Pentagon Clamps
Down In Wake Of
AF Manual Booboo
WASHINGTON, \m— The Sec
retaries of the Army, Air Force
and Navy will be held personally
responsible for any more “glar
ing inaccuracies” or lack of com
mon sense and good taste in their
training manuals.
That word came Friday from
the boss of the Pentagon, Secre
tary of Defense Thomas Gates Jr.
He ordered a sweeping review of
all service publications after sev
eral turned up that he said were
“inappropriate to military train
ing.”
The Air Force so far has been
the main producer of training
manuals that have raised public
outcry. The latest was one that
charged that some Protestant
clergymen were card - carrying
Communists, that a large propor
tion of those who revised the
King James version of the Bible
were members of Red fronts.
That came on top of some other
Air Force manuals: one was for
enlisted men assigned to attend
the personal wants of general of
ficers. It told them how to greet
guests at the door of the general’s
home, how to mix drinks, even
how to wash the general’s dog
and polish his shoes.
The manuals were repudiated
and withdrawn when they came
to light.
Secretary of the Air Force
Dudley Sharp disclosed that the
manual referring to Communist
infiltration of churches was writ
ten by Homer H. Hyde, a civilian
employe at Lackland Air Force
Base in Texas.
At Lackland, Hyde, 54, defiant- |
ly defended his pafnphet. “I.
felt that manual could not be [
completely effective as a tool for j
combatting Communists activities
with which the NCO might come
in contact either on or off duty
unless he had all the evidence of
such activity available to him that
it was possible to provide,” he
said.
But Maj. Gen. Robert M. Still
man, commander of t he base
training center, said “Mr. Hyde
did deviate from the planned out
line of this manual without au
thority. And it was completely in
appropriate. His supervisors erred
seriously in failing to pick this
up.”
Robin Hood, U.S.A.,
Goes to Jail
JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Iff) —
Mary M. Cardwell, 37, was sen
tenced to three years in prison
after pleading guilty to illegally
receiving $26,8000 in dependency
allotments from three service
men husbands.
Her attorney said she had
shared the money with parents
and children of the husbands.
“You might be a sort of Robin
Hood,” Judge Bryan Simpson told
Mrs. Cardwell, “but the fact that
you were generous with this
money doesn’t change the fact
that you defrauded the govern
ment.”
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Skill Diving Proves Valuable Tool
In King Crab Research at Kodiak;
Undersea ranching for control-'
led studies of king crabs is the
latest wrinkle being developed by
the Biological Research Division
of the Alaska Department of Fish
and Game at Kodiak. The ocean
floor is the ranch, steel framed
wire-covered pens the corrals and
a skin diver biologist, the crab
herder.
The purpose is to gather bio
logical information that will keep
the embryo, dollar - earning king
crab industry in the Kodiak
Afognak area operating on a sus
tained yield basis.
When research biologist Guy
Powell began his king crab re
search two years ago, he studied
crabs by trapping them in pots
and hauling them to the surface
for examination. For Powell this
was hardly intimate enough. He
felt that crabs like people could
best be studied if you visited
them in their own homes. He pur
chased a skin diver’s suit and
headed downward into the under
sea world to pay his first visit.
As crabs are nomadic in habit,
Powell found it necessary to build
pens to confine his crabs to a
certain area to insure continuity
to his studies.
Now when Powell flippers his
bubbly way bottomward in his
scuba 'self-contained unit breath
ing apparatus* suit, he can observe
his imprisoned tenants living in
their natural environment on the
ocean floor.
Powell tends 300 crabs in six
pens that have a combined area
• of 600 square feet. A two-inch
stainless steel wire mesh keeps
the smallest crabs from crawling
out and prevents outside crabs
from crawling in and eating the
food placed there by the diver. The
pens have no bottoms so the crabs
can burrow in the mud or sand
just as they might in their nat
ural state.
Works at 50-foot Depth
Landsmen shudder when Pow
ell describes his year around
dives in northern waters. The
temperature of the water is about
38 degrees in a 20-foot depth of
water at low tide. The water is
colder at 50 feet, but he can work
quite comfortably for a whole
hour at that depth and time
passes quickly.
The suit Powell wears is made
of neoprene. It is known to divers
as a wet suit. Although the suit
fits skin tight, water seeps into
the suit under the wrist and leg
bands. This is gradually warmed
by body heat until the diver is
actually encased by a thin film
of tepid water. The suit, includ
ing pants, shirt, gloves, boots and
head cap covers the body. Goggles
fit over the eyes. Only the area
around the mouth is exposed.
