice it to say, there were only two (2) flushes per day (morning

& evening) - water shortage - Algerian desert in the summertime!!!!

Drinking water had to be flown in for us - the French drank cheap wine.



I might add that exercises with the Italians had similar results - we were

the only participant. And there was never an exercise with the Brits!!



I've got a photo or two that I'll send when I find 'em.



As I recall Gordon Peterson was there and probably spent more time at the

base than I did so I'll send a copy of this to him. He may be able to

elaborate on the joys of desert living.