I was the Airborne Mission Supervisor on an Operation Southern Watch mission. We were on orbit and getting ready to go feet wet (flying over water). I reached up to the radio wafer switch to call the USS Arkansas. The USS Arkansas was part of a USN Carrier Battle Group in the Gulf and I wanted to tell them who we were, our location and intentions. As I reached up, my Airborne Analyst slapped my wrist and stated “those are my radios and I will make the call.” I told him I wanted to call the USS Arkansas and tell them where we are, location, altitude etc. So he turned the wafer switch and made the call “USS Arizona, USS Arizona, this is RIVET JOINT, location blah blah, altitude blah blah.” I looked at him with surprise after he made the radio call. Almost immediately, the radio came to life again and we could hear laughing in the background and the voice said, “The USS Arizona is at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, but, this is the USS Arkansas, what can we do for you?” Needless to say, my AA did not talk on the radios the rest of the mission, he let me do it.
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