For breathing under water
Powell carries a 75-pound tank
of compressed air strapped to his
back. Air is breathed through a
mouthpiece attached to a hose
from the tank. This will provide
underwater breathing for about
an hour. The tank appears heavy,
but it is of course hollow and will
rise buoyantly to the surface if
released from the diver.
Dives Once Weekly
Powell descends to tend and
study his crabs at least once
weekly. As the crabs cannot move
out of the pens for food he must
feed them. He gathers some of
the food himself on the harbor
floor; the rest he buys from fish
ermen. Sometimes a thousand
pounds is contracted for and froz
en for future use. The menu for
his wards consists of star fish,
sand dollars, sea urchins and sev
eral kinds of bottom fish. Fortun
ately crabs are not gourmets.
Powell has never found anything
they won’t eat.
Schools of herring and salmon
have been observed on the sea
dives. Halibut are quite wary.
Squids swim away quickly, some
times emitting an inky smoke
screen in their wake. Powell can
swim right up to such bottom fish
as sculpins and bull heads who
don’t scare easily.
Crabs 'Tip-Toe' on Bottom
As for king crab, they don’t
seem to mind being watched.
They can run quite fast, however.
Powell has never seen one swim
ming free of the bottom. They
walk “tip toe” on the ocean floor
as fast or faster than a skin diver
can swim.
Powell seldom goes down with
out a companion-diver as he says
almost anything can happen in
diving. Bleeding from the ears
and nose can occur from ascend
ing too rapidly. If the sinuses are
clogged or the diver has a cold,
a too rapid ascent may rupture
blood vessels and cause a hemor
rhage.
Nothing serious has ever hap
pened to Powell. He has great
respect for King Neptune’s twi
light kingdom and has even taken
special courses in skin diving to
better cope with emergencies.
Powell recently made films of
a king crab moulting and discard
ing its old shell.
The only time a crab or crusta
cean can increase its size is dur
ing a short period after it has
shed its old shell. Comparatively
little is known of king crab
growth rates. After hatching, the
crab’s life begins as a speck of
microscopic plankton in the sea.
From this almost invisible size it
sometimes grows into a 24-pound
monster with a leg spread of
nearly 58 inches.
A crab’s body must measure G1/^
inches across the body before it
can be taken legally toy a fisher
man.
Picking up a large king crab,
Powell says, can be real hazard
ous for a diver. For that reason
he never tries to handle more
than one at a .time under water
where they are particularly act
ive. They can tear a diver’s suit
apart while waving their enor
mous legs and claws about.
Killer Whales Are Hazard
Another menace that might
contribute considerably to the in
somnia of a skin diver less deter
mined than Powell, are killer
wales. These marauding raiders
of the deep have been captured
in the vicinity of Kodiak with as
many as 13 seals in their sto
machs. At times they swim right
through the harbor.
“Killer whales and skin divers
just don’t mix,” said Powell. “I
hope I never encounter a killer
whale. Perhaps they could dis
tinguish a skin diver from a seal.
I hope they can.”
The biological evidence toeing
gathered will be used for manage
ment purposes wherever king
crab are found and harvested.
Much of the success of managing
this valuable resource by the Al
aska Department of Fish and
Game will be based on the type
of data Powell is accumulating in
his undersea diving investigations
at Kodiak.
Another aspect that intrigues
Powell is the use of scuba gear
for personal use fishing. He en
visions the thrifty-minded Alas
kan housewife of the future bus
ily augmenting her Friday sea
food menu toy shopping on the
ocean floor dressed in a skin
diver’s suit. The latest style, of
course.
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GUY POWELL, holding King Crab broughl up on one of his
sea dives.
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MORE NEW BOOKS
AUTOGRAPHED COPIES OF . . . ]
“CAPTAIN BILLY MOORE”
by pioneer Dr. Wm. Chase
“FOOL’S GOLD”
by Ted Jordon
NEW EDITION OF . . .
“ALASKA FISHES AND ANIMALS”
by Dufresne
TWO NEW CHILDREN’S TITLES . . .
“VICTORY AT BEAR COVE”
by Pederson
“PIONEER OF ALASKA SKIES”
(on Ben Eielson) by Edna Walker