by Jack
Miles Satterfield shown top row second from the left, is a 2010 graduate of Pleasant Valley High School. Here he is shown with some of his fellow air crewmen outside their classroom in Pensacola, Fl. He will soon be assigned to one of three Navy squadrons using the P3 Orion, a $46 million dollar, long range surveillance plane that first began service in 1959, decades before Miles was even born.
Currently the Navy is using one of their P3 in the search for the missing Malaysian airliner, however more typically the P3 monitors for submarines snooping around America’s coast line and as a radar intercept far out to sea. The aircraft carries an assortment of sophisticated anti-submarine weapons and sonar related equipment that was described in Tom Clancy’s spy thriller, ”The Hunt for Red October.”
In order to simply qualify for flight crew training, recruits from pilots to crew members, must pass rigorous physical and mental testing and score exceptionally high in the ASVAB, particularly in advanced mathematics. After graduation from the physical fitness testing airman will eventually undergo special survival training in the event they should be shot down behind enemy lines. This training is typically reserved for special operations groups like pilots, Navy Seals or Army Special Forces. Miles is specializing in electrical engineering.
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