Talk:USS Desert Ship (LLS-1)

History

I served with a number of RIM-8 Talos guided missile fire control technicians who had been assigned to the development work at White Sands Missile Range. Many had lived in Alamogordo while stationed aboard USS Desert Ship. Being late to morning muster was a punishable offense, so those who left home later than intended were tempted to exceed the speed limit on the straight, flat road across the Tularosa Basin from Alamogordo to the base. The Alamogordo police discovered speed limit enforcement on that particular stretch of road was a good source of income unlikely to offend the area's longer term residents. After several sailors had been fined for exceeding the speed limit as documented by police radar speed guns, the overnight watch section devised a morning test routine to solve the problem. As part of the fire-control radar warm-up procedure for the day's scheduled tests, the off-going watch would point the fire-control radar at the police speed trap so the more powerful fire-control radar would burn out the receiver circuitry of the smaller police radar set operating within the same frequency band. Thewellman (talk) 19:36, 24 May 2020 (UTC)