THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 15, 1997 TAG: 9701150601
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: AT SEA
SOURCE: BY KEVIN WINGERT
LENGTH: 66 lines
You lie in your rack, lost in a faraway dream, the ship's gentle rocking absorbing the stress and soreness of the day past. The room is dark, your rackmate's snoring almost soothing, your worries elsewhere.
Then, without warning, the 1MC crackles.
``This is the TAO,'' a voice booms over the public address system. You jump in the rack, nerves all exclamation points, flash back to your first predawn wake-up in boot camp.
``Now muster the SAR Coordination Team in combat,'' the voice says. ``That is, now muster the SAR Coordination Team in combat.''
That's about as close as most sailors aboard the Theodore Roosevelt get to the TAO, an acronym well known but little understood.
It stands for tactical action officer, and four people bearing the title aboard the ``TR'' have a mission that gets to the heart of why we're out here: defense of the ship.
``There are two people on Theodore Roosevelt who have weapons-release authority,'' says Lt. John Stewart, one of the TAOs, ``and that's the commanding officer and the TAO.''
The TAO must know about everything happening aboard ship, above decks and below, and in the skies and beneath the sea around us. His eyes and ears are an array of sophisticated electronics - the Advanced Combat Direction System - in a darkened room manned by five to nine people, each responsible for a stream of information about the TR's surroundings.
Fed that information, the TAO coordinates with the officer of the deck, the ship's captain, combat systems people and the air wing to protect the carrier from incoming threats.
``Being a TAO allows me to know what's going on,'' Lt. Henry Henrix, another of the four, says. ``It gives me a grasp of the big picture.''
Potential combat situations call for level-headed, speedy decisions. When trouble's brewing, a TAO's first thought is to get the ship into a position where it can use its weapons to defend itself. He or she must update a slew of others on the situation - and know, and follow, the rules of engagement for the region in which the ship's operating.
And if the threat is imminent, and the captain can't be reached, the TAO can use those weapons.
The TAO's knowledge of the ship's surroundings also make the post an important part of the carrier's search and rescue, or ``SAR,'' missions.
``In an SAR situation, your primary goal is to assess the situation to determine whether or not life is at risk, and if so, to take all actions necessary to preserve human life,'' Stewart says.
``It's kind of interesting, because our primary job is to defend the ship, and being a part of the military your job is to carry out the nation's policy and, if necessary, to wage war. But we see more and more that we spend more time preserving life than taking it.''
SAR situations - a man in the water, a ship in trouble or a downed aircraft - require the same quick thinking as a combat emergency. It's up to the TAO to muster the SAR planning team, whose members will decide how to solve the problem. From there, he acts as a go-between for the SAR team leader and the various planes and ships to be used in a rescue.
Because time is critical to whether an SAR succeeds, the TAO has big leeway in coordinating the battle group's ships and air wing.
The relative calm of most days at sea lend TAOs a view of their job one usually associates with TV cop dramas.
``It's a life of long hours at work,'' Hendrix says, ``interrupted by short minutes of frenzied hysteria.'' MEMO: Petty Officer 2nd Class Kevin Wingert is a Navy journalist
assigned to the TR.