Missing pistol
The case that I will tell you about, I still cannot explain from the standpoint of common sense. Perhaps in all this stories there was also some second, hidden meaning, but I do not know it. In general, I will not speculate anything, I will simply tell everything the way I, an ordinary second navigator of the Tu-16, saw and perceived it.
Yakin
My brother and I flew as navigators-operators, lived in the regiment's dormitory, in room number 307.
Next to us, in room 305, lived the newly appointed navigator of our squadron's ship, a bachelor nicknamed "Yakin." He got his nickname because of the outward resemblance to the character of the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession", had the same mustache and sideburns and was also keenly interested in pretty girls. So what? The bachelor has the right!
Yakin had a very calm character, he always smiled slightly, drank and smoked in moderation, in general, did not differ in anything special, and we can say that he was an exemplary officer.
Yakin and I were on good terms, we liked him for his calmness and some intelligence, which was rare in our country. aviation, which for the most part still remained worker-peasant.
It was Yakin who gave us a briefing on behavior at the first regimental banquet for my brother and me on the occasion of the New Year.
Well, you understand that Yakin was not only a simple brother-soldier and neighbor to us, but also a good comrade.
I have already said that due to the expansion of our airfield, due to the constant construction of new parking lots and the lengthening of the runway, one of the regiments of the division constantly flew to Sakhalin, to the Leonidovo airfield.
Usually this relocation began at the end of March, they stayed on Sakhalin until the end of April, celebrated the May holidays at the base, and after May 10 they flew away for the whole summer.
I liked to sit on Leonidovo. Despite some domestic disorder, the living conditions somewhat resembled summer cottages, and the general relaxation made it possible not to strain.
In general, I loved these seats ...
Well, how not to love?
Summer, warm, planes stand right next to the barracks in which we live, all official events are of some kind of cartoon character, we fly for our own pleasure and relax without sparing ourselves. Rest on the river, red fish and caviar everywhere and in any quantity, an ear in which a spoon stands ...
What else does a young officer need?
In general, the regiment once again flew to Leonidovo and stayed there for the whole summer.
They put things in order in the garrison, remembered the area of flights, carried out preparations for flights for the entire period and began to deal only with flights and nothing more.
They flew 2-3 shifts a week, "at least" they flew "from duty in the prone position", on Saturday - the official "bath and glass day", on Sunday - rest on the river.
Not a service, but just some kind of paramilitary pioneer camp with an aviation bias.
On Leonidovo
When the regiment flies to Sakhalin to perform flights from the Leonidovo airfield, the headquarters of the regiment, almost in full force, except for the flight one, remains in place, at the base airfield, and continues to function normally, receiving the necessary information about the work of the regiment by telephone and telegraph.
Also, the technical and operational unit (TECh) of the regiment remains at the place of permanent deployment. This is such a special technical unit for carrying out periodic technical work on the aircraft of the regiment.
The personnel of the squadrons, flight and technical, who for various reasons did not get to Sakhalin, under the leadership of the chiefs of staff of the squadrons, are mainly engaged in service, that is, in military terms, they go to the outfits "every other day on the belt." Well, maybe not every other day, but very often.
The chiefs of staff of the squadrons act according to a long-established scheme - they determine the officers who will go to the same outfit, draw up a duty schedule for a month, and these officers will not be used anywhere else.
For example, a couple of officers are selected, a regiment duty officer and his assistant, they are given a duty schedule, the acting chief of staff of the regiment instructs them to tears, and no one else is looking for them in the service, they act independently according to the internal service plan.
This pair comes to the divorce of the daily order at the appointed time, accepts the order from the same pair from another squadron and serves in accordance with the order and rules.
Of course, with the constant change of the same duty officers, informal relations are established between them, facilitating both the acceptance and delivery of duty, and the service itself.
Usually, the entire flight crew departs for Sakhalin for flights during the "minimum weather", but those who leave the planned vacation do not always depart for Sakhalin.
Sometimes, the command decides that it is not expedient to restore the crew after a vacation on Sakhalin, perhaps the weather does not correspond to this or there are not enough aircraft to solve more important tasks, and then this crew falls into the “planned table” of the squadron chief of staff, that is, begins to go to outfits as above.
The crew of navigator Yakin, whom I told you about, spent most of the Sakhalin term on a planned vacation, and after they arrived at the regiment, the squadron commander decided not to call this crew to Sakhalin, due to the fact that the regiment began to actively fly "minimum weather", there are simply no conditions for the crew to recover after the vacation, and the period of the business trip was already coming to an end.
In connection with this situation, the crew fell into the hands of the chief of staff of the squadron, who distributed the guys into different outfits. Yakin got the permanent position of assistant on duty for the regiment, which he performed with unenviable constancy.
Who is the “duty officer”, what does he do?
This is an officer with the rank of captain, in the position of commander of the ship or head of the service group, who is assigned to the outfit for the day, is responsible for maintaining internal order in the regiment, serving as a daily outfit, and also for the safety weapons and ammunition, which are stored in safes, in the room on duty for the regiment.
The regimental duty officer is assisted by the regimental duty officer, who performs his duties during the duty officer's sleep (no more than 4 hours) and does everything that the duty officer says, of course, within the limits of what is permitted and within reason.
Of course, at a time when the regiment is on Sakhalin, the internal service is greatly simplified, the personnel and all the commanders are absent, there is no one to be afraid of, and the temporary commanders are already so accustomed to the same people in outfits that from monitoring their service for a long time eliminated themselves.
I hope that most readers have already understood the situation - the main part of the regiment was on Sakhalin, the remnants of the regiment at the base served to protect the objects of the regiment, themselves and preserve the personal weapons of officers and ensigns.
