Click on the yellow box below to go back to the main page of the Range Rat Introduction page where you will find information about downrange people, where they worked, where they are now, their email address (if they wanted it published), what stations/ships they worked on, and news about those who have died etc etc.

I now have a Range Rat Sign-in book, to be used exclusively by Range Rats (and their famlies) that you can leave a comment of your experience on the range, where you worked, etc, etc. (See the other entrys in this book for examples, if you leave a comment or message not relating to the range the entry will eventually be deleted, for instance a "Howdy" does not qualify as an entry!). You can give your email address (its not required but its requested) so that other range rats can contact you.

Please do NOT use my "GUEST BOOK" to sign in, that book is for collectors who visit my website, and that is why I made a seperate book for use by Range Rats, called the Range Rat Sign In Book.

Perhaps you are looking for someone who you used to work with that you lost contact with, you could include it in your message in the sign-in book, or better yet send me an email and I can include it on this page.

• "Mac" Monroe sez "Stand By to Stand By! For several days, the website Sink The Vandy has been displaying a message that the sinking has been delayed beyond 15 May 2008 by funding problems. No new date has been posted, although I do know they are hoping to sink the Vandy prior to the 'official' start of hurricane season on 01 June. My guess is that they may be able to push into June a little, but if the date slips too far, we may be talking next year!
  As soon as I have any official word, I will pass it on, but as of now, as best I can figure out, we are in that (well known in the missile and range rat communities) countdown condition called an "indefinite hold!"
• 28 JANUARY 2008 "Mac" Monroe who used to work on the USNS Vandenberg sent me this email today:
  quote: It's official. The Sink Day for the Vandenberg has been set for Thursday 15 May 2008. At this point, the ship is still in Virginia, and I do not have a time period yet for the movement of the ship to Key West. That will be provided later.
  I have talked to Joe Weatherby and he informs me that work on developing a schedule of activities for sink week has just started. They hope to have a number of events, including get-togethers for the different groups, press conferences, individual interviews to provide inputs to the history project for the planned Vandy museum/science center, and various social activities. They have just begun to think about blocking groups of rooms (and seeking favorable rates) for those of us who want to attend the sinking. I don't have any info yet about boat charters to take folks out to watch the actual sinking, but I am sure that they will be thinking about that problem too.
  Wetherby says please keep an eye on this website Sink The Vandy as updates will be coming more frequently from now on. end of quote
• A Webmasters note: How appropriate if this date holds true, 15 May 2008 is the 45th anniversary of the Project Mercury space flight of Gordon Cooper and the USNS Vandenberg worked this manned mission!

• while not a Range Rat, its always good to hear from those who sailed on the range ships. Glenn, now living in Point Pleasant NJ, worked on the USNS Vandenberg from Jan 1981 to Dec 1981 as a electrician with Rein Roots and Chief Engineer Spencer, and said "great times underway and in Recife Brazil!"

Click on above image for an enlarged view

• this picture, sent in by Bill Stewart shows the crew of the Coastal Sentry that picked up the first recovered Atlas RVX-2 nose cone, sometime in the summer of 1959. Also included in the picture are a few RCA troops from Ascension Island (in the background).
  He goes on to say that all of these range rat troops are RCA and is able to identify all but two in the picture: Standing (left to right); Wayne Pratt - RCA Ship Tech; Jerry Simpkins - RCA Ship Tech; ??? - Operations Coordinator at Ascension. Kneeling (left to right): Bob Neely - Range Photographer; I.P. Gillmer - RCA Ship tech; Jim Feick - RCA Ship CCO; Lenny Moldovan - RCA Ship Tech; Jim Wright - RCA Ship Tech; John Facker - Instrumentation Manager at Ascension; ??? - Possibly Radar manager at Ascension; Bill Stewart - RCA Ships Leader.
• Maybe someone can indentify the two range rats from Ascension who are signified by ??? above. If you know who they are please send me an email.
• Bill relates that he was reprimanded for letting Wayne Pratt lean against the nose cone like that, as the main purpose of the test was to see how the ablative coating stood up during reentry, and there he was messing it up.
• ANOTHER SIMILAR PICTURE BUT WITH PAA RANGERATS AND DIVERS INCLUDED: Bill also sent in a picture similar to this one shown above which you can view by clicking: here.
  These individuals are:
  Standing behind the nose cone (left to right): Ed Gallagher, PAA weatherman; Jim Feick, RCA CCO; Art Ramsdell, PAA weather Supervisor (Bill said he was called Globemaster); ???, PAA diver; ???, PAA diver. Wayne Pratt, an RCA Tech is standing in front of the nose cone, and those sitting on kneeling in from of the nose cone (left to right) are: I.P. Gillmer, RCA Tech; Jerry Simpkins, RCA Tech; Lenny Moldovan, RCA Tech; Jim Wright, RCA Tech; Bill Stewart, RCA Leader.
• If you can identify the two PAA divers, where the ??? are, please send me an email.

