Ron Gordon – SPAG – How you join and how they work

Simon: SPAG is the Submarine Parachute Assistance Group. And you get to be part of that having proved yourself in the Tank did you, or does everyone that was at the tank …?

Not everyone does it , no. Just certain members who can be part of the team that fly out to an area if there’s a stricken submarine and you drop a rigid inflatable down and then you track it and then you inflate it and then you drop an underwater telephone over and you try and make contact with the stricken submarine.

Simon: So, the RIB goes down, sits on the surface.

Yeah, you come out in your parachutes, you follow …

Simon: Into the RIB.

Yeah, it goes down on a pallet. In the back of a Hercules, it’s in a pallet. It’s not inflated, so it’s thrown out with a parachute, and you chase that parachute. And when you get down there, you sever the lines that let the pallet go, and then you get it inflated, and then the six of you get onboard, and then you start making communications with the stricken submarine.

Simon: And that’s done by dropping a telephone down?

An underwater telephone, yeah.

Simon: Where does that …?

It’s battery operated.

Simon: How do they get the handset or am I …?

Yeah, you’ve got a handset with the underwater telephone and then the submarine has got its own underwater telephone. They’ll be listening and you make communications.

Simon: So it’s not like there’s a wire between …

No, just transmitting sound, just like underwater.

Simon: ‘Cos they’re not like in mission mode, they’ve got two-way communication at that point.

Yeah, yeah.