posted 02-08-2015 01:29 AM
The relationship between NASA and the DoD evolved as time went on. It quickly became clear that the Navy had the ships and the Air Force had the aircraft needed by NASA to recover both its astronauts and spacecraft.To this end both parties appointed a single person to arrange and co-ordinate the requirements for each mission. The DoD contact was the Commander of Patrick AFB and it was through him that the necessary vessels/aircraft would be requisitioned and deployed.
The ship requirements were passed down the line to two Navy commanders - one for the Atlantic and one for the Pacific as has been mentioned in the previous post. They were usually two star admirals who often had other duties as well. For example, for CTF-130 the admiral was also commander of the Pearl Harbour Navy Station. There were additional staff under their command who would organise the detailed requirements for each recovery.
Air support was organised through the Air Force Rescue Command.
You can read more about this on p161 of NASA SP-4307.
NASA built a series of boilerplate capsules that were assigned to the CTF forces to practice recovery techniques. Once assigned, it was these forces that controlled their use and coordinated with other units needing a capsule to practice recovery techniques.
Training exercises, particularly full ones, would include vessels attached to the CTF for a specific Apollo mission. Typically, a recovery exercise would have a ship place the boilerplate in a selected location and then stand-off at about twenty miles distance whilst a ARRS unit homed in on the capsule using a SARAH beacon. Usually there would be a restricted zone place around the recovery area for safety reasons and not, as is sometimes suggested, to keep the exercises secret.
Finally, as a note of how one has to be careful about these matters. The Apollo Chronology makes mention of only one training exercise - that for Apollo 9 towards the end of January 1969. However, the CTF report on these exercises gives different dates from those quoted in the Chronology for the 'Guadalcanal', the prime recovery vessel, and a different ship for the exercise on the date, 29th, mentioned in the Chronology.