THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, May 10, 1995 TAG: 9505090249
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: My Turn
SOURCE: Jack Dorsey
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
Capt. Mark Gemmill called it the biggest single morale booster ever for his crew aboard the carrier Eisenhower.
Having the ability to call home from any ocean or sea, at any time, while the ``Ike'' was deployed for six months, eased the worries of thousands of crew members, families and friends.
But big ships like the Ike are about the only ones with such a capability.
What about the small boys: the frigates, destroyers, salvage ships and submarines?
They don't have such hardware. Only the mails, possibly some ham radio volunteers, or, on occasion, a more expensive telephone system, allow them to contact loved ones.
As a result of the Ike's successes, the ``phone home'' system reduced emergency American Red Cross messages by half, said Gemmill.
It made money for the ship's Morale, Welfare and Recreation fund - the telephone company returned about $60,000 - which the ship used to pay for sightseeing trips ashore during overseas port visits.
By the time the Ike's 5,000 men and women returned home they had logged 760,000 minutes of satellite phone calls at $1 a minute during their half-year at sea. That averaged 2 1/2 hours per crew member for the entire six months, or about $150 each.
It was a winning proposition all the way around.
Eisenhower's system is leading the way for other ships. It developed what it calls a multiplex system that quadrupled the number of ``lines'' between the ship and satellite, making it more economical to make a call. Fourteen telephone hookups are now aboard, located in convenient areas, such as the library, chief's mess or officer's ward room.
The carrier George Washington, which was among the first to deploy with the commercial phones, had a more expensive system that cost about $10 a minute. So did the carrier Theodore Roosevelt. Those carriers now have the less expensive system. The carrier America is scheduled to receive the $1-a-minute system in July, before it deploys overseas in the fall.
So, how about the smaller boys?
Well, there's good news and bad for the fleet.
Atlantic Fleet commander-in-chief Adm. William J. Flanagan has delegated authority to his commanders to go ahead and design or purchase their own systems for all ship classes.
However, there's no firm timetable as to when they will have them in place.
The biggest problem is size and money. The satellite dishes needed to reach the International Maritime Satellite, or INMARSAT, are large. They fit easily on aircraft carriers, but not on smaller ships that fight for every square inch of extra space they can find.
But it will happen, the Navy says.
Submarines, by the way, are not being excluded from the plan. But it may be a bit further into the future before they get them.
The subs can't get the dish size small enough to fit inside the conning tower. However, with the recent development of smaller 13-inch satellite dishes for home television use, there's still a chance, say the submariners.
``We won't give up hope,'' said a spokesman for the command. by CNB