The pistols of officers and ensigns were kept in the regiment duty officer's room in large safes; the pistols in the safes were located very strangely, in two rows, quite inconvenient for counting when checking the presence of weapons during the reception of the regiment's duty.
Many pistols of the flight crew were on Sakhalin, since it was forbidden for us to fly without personal weapons.
Despite the slight mess both on Sakhalin and at the permanent base, no global incidents happened, the regiment completed the assigned tasks in a planned manner and flew to the base airfield.
All pistols were handed over to the duty officer of the regiment, and the people rushed to meet with their relatives and friends.
Incident
But in the evening something terrible happened!
The new officer on duty for the regiment, while taking duty, when counting pistols, discovered a shortage of one pistol.
And it began ...
At first they counted the pistols many times, and suddenly where they "fell", then they built a regiment and interviewed all the personnel, and suddenly someone "forgot" to hand over after the flight, but then I had to report to the division headquarters, to the aviation headquarters, to the headquarters fleet, and the search for the missing gun went to a completely different level.
In Soviet times, it was very difficult, but almost impossible, to lose weapons in peacetime. It is now in all television series that they show how "military" and "cops" sell and lose pistols, but in our time everything was completely different.
The regiment was suspended from all tasks except searching for the missing pistol.
A pack of all sorts of military prosecutors, investigators and “special officers” (a special department is the military counterintelligence of the KGB) flew in, and they all began to “dig” according to their plans and directions.
And the personnel of the regiment was engaged in nonsense - a physical search. Each unit was assigned a piece of territory, and we went and searched.
Of course, we did not find anything, we only got tired of the meaningless work, cursed both that gun and the one who lost or stole it.
Many, especially those who served in the army, know that if the military is not busy, they start drinking.
This applies equally and even more to officers, as they have more opportunities in this regard.
In general, a slightly hidden wholesale drunkenness began in the regiment.
In the morning, at the formation, everyone was allocated areas to “search for a gun”, and the people dispersed to the garages, where they drank and discussed the situation.
A general opinion has formed - everything is tired to hell, there is no strength to endure, so you can sleep.
While the regiment was quietly drinking in the garages, all these prosecutors, investigators and "special officers" found out that the pistol had disappeared at the base, at the time when the regiment was sitting on Sakhalin.
It was not possible to establish the exact time of the disappearance of weapons, due to negligent service during the general relaxation.
It turned out that the "permanent" officers on duty in the regiment relaxed to the point that they took duty without counting the weapons, they say, why count them if tomorrow they hand over the duty to the same officer.
In general, we began to work closely with three pairs of officers who constantly went to the outfit on duty in the regiment and their assistants.
"Criminal Yakin"
This whole mess continued for some more time, and then shocking news arrived - in the morning, at the entrance to the flight canteen, "special officers" detained navigator Yakin.
No one understood anything, but just in case, Yakin was renamed and they began to call him now in a different way - “criminal Yakin”.
They stopped looking for a gun, and therefore drinking in garages, but there was no clarity in what was happening, we were not informed about anything, and we collected information bit by bit.
From those who were on suspicion, that is, they constantly went to this ill-fated outfit, we learned that the “criminal Yakin” was identified by traces of gun grease on the belt of his trousers and on the lining of his tunic.
It turned out that the “criminal Yakin” stole the pistol at the moment when the regiment duty officer counted the pistols, instructed the “criminal Yakin” to close the safe, and he himself moved on to the next safe. “Criminal Yakin” put the pistol in his pants belt and closed the safe, then quietly took out the pistol and hid it in the attic of the neighboring regiment's dormitory. During the duty shift the next day, the pistols were not counted.
In general, we understood the technology of theft and the whole bunch of violations on the part of the regiment’s duty officers, but the main question that haunted us remained open - why did the “criminal Yakin” need a gun?
But we had no connection with the “criminal Yakin”, and we could only guess about possible motives.
Some clarity was introduced by the father of the "criminal Yakin", who flew to the garrison from Leningrad.
It turned out that the father of the “criminal Yakin” was some kind of big boss in the KGB of the Leningrad Region, and he made every effort to ensure that his son was not punished very severely.
Once we were gathered for an officers' meeting, the regiment commander muttered something indistinctly and gave the floor to an unknown man in civilian clothes.
It was the father of the “criminal Yakin”, he told us something, we did not understand anything, except that he wants, as they say now, to smear his son.
To a direct question about the reasons for this wild act, the father replied that the "criminal Yakin" thus protested against something and wanted to quit the army.
In general, he did not convince us of anything, we really did not understand anything.
The meeting ended in nothing.
Some time later, at the regimental formation, the regiment commander informed us that the father of the “criminal Yakin” turned to the regiment with a request to take the “criminal Yakin” “on bail”.
The mechanism of this event is not clear to me and so far, in general, no one has taken anyone anywhere.
After some time, we were informed that the “criminal Yakin” had been sentenced, it seems, for one year and would serve his term in “chemistry”, that is, in a colony-settlement in the Komsomolsk-on-Amur region.
We didn’t know anything more about him, only there was a rumor that after his release, Yakin got a job in civil aviation and flew the An-24 around the Far East.
In our regiment, no one was globally punished, so they gave out “reprimands” and “service inconsistencies”.
I remember that the commander of the Wushan regiment belatedly shared his suspicions: “I began to look at him a long time ago, quit smoking, stopped drinking ... This is suspicious ...”.
The “Ushan” itself was “severely punished” by being transferred to the Baltic Fleet as a regiment commander in Ostrov.
This is what happened in our regiment.
As I said at the beginning of the story, I still did not understand what it really was?
- Mikhail Bez (Bez 310)
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