Professional Reviews
Journal of Military History
Virginia Military Institute
https://www.smh-hq.org/jmh.html
TACAMO stands for “Take Charge and Move Out,” the naval strategic airborne communications program for directing and managing the American nuclear forces. TACAMO is a much-needed and key element of U.S. nuclear deterrence posture, serving as a reliable and survivable means of communicating with with the capability to reach submerged nuclear missile submarines on patrol …TACAMO is widely expected and appreciated as a part of wider American national strategic communications. As Lewis McIntyre points out in his book, however, this has not always been the case, and the early stages of TACAMO’s life were, in some ways, difficult.
Birthed in the early 1960s, TACAMO was given a mission, but for years it was not a mission many officers wanted. To take a second tour in TACAMO was to be banished to a backwater … As McIntyre asserts, TACAMO had a mission, but it struggled to establish a community … For a decade, TACAMO lacked a community, was unrecognized by the navy … and could not keep officers for more than one tour, much like an orchestra led by “guest conductors.”
In the 1970s, however, change came as a group of officers, inspired by commanding officer Bill Coyne, broke the cycle and chose to take a second tour in the program. Jeopardizing their careers, these “True Believers” saw the need to create a community in TACAMO and worked to establish and develop one against the odds. McIntyre’s work chronicles their work and the transformation of TACAMO from a career backwater into an important component of modern U.S. national strategic communications.
Lewis McIntyre is more than qualified to write this book, having been a part of the TACAMO community after graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1970 and gaining his wings as a naval flight officer. McIntyre was one of the pioneers who requested a second tour in TACAMO, moving from his first in … VQ-4 to VQ-3 in Guam after completing the Naval Postgraduate School. Even after he retired in 1990, McIntyre remained a part of the TACAMO story, pursuing a second career as an engineer in support of another of its missions, and then chronicling the whole TACAMO tale in this book. He states his aim to capture the stories of the “True Believers,” and is firm in his assessment that the story of TACAMO is a story about people whose actions altered the historical course of the program and “assured its success for the next several decades.” By telling the story of those officers … McIntyre is also telling the story of TACAMO. He does so in a chronological fashion, following the development of the program from the proof-of-concept phase in the mid-1960s to the established and respected version of TACAMO that existed by 1990–2000, including the creation of Strategic Communications Wing One in the early 1990s.
Relying predominantly on the memories, experiences, and words of those involved … McIntyre succeeds in capturing their stories, and in providing a detailed account of the birth and development of TACAMO. McIntyre and his colleagues write clearly and precisely, bringing life to the story through their penned memories and experiences.
This book is a story of pioneers, and of the power and possibility of human beings in military systems that cannot function without communities to run them. It is an important story … It demonstrates how hard-working, faith-filled people can turn a struggling entity into an “unprecedented… success story.” It highlights the importance of stories being told in the words of those they are about, and the advocates for the use of personal reminiscence and testimony as a critically useful historical source. More than this, it shows that these sources are necessary in telling stories that would otherwise be untellable. And it fills a gap in the history of naval and national strategic communications, proving a useful source to both general readers and scholars in this field. While perhaps niche and unusual in some ways, and likely appealing to the reader particularly interested in naval and nuclear history, McIntyre’s story of TACAMO would also be enjoyable for the general reader, as it is a story detailing the importance of community and sacrifice, and of the triumph that can come from taking risks.
Sarah-Louise Miller King’s College London
London, United Kingdom
Seapower Magazine
July/August 2022
www.seapowermagazine.org
This may be the first book dedicated to telling the story of the U.S. Navy’s strategic communications squadrons. The TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) mission — relaying communications between national command authorities and the Navy’s ballistic-missile submarines that provide the undersea component of the U.S. nuclear deterrent — began as an airborne communications node performed by Navy crews flying EC-130G/Q Hercules and later E-6A/B Mercury aircraft. Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadrons 3 and 4, so named to hide their real mission, initially were a career backwater for their crews — far from the mainstream of the Navy — that belied their crucial mission. Through diligent leadership the TACAMO community achieved a high degree of professionalism that their strategic role merits. This book includes the personal stories of a cadre of “true believers” crews whose diligent leadership and perseverance infused the TACAMO community with the professionalism its mission demands and that it enjoys today.
U. S. Naval Institute Magazine
March 2023
Reviewed by Lieutenant Commander Michael Axel, U.S. Navy
For most naval aviators, TACAMO (Take Charge and Move Out) is a big unknown. The possibility of operating land-based aircraft out of an Air Force base in Oklahoma is, of course, appealing to some, but for most, the TACAMO community is a little-known and rarely-interacted-with sliver of naval aviation, far removed from ball calls and tailhooks.
Lew McIntyre brings to life the history of TACAMO's founding and integration into naval aviation, presented via the oral histories of the "True Believers." These men and women represent the first success stories of the TACAMO community they built from the ground up. From its humble beginnings as an experimental communications test bd, the TACAMO aircraft, its critical strategic mission, and the maintainers and operators quickly developed the community into a critical node of the U.S. strategic response mission, distinct from every other part of naval aviation.
The oral history is compiled from the many figures of the early TACAMO community, charting the faith these officers placed in the mission at risk to their own career prospects. Rather than a one-and-done tour for maritime patrol aviators that was the norm at the time, the junior officers who would eventually become the first homegrown leaders of TACAMO made the decision to return for second TACAMO tours, a calculated risk in an unproven platform and mission that had yet to produce even a single lieutenant commander. Through faith in the mission and a unifying drive to prove the worth of their aircraft, they rose through the ranks to eventually run the community they built.
The early chapters of the book seem to reflect the motivated but disorganized standup of TACAMO. With so many short snippets of history bouncing back and forth betwen coasts and characters, the first third is at times challenging to keep up with. By the time the first true believers established themselves as the vanguard leaders ofTACAMO, the history becomes more cohesive and tells a unified tale.
There are plenty of parallels to today’s acquisition and development environment that make this book a good read for anyone fielding new tec-technologies for the fleet. The stories of creativity, flexibility, and sheer force of will are motivating reminders that new technologies and missions have been introduced to the fleet before with great success; perseverance and belief in the value of the mission go a long way. Those in the burgeoning unmanned air vehicle communities would do well to make this book readily available for incoming maintainers and operators; not necessarily for any technical wisdom, but to provide a philosophical blueprint for bringing an entirely new aircraft and mission to the fight. It will take a level of belief in the mission and dedication to its success similar to that exhibited by the TACAMO founders 50 years ago to make today's new platforms, manned and unmanned, successful.
McIntyre's timely contribution to the history of naval aviation is a reminder of past successes fielding new capabilities and is inspiration to those in uniform today.
Lieutenant Commander Axel is an E-2 naval flight officer. He is currently serving as ing department head at Airborne Command and Control Squadron 120.
RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award (Runner-up)
September 2023
Take Charge and Move Out: The Founding Fathers of Tacamo was runner-up for the 2023 RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature, along with Commanding Petty Despots: The American Navy in the New Republic by Thomas Sheppard, To Risk It All: Nine Conflicts and the Crucible of Decision by James Stavridis, and Wings of Gold: The History of the First Women Naval Aviators by Bevely Weintraub.
The RADM Samuel Eliot Morison Award is administered by the New York Commandery of the Naval Order of the United States. The finalists and winner are selected by a distinguished committee of members of the New York Commandery.