text:
TRUE CHRISTIAN SHORT STORIES BY G. M. MATHENY
True Stories I
The Matheny Family Express
"Cheerful Giver" or Scrooge buys his wife a ring.
"He that Winneth Souls" - An amazing true story
How God got my attention!
Special Operation of a Nuclear Submarine
The yoke of your youth.
True Stories II
A fish story.
"Ye have not, because ye ask not"
You are an original!
Heavenly Rewards
He that desires to serve God.
Work Diary I
Work Diary II
Helpful Videos I
GOD'S WORKING IN THE DEEP.
TREE OF MARRIAGE (VIDEO)
Temptations I (video)
Temptations II (video)
Pray I (video)
Pray II (video)
The Call of God (Video)
Two for one special
Helpful Videos II
Challenge at Bible College (Video)
Five things Hell has that we need! (AUDIO)
Jesus started a church. (AUDIO)
Mother's Day (audio)
Overcoming Problems (Video)
Inspiration of Scripture (audio)
Has God Called You?
Moses & God's Calling
GOD & SPIES. Part one.
GOD & SPIES. Part two.
The Quest for the Great Stones of the Prophet Jeremiah
The Quest for the Red Sea Crossing
The Quest for Mount Sinai
Aliens In Revelation
Tahpanhes is not Tell Defenneh (Daphnae)
The Layman's Biblical Handbook
Scripts for films
Family of Eight on the Orient Express
GOD & SPIES
GOD & SPIES Part two.
SPECIAL, now only 99 cents! GOD & SPIES on Amazon Prime Video.
https://www.amazon.com/GOD-SPIES-James-Horne/dp/B09CCJB839
Chapter XXI
Professionalism at Sea
While aboard the Halibut in transit to our dive station, we divers had little to do and were allowed to work with submariners on whatever their responsibilities might be. I chose to help the man who worked on the charts and maps. Our position was corrected hourly by reports from transit satellites (similar to GPS) that we received from an antenna our sub floated to the surface. The reason I chose this job was partly because I thought it would be fun to see our sub's progress through the ocean and into the area of the dives, and partly because I liked being around the CONN.
The center of activity while going to and from the dive station was the CONN (the sub's main control room). In the Halibut, as in most submarines, the CONN was on the upper level, in the midsection of the sub and right under the superstructure.
Communications and orders to the entire submarine, including any orders for the weapons control system, were given from the CONN. This included torpedoes and countermeasures, such as motorized decoys and canister bubbles, used to confuse enemy torpedoes.
From POND5, sub pictures of that time period.
Torpedo Room
I was told the forward torpedo room had one of the tubes loaded with a nonexplosive torpedo that was a countermeasure. When launched it would maneuver and sound like our sub, even picking up any pings from an enemy vessel, amplifying them, and sending them back. This way an adversary would believe they were following a sub rather than a torpedo—in hopes they would depth charge the countermeasure instead of the Halibut. It's "nice" to have these things, but they are considered last-ditch efforts, and had they ever been used, then everyone on the Halibut would have been praying these would work.
Next to the CONN were two submariners who manned the many valves for ballast and dives. Next to them were three men who were involved in the steering of our sub. The DO (dive officer, sometimes a chief) sat directly behind and a little above the stern planes man, who had a steering wheel that controlled the depth of the sub, and the rudder planes man, also with a steering wheel, which controlled our direction. Then came the man I helped, who worked on the maps and charts showing our position.
Stern and Rudder Steering Wheels
The CONN itself had a raised platform about a foot higher than the surrounding area, with two periscopes, and at least one officer on duty.
All of this and much more was crammed into a very small space, in or around the CONN. I have visited four other submarines and have seen their CONNs, but nothing impressed me as much as the CONN on the Halibut.
OVERHEAD VIEW OF CONN
The orders for speed, depth, and course changes were also given from the CONN by the OOD (officer on deck). And these had to be repeated by those who received them, and, once achieved, the appropriate response was given back to the CONN.
Twin Periscopes "Rigged for Red"
Only the CONN would "rig for red" every night.
Anyone walking into this area of the CONN would have known immediately that things were different. The tone of the orders being given and the professionalism in which they were carried out were striking, with only limited small talk allowed. Everything at the CONN followed a certain procedure, which was carried out smoothly and efficiently.
I was helping the chart man when there was the 04:00 (a.m.) change of officers at the CONN. The officer coming off duty said with a loud voice, "Lieutenant Smith has the CONN!" And this was routinely recorded in the ship's log. Speaking just above a whisper, I asked the chart man, "You want me to get our hourly position from the satellite?" He started to answer but was interrupted by the intercom.
