Last updated January 6,2012
You can learn more of the history of the Aeolus from the Naval Heritage Library website. My own history on the ship began in late August 1981. This was the first ship of my second employment with Military Sealift Command-Pacific. I was assigned as a Third Electrician (Don't bother looking for this job in the federal system, it no longer exists.) although I should have been a second electrician automated to receive higher pay. Aeolus of course is named after one of the god's of Greek mythology. She was originally built as an Army troop ship that was operated by the Army Transport Service. Yes that's right, get over it, the Army had it's own Navy too. I suppose that since our famous author Tom Clancy has already let the cat out of the bag I can let you know that we worked the SOSUS network. You can verify this in an encyclopedia but since I am a walking one I can share with you just what SOSUS means.
SOSUS stands for Surveillance of Submarines Under the Sea. How does that work? First off how many of you know what a temperature gradient is? A temperature gradient occurs when cold water and warm water pass each other. Sonar bounces off the temperature gradient and therefore if an experienced sub skipper placed his sub below that gradient the sub was not able to be detected via sonar. What was the answer to that? Simply, the scientists working on the problems associated with anti-submarine war fare came up with the idea of placing a seismic array on the bottom of the ocean floor in areas where submarines were known to transit. The seismic arrays were constructed by laying sensitive cables in strategic transit points around the globe. If you study your history of the Walker spy ring you will learn that this is one of the secrets that the Walker clan sold the Soviets. None the less the point of the system was to detect the transit of submarines below the temperature gradient. We can think of this as part of our Cold War defense.
The Aeolus was my introduction to the Atlantic Navy culture. I was after all a West Coast sailor and used to deployments to the Far East. Those of us who reported to the ship at that time had to await its arrival at the Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia. This is commonly referred to as NOB. When I took the plane from SFO I was short on cash and a Carpenter that was joining the ship helped me out by letting me share a room with him at the Navy Lodge, one of those perks available to retirees. The ship did not come into Norfolk as it was supposed to. I think that there were about 8 of us all together that were reporting including the relieving Master. When the ship finally did come in we had to ferry rental vehicles for the ships use out to Cheatham Annex. Cheatham Annex was mainly used as a pier for loading ammunition, it was isolated and about 8 miles from Williamsburg. This local Virginia culture was definitely not something that I was used to. When you are on a ship on the West Coast or even in the Far East you can pretty much expect commerce to be open once you get off of work. This was not the case with Cheatham Annex. By the time we got off of work and the van was giving rides into town everything was shut down except for restaurants and motels. In short if you needed to do any shopping it had to be done by asking the first engineer for time off.
The job aboard the Aeolus entailed standing a cable watch, that is being on call and standing by in the cable generating room to reset things if something tripped off the line. Basically what we had was a large motor generator set that provided the power to the cable reel motor. There were two very important acquaintances made during that time. Steven Libramento and Bill Clews. Steve Libramento was working as a technician with the Western Electric contractors responsible for doing the actual cable maintenance and installation. Bill Clews was an electrical engineer that had designed the control equipment for the cable generator. Bill would usually show up at the Simplex Wire and Cable Facility in Newington, New Hampshire. During those times that he would come aboard we would go to lunch at the local strip mall in Newington which was not to far from the gates of Peace Air Force Base.
While aboard Aeolus there were several occasions to play the tourist and being the history buff that I am I most certainly had to investigate historical sights. Of course while at Cheatham Annex I just had to see Colonial Williamsburg and the original Busch Gardens which is also in Williamsburg. When in Norfolk I took the harbor tour of the Naval Base. I also saw the board walk in Virginia Beach. So what do you do when in Newington? Hop across the river to Kittery Maine where the real Portsmouth Naval Prison was located. Portsmouth just happens to be the site of one of the nations oldest naval shipyards. I took a tour aboard a harbor cruise one day, which not only explained the local naval history but pointed out the homes of famous people on Hampton Beach. Among the homes were the home owned by Lee Majors and Farah Fawcett. We also saw a resort hotel on an island owned by the Congregational Church . I met a young lady by the name of Carol who was studying law at Brown University on that cruise. Over the years I lost her address and have forgotten her last name. When we were working the cable between Newfoundland and Iceland we would call on the port of St.Johns, Newfoundland.. For a more detailed history of what took place on visits to the port of St.Johns just follow the hyperlink. St. John's was interesting because it is the oldest permanent English settlement in North America. While working a cable in the central Atlantic we called on St.George's and Hamilton Bermuda. We went in there to dodge bad weather. In order for us to do our work we had to have a steady sea state. Bermuda of course has a connection with our very own Jamestown settlement. Ships that were returning from England with settlers and supplies to Jamestown ran in to bad weather and wrecked at Bermuda. If you are of a mind to think that Bermuda is some paradise tropical isle put the thought out of your mind. Bermuda is in a temperate zone and lies about 750 miles due east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Folks at St.Johns call themselves the first and the last. Bermuda's motto is 'Don't look back'.
While on the Aeolus I took the opportunity to fly from Logan Field in Boston to Syracuse to visit the old homeland. The plane was operated by Empire Airlines which was one of those smaller commuter airliners which you had to take a bus gate for. This plane was built by Fokker and probably seated 50 people at the max it was so low to the ground that it had its own entrance ladder built into the fuselage. I believe that is was the president of LSW industries of Clyde, New York that came and picked me up at the air port. I stayed at a hotel in Newark which was run by an Indian family. The hotel is no longer there. I had hired the one and only cab service in the county to run around and visit old friends. At any rate I arrived on a Friday afternoon and flew back to Boston on Sunday evening so I could be back at work on Monday morning. I cannot completely recall the exact dates of that travel and who knows if Empire Airlines maintains archives of passenger manifests that go back that far to 1981. Later on in October of that year I left the Aeolus for a transfer to the USNS Kilauea which was being refit for civilian manning at Braswell Shipyard in Charleston, South Carolina.