• The photo caption reads: RCA personnel of the Coastal Crusader (ORV 1851) who were part of the team responsible for a recent successful recovery of a missile nose cone pose with P.M. Gluchowski, Manager Ship Instrumentation, Recife, after the ship returned to port. Kneeling (left to right): A.C. Reneau, J.L. Epperson, J.F. Madonna and R.A. Bowser. Standing: R.C. Patterson, Ralph N. Cron, Jack V. Tolman, K.E. Schramm, J.C. Gorden, L.M. Boyd, Leader, Ship Instrumentation; and P.M. Gluchowski. (I have put their names here just in case they do a search for their own name they will locate this page).

• I had originally wanted to know info. on the USNS Vanguard, Redstone and Mercury. Thanks to the help I've received it's whittled down to just the Redstone. Thanks Guys.
• I have information that the USNS Redstone stayed in USAF service through the 1980s and was retired. BUT WHERE IS SHE NOW? If you worked on this ship maybe you have some (any) information that you can email to me.
• 23 MAY 2007, Jed Clear emailed me that the USNS Vanguard, (which I also wanted to know her present location), was in the James River Fleet, VA as of 31 Mar 2007. Her status is now "disposal". Jed also said that the USNS Range Sentinal is also there and the status is "Historic Review".
• 01 OCTOBER 2007, "Mac" Monroe sent me some good info. about the USNS Mercury, it had a long life after leaving the tracking program and in 1984 it was scrapped at Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

• A friend of mine, Dr. Ross J Smith from South Hurstville, NSW, Australia is looking for this information as he is writing an article, here is what he emailed me: "One of my areas of interest is Recovery and Tracking ship covers for the US Manned Space program. I have already written a number of articles on these. I've found there is a distinct lack of information (not to mention confusion) on which tracking ships were used for which missions and were they were stationed. I was wondering if you would put a request for information on your Web site. At present I am particularly interested in the tracking involved with each of the Mercury missions".
  If you partisipated in any of the Project Mercury flights and remember which ship you were on and where the ship was stationed, please send your information to Dr. Ross, click HERE

• USNS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM 10),
  USNS General H. H. Arnold (T-AGM 9),
  USNS Twin Falls (T-AGM 11),
  USNS American Mariner (T-AGM 12),
  USNS Sword Knot (T-AGM 13),
  USNS Rose Knot (T-AGM 14),
  USNS Coastal Sentry (T-AGM 15),
  USNS Coastal Crusader (T-AGM 16) (Redesignated T-AGS 36),
  USNS Timber Hitch (T-AGM 17),
  USNS Sampan Hitch (T-AGM 18),
  USNS Vanguard (T-AGM 19) (Redesignated T-AG 194),
  USNS Redstone (T-AGM 20),
  USNS Mercury (T-AGM 21),
  FS Ship Echo,
  FS Ship Foxtrot,
  FS Ship Golf,
  FS Ship Hotel,
  FS Ship India,
  FS Ship Kilo.

USNS General H. H. Arnold (T-AGM 9), from a picture postcard.

• Its an article written by Dwayne Day called V is for Virus, Volkov, and Vandenberg.
• Dick Manaig sent info. on the forthcoming sinking of the USNS Vandenberg. Anyone who worked on the USNS Vandenberg would be interested in learning that it will become an artificial reef off the coast of Key West making it a unique recreational diving and fishing site. You can learn more about this sinking by clicking here.
• 01 OCTOBER 2007, Steve Matthews sent in this webpage on the "Ghost Fleet ship to become artificial reef". You can learn see it by clicking here.. Once you get there be sure to click on the link that says "Click to watch Sky13 Video" which is a silent video shot of the Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, taken in Mar. 2007, moving it to a local shipyard and will eventually be sunk off Key West, Fl.

• I am looking for Ship Information: In 1960 I worked for a few months on one of the smaller tracking ships, the "Golf" I believe it had a designation of "FS" for "Freighter, Small" (it sure was one of the smallest of the tracking ships), however I have found NOTHING about this ship on the internet, (except a brief list of the FS ships: Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India and Kilo), if you have any info. to share, or a photo of the FS Golf or if you worked on this ship, it would be appreciated. (If you worked on any of the other FS ships please let me hear from you). Use the email link above to contact me.
• 23 FEBRUARY 2008, MORE INFO. ABOUT THE FS SHIPS::
• Stephen Wooden wrote me in DEC 07: First: the Golf and other 'FS' ships were "Fleet Service" ships also known by sailors as "garbage scows". They were used during WWII to deliver food and supplies to warships. They then removed garbage from the ship which could be used to detect the ship's position.
  Second: The last time I saw the FS Golf was 1964 or '65 when I was working for ITT Federal Electric (NASA) and was ordered down to Port Canaveral to Tropicana dock to remove telemetry receivers and antennas from the ship. It was scheduled to be sold surplus or scrapped.
• Stephen worked at the PAFB Tech Lab, Twin Falls Victory, San Salvador and later was a Capeside range rat. Now retired and living in Sarasota.

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