"Ship's Nautical or Otherwise Photographic Interpretation and Exploitation (SNOOPIE) takes precedence over anything I'm doing, at any time of the day," said Mass Communication Specialist (MC) 3rd Class Jessica Paulauskas, a photographer on USS Abraham Lincoln's (CVN 72) SNOOPIE team.

The team is comprised of four members, each playing a key role to ensure they collect as much information on vessels of interest, ships, small boats or aircraft that are unidentifiable to lookouts and the officer of the deck.

"When the tactical action officer (TAO) calls out over the 1MC, 'Away the SNOOPIE team! Away!,' it's our job, along with the MCs, to go up there and get eight different reference points all around the contact," said Intelligence Specialist 2nd Class Andrew Kolb, Abraham Lincoln's SNOOPIE team leader. "Basically, from the intelligence point of view, we have to identify what vessel it is, find out what country it belongs to, what kind of operations it's conducting, and most importantly, whether or not the contact is armed."

The team has five minutes to reach the O-10 level, about 15 minutes to collect information on the contact, and within an hour, turn around a finished product to send to the Office of Naval Intelligence to process.

"I like the fast pace and the adrenaline rush it gives me," said Paulauskas. "I run up to the O-10 level of the ship and know what I'm doing could potentially be saving lives and is vital information for the Navy."

While the team lead is directing the MC photographer and videographer, the team recorder, Intelligence Specialist 2nd Class Wyatt Nelson, is recording everything down in a logbook that will later be used for narration.

"We then create a 30-second video with the MCs' material captured with the narration the recorder had logged," said Kolb. "Then we upload the 30-second file over a secured internet email to the appropriate commands to be processed."

After the SNOOPIE team has collected all the information, the lead reports to the officer of the deck in the bridge and tells them the information they've gathered.

The next time you hear TAO's call for SNOOPIE, look around and you may see the SNOOPIE team sprinting to action.

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For more from USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), visit www.navy.mil/local/cvn72/.