By Phil Rowe
From the end of World War II, and on through the turbulent Cold War years into modern times, Air Force navigators have evolved, grown and adapted to changing roles, missions and responsibilities.
Globally expanding Air Force operations imposed newer and greater challenges to navigators. It is appropriate at this USAF half-century juncture to look at and reflect upon this most honorable and respected of military aviation professions.
Air Force navigators have been variously called many things, aside from what a few pilots have uttered. Some were known too, in the 1940's and 50's as Aircraft Observers, performing a broad spectrum of non-pilot duties. Navigating aircraft from place to place was but one element of their many responsibilities.
Those known as navigators/observers also performed as flight engineers, radar intercept operators, electronic countermeasures specialists, reconnaissance systems operators, radar bombardiers, weather navigators, and weapons systems specialists. They served as professional aviators in a variety of aircraft, from bombers to fighters and in a host of transports around the world. Some were known as Technical Observers and even had their own special wings, particularly in the latter phases of WWII and the early Cold War era.
But whatever you call these highly skilled and dedicated professionals, you have to appreciate their versatility and adaptability. You also must admire their devotion and dedication to the Air Force's changing role. As aircraft evolved from unpressurized propeller-driven vehicles to supersonic jets with inter-continental missions, so too did the art and profession of navigators expand and grow. Whether serving in strategic bombers and tankers or in tactical airlift, or behind fire control system scopes of radar interceptors, these professionals did it all.
In the early 1950's at the height of the Cold War, many of us who went through navigation training, as either aviation cadets or student officers, were blessed with instructors who acquired their skills the hard way. Those fellows were the seasoned combat veterans of W.W.II. They mastered through necessity the basics of dead reckoning, celestial navigation and general airmanship. They were skilled in the fundamentals because they had to be. Systems and aids to navigation that modern crewmen take for granted did not exist for those pioneers and our mentors. From them we learned the essentials upon which to built our own skills.
We were called "bubble chasers" too, though that was not really a pejorative term. Indeed many of us used spirit-level sextants and octants to make celestial observations. We depended upon the guideposts of the heavens for determining our aircraft heading and position. The process of computing and plotting celestial lines of position changed markedly in the post-WWII era, especially with the introduction of two advances in technology.
The H.O. 249 tables, along with an improved Air Almanac made it simpler and faster to compute our star, sun and moon observations and to transform observed and calculated data into accurate position information. But perhaps the greatest improvement was the periscopic sextant, the technological breakthrough that freed navigators from hand-held sextants that necessitated peering through astrodomes atop our aging craft. No longer did we have to add corrections for errors in astrodome refraction or endure the frustrations of scratched and discolored Plexiglas portals distorting our celestial sightings. With the periscopic sextant we also had the means of quickly and more accurately locating our selected stars for observation. And determining aircraft heading by periscopic sextant became much easier than with the earlier astro-compass.
Improvements in navigational computers, inertial devices, loran, radars, gyros and flux valve compasses made life easier for navigators. The updating and specialty publication of navigational charts enhance the ability of navigators to meet growing mission roles. Large scale World Aeronautical Charts (WAC's) gave way to smaller-scale Jet Navigation (JN) charts to accommodate the higher speeds and greater ranges of our airplanes. Special polar navigation charts came along enhancing our high latitude capabilities.
Some things seemed to take forever to improve though. Those dim, tiny, cramped work stations which served as the navigator's airborne office didn't really become ample or suitably illuminated until aircraft like the C-141, B-58 and C-5 came along.
Many will recall the days of working from a clipboard or similarly sized table in C-119's, C-123's and B-25's of old. Those were the cramped conditions that required folding and unfolding charts to fit within the limited space provided. Even the huge B-52 Stratofortress gave the two lower-deck navigators precious little room to work.
Evolutionary improvements of navigational and bombing radars made fixing of aircraft position or target acquisition more precise and a whole lot easier. Those who remember the Q-13, and the follow-on Q-24, radar systems of B-25, B-45, B-36 and B-47 days, probably marveled at the MA-6 and the APQ-130 and 143 of more modern jet craft. But systems were added too to cargo and tanker planes from the C-97 to the C-141 and C-5 to make the navigator's job a whole lot easier.
Troop carrier and cargo aircraft like the C-130 soon took on added missions, and with that came exciting new navigation and avionics systems. What had once been basic cargo hauling airplanes became gunships, satellite retrieving craft and even special rescue planes penetrating deep into enemy territory. All demanded unique equipment and navigator training. Precise navigation and station- keeping capabilities in special craft like the C-121 radar warning and tracking airplanes became very "high tech" with the introduction of the E-3 AWACS airborne command and control system. The navigator soon became an electronics, computer and avionics wizard as systems grew ever more complex and sophisticated.
In addition to those changes in equipment, improvements in aircraft performance, plus a more global presence for America's airmen, there were great evolutionary changes in the navigator's role as officer and leader. The firmly held belief that it's a pilot's Air Force and only pilots could hold command positions gradually changed. It was once the practice that few, if any, navigators ever rose higher in rank than O-5 (lieutenant colonel). But that gradually changed, thankfully because of the dynamism, ability and forward-thinking a few exceptional men.
It's no longer just a pilot's Air Force. Qualified, devoted and able professionals, regardless of their wings, can and will assume leadership positions. The navigator has truly grown and adapted beyond being a "bubble chaser". Navigators since the 1960's have assumed important duties and responsibilities, along with the deserved ranks of colonel and general, to become leaders and managers of vital organizations.
We may not be able to place the navigator of the next 50 years into the same mold of those who served in the first half-century, but the "golden heritage" upon which they meet the challenges of the future stands as a solid foundation for those who will follow. Tomorrow's navigators must be well-trained professionals with skills and abilities beyond those of those required before. They must be engineers, managers, computer specialists and leaders whose knowledge and skills for finding targets, getting from A to B and guiding airplanes is only a small part of the job. Little black boxes, like global positioning systems and satellite navigation aids yet to come may make our traditional role disappear and our numbers diminish, but we will continue to contribute, adapt and serve.
We are a hardy and versatile lot with a proud heritage. Perhaps the vastness of space is our next frontier, where celestial navigation takes on a whole new dimension. We will be ready.