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USCG LORAN Long Range Navigation and Comm Station patches


Salvage Sailor

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Salvage Sailor

Post them if you've got them.....(I'm also lumping in USCG Radio communications and relay stations in this topic)

 

LORAN A (Alpha) and LORAN C (Charlie) LOng RAnge Navigation stations were maintained by the US Coast Guard around the globe as an aid to navigation (ATON) for all vessels. It was particularly utilized by the USN from the world war II era until the advent of the OMEGA System and later Satellite GPS Navigation rendered it obsolete. Many of these USCG LORAN Stations had patches made for their respective stations.

 

Loran History Home Link http://www.loran-history.info/ (List of USCG LORAN duty stations and location)

 

Loran, abbreviation of long-range navigation, land-based system of radio navigation, first developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II for military ships and aircraft located within 600 miles (about 970 km) of the American coast. In the 1950s a more accurate (within 0.3 mile [0.5 km]), longer-range system (over 2,000 miles [3,200 km]), known as Loran-C, operating in the 90–110 kilohertz range, was developed for civilian use, and the original loran (renamed Loran-A) was phased out. Eventually, Loran-C was extended to cover most of the continental United States and, in cooperation with Canada and Russia, Canadian waters and the Bering Sea. Numerous other countries have deployed loran-like systems as well. It is still used by many marine craft, but the precision (typically within 30 feet, or 10 metres) of satellite-based navigational aides, such as the global positioning system (GPS), is increasingly relegating land-based navigational systems to the status of backup systems.

Loran is a pulsed hyperbolic system. This means that hyperbolic lines of position are determined by noting differences in time of reception of synchronized pulses from widely spaced transmitting stations, primary and secondary. A primary station broadcasts an uninterrupted series of pulses of fixed duration and at a fixed rate (e.g., of 50 microseconds’ duration at a rate of 25 pulses per second). A secondary station, 200–300 miles (320–480 km) away, automatically transmits its own signals, maintaining a frequency and pulse duration in accord with those of the primary station. The secondary station maintains a fixed time difference between its reception of the primary signal pulse and the sending out of its own. The noted time difference of arrival of the two pulses locates the craft somewhere on a curve (hyperbola) every point of which is located at a constant difference in distance between the stations (e.g., is three miles farther from the primary than from the secondary). Tuning in another secondary station locates the craft on another hyperbola, so that its position can be fixed at the intersection of the two.

I used and maintained LORAN navigation charts to transit the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and several seas during my service years. It was fairly accurate and reliable for long distance courses and fixes to verify our (DR) dead reckoning plots when we couldn't use the sextants due to weather conditions. Many of the more remotely located pulse stations which sent these signals were considered isolated duty in the USCG as many of their veterans can attest.

 

Semper Paratus

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USCG Lorsta Sattahip Thailand Railroaders. These patches were during and after the war in the same shops so it is almost impossible to tell the wartime ones from the later unless you get it from the person that was there. I didn't get this from a vet.

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USCG US COAST GUARD LORAN STATION USAF GUIDE OF THE STRIKING FORCE TAN MY, VIETNAM. Like the SATTAHIP patch this was still made after the war. Unlike that patch this is still on the original shirt. What is interesting is that the shirt is US Air Force. This guy must have been part of the security force at Tan My.

post-177277-0-55825100-1519393364_thumb.jpg

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Salvage Sailor

LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland - Callsign 'Dope 1' - In service 1954 to 1972

 

1960's Knights of the Arctic http://www.loran-history.info/cape_atholl/cape_atholl.htm

USCG LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland 001.jpg

 

USCG LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland 002.jpg

 

Photo dated February 1968 of Coast Guard ENC that the patch above belonged to

 

USCG LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland 003.jpg

 

LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland - Callsign 'Dope 1' - In service 1954 to 1972

 

1970's Patch - Photos here http://www.loran-his...cape_atholl.htm

 

USCG LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland 006.jpg

 

USCG LORAN Station Cape Atholl Greenland 007.jpg

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Salvage Sailor

USCG FAR EAST SECTION (FESEC) - Building 651, Fuchu Air Station, Japan http://www.loran-history.info/Far_East_Section/Far_East_Section.htm

 

USCG Far East Section 001.jpg

 

USCG Far East Section 002.jpg

 

USCG LORAN FESEC - Far East Section

Yokota, Okinawa, Hokkaido, Iwo Jima, Marcus

 

uscg activities far east.png

 

In 1952 the Coast Guard established the Far East Section (FESEC) at Yokota Air Base in Fussa‐ shi, Japan. This office was tasked with the overall control of all LORAN units in the area. The increased air and sea traffic caused by the Korean War had resulted in the need for better LORAN coverage, so a new station was built at Pusan, South Korea. It went on air on 5 January 1953. This new station worked in conjunction with eight other stations in the region to provide invaluable navigational assistance to the United Nations forces engaged in the war. These LORAN units constituted the largest permanent Coast Guard presence in the area
 
 

USCG LORAN FESEC Far East Section 001.jpg

 

USCG LORAN FESEC 1952-1962 (10th Year) - Far East Section Yokota, Okinawa, Hokkaido, Iwo Jima, Marcus Island

 

USCG LORAN FESEC Far East Section 002.jpg

 

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Here are a few: 

This place was a “rock” in the Pacific. A lot of LORAN “A” towers went up as the Americans retook islands including Saipan and Iwo Jima during WW2. Since all they had prior to the war besides visuals were radio beacons, LORAN saved many a pilot and sailor. Eventually they improved it to LORAN “C”.  GPS came next and mostly put LORAN out of business.

4D31C229-BD8A-4543-A660-0850B898AA6B.jpeg.722c5bda857d1a1824cdffde0cb9b894.jpegThis was restricted and often very isolated duty. The people who served here usually were there for 1 year. Crews past their off duty hours watching movies and tapes of U.S. television from the Navy motion picture service, playing cards, reading, hiking, beach combing, spending an overnight pass in town (if there was a town).  There were usually a few “morale” dogs on site to keep them company . There might even be a baseball diamond or archery equipment, and of course a beer mess. A log flight by Air Force cargo plane once a month kept them supplied. 
BAF5850A-F175-4BCD-B496-D89AAAA279F2.jpeg.113625163fa4b528dc9995e9be5e5af1.jpegThis one below was at the American end of the Aleutian Islands. You had to cross the 180th meridian to get there. There were a lot of Electronic Technicians or ETs at these stations for the telemetry, Machinery Techs to care for the generators and auxiliary equipment, a Cook, a Corpsman, maybe one Damage Controlman  and Seaman and Fireman “non rates” to assist. They usually had a Lt.jg Officer in Charge and a Warrant as XO.

DD4F9209-B0B3-4A9D-946C-F0709A7F95A1.jpeg.84ba1d02337a11ed09bc0f1081920037.jpegLoran Station Hokkaido was on the east coast of this large Japanese home island. The men assigned there were the last U.S. personnel on the island. It was near a small fishing village called Tokachibuto, and around 10 miles from a decent sized town. It operated from 1963 to around 1994.

4D6620A1-74D5-4E46-B61A-7C37B858B06E.jpeg.390b9d0ea61931c6a393d5b4d3771290.jpeg

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