Radio Call Signs?
The USS Midway museum research library reached out to me though our awesome website about the P Foster DD-964 on the Midway CIC status board entry and we helped correct the entry, (previously was DD-961 for a few years) during the conversation the radio call sign “Suwannee” came up and he provided this information below. True or false or urban legend?
Now for the “Suwannee” connection which steers closer to classic wardroom urban legend than documented naval communication doctrine, it remains (or perhaps I am now creating) a fantastical piece of modern fleet lore from ODS.
The tale centers on a triple-layered connection to Vice Admiral Paul F. Foster (the highly decorated namesake of the destroyer USS Paul F. Foster (DD-964)).
Because the Admiral shared a last name with the legendary American composer Stephen Foster; the man who penned the famous ballad “Old Folks at Home” (known better by its opening lyric, “Way down upon the Suwannee River”), the joint strike force commander couldn’t resist the musical pun – also, because of the duplication of call signs between the multiple forces involved, temporary call signs were designed. There is also a solid operational reason why this call sign might have been chosen. During Desert Storm, the Foster was the designated Tomahawk Strike Commander, and temporary call signs were sometimes used for tactical purposes during wartime. There is a great video explaining some of the nuance to the naming conventions here:
Now, since we don’t have any hard evidence to prove it one way or the other (maybe get our hands on an ODS JANAP or COMMPLAN), my money is on a mix of all three things. It looks like someone seized on the surname coincidence, the river’s influence, and the ship’s actual Tomahawk mission, and used them to cook up “Suwannee” as a temporary call sign for the war. It honestly makes too much sense to just be a fluke.
Call sign “Bloomfield”
Fosters permanent radio call sign is Bloomfield as listed on this JANAP 119 of November 1976 which shows PFF call sign as “BLOOMFIELD.” Where did ” Bloomfeild” come from?