"CONN, Sonar. We have a surface contact bearing zero niner five."
"Sonar, CONN. Aye."
The chart man said, "You don't want to disturb sonar right now. Wait until they classify their new contact."
"Dive officer, CONN. Come right. Make your course zero five zero."
A watch station man arrived.
"CONN, Watch. May I step up on the CONN?"
"Watch, CONN. Permission granted."
"Sonar, CONN. Have you classified the contact?"
"CONN, Sonar. That's a negative."
"Dive officer, CONN. Make our depth 60 feet" (periscope depth).
Right next to the CONN was the sonar room. Water is a better conductor of sound than air, and, in fact, the speed of sound travels four times faster in water than in air. Only a thermocline layer, where the water temperature below it is different from the water temperature above it, will block the sound of ships and subs.
CIA Release
"The U.S. subs also compiled 'signatures' of Soviet submarines, the noise they emit as they move underwater." (Declassified and Approved for Release 2012/02/03: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100120051-2)
Because of the need to maintain silence so a sub cannot be detected, submarines use passive sonar. Active sonar, with its loud pings, will let you know where an enemy vessel is, but also lets the enemy know where you are. Instead, subs only use passive sonar, listening for any sounds in the water. These sounds are then feed into a computer that has been uploaded with the recordings of "voice signature" of naval vessels, a sort of fingerprint for ships and submarines. These include many from the Russian navy. I was told it was possible to tell not only whose vessel it was but if it was a merchant ship or naval vessel, when it was constructed, and if we could confirm the voice signature, even the name of ship.
"U.S. intelligence-gathering project that used submarines that penetrated Soviet harbor security and photographed the bottom of Soviet submarines." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP91-00561R000100100069-5C)
Though thankfully not common, underwater collisions with foreign submarines have been reported in this dangerous game of cat and mouse that submarines have sometimes played. Sometimes a sub will follow an enemy sub or even come right underneath it.
The area directly behind the sub is blind to sonar, because of the noise made by the sub's propeller. This sound is called cavitation, caused by the little bubbles that make a popping sound as they roll off the edge of the propeller blades. Thus, passive sonar, which only listens for sounds, cannot hear what is directly behind a sub, as the propeller's own noise will mask any other sound that is behind it.
To help a submarine detect what is directly behind it, side-look sonar is used to see what is hidden behind the propeller noise. The sub will change course slightly (some subs make a complete circle) and then "look" (listen) behind it for any possible followers. Halibut was equipped with side-look sonar, but if a trailing sub stops its propellers, it won't make any sound and thus evade detection.
(The Halibut didn't tow a sonar listening device. It's possible to attach passive sonar to a cable that is let out from the back end of a submarine. These cables can trail for hundreds of yards behind a sub and listen for any approaching foreign submarine.)
Strange as it may seem to anyone who is not familiar with this, but even the style of a submarine's individual propeller blades is most often classified—whether they can change the degree of angle, or even the shape of the blades. And when in dry dock, the propellers are even covered by tarps so a satellite cannot see them.
Killer Whales
I was up by the CONN helping with the navigation map when the chart man asked me to get the hourly satellite report. The sonar room was only four short steps from where I was helping: everything in that area of the CONN was close together. The sonar room itself was partitioned off from the rest of the CONN by a thin sheet-metal wall. There were two sonar men in the room when I entered, and one was recalibrating a passive-sonar screen. The main sonar technician had headphones on and was turning a dial, listening intently.
"Satellite report?" I said to the assistant.
The assistant reached over and handed me a paper with the coordinates of our sub's position and then said, "We have killer whales on sonar. They have been trying to follow us for the last few minutes, but they can't keep up. I guess they can hear us and are curious as to who we are. At any rate, we are hundreds of feet under them."
"Do you hear them very often?" I asked.
"Not much in the middle of the ocean, but they have been heard on location where the dives will be." The sonar technician grinned.
"Seriously?" I asked.
He nodded yes.
Killer whales are usually thought of as harmless and playful, entertaining the public at marine parks. Today we are encouraged to call them "orcas." But they have attacked humans, sometimes fatally, including their trainers. They make certain sounds, such as clicking, splashing, whistles, and more, all picked up by our sonar, but they can be silent and dive deeper than our saturation dives. Mature male killer whales average 23 feet in length, and mammals that size could hurt you without even meaning to. Our diving umbilical cables partially float above the seafloor and might look tempting to a killer whale to play with, bite on, or jerk—with a diver still attached.
Chapter XXII
Mr. Orlov, the KGB security expert, is at a store buying flowers for his wife, and a man comes up beside him. They don't acknowledge each other's presence, but the other man, who is an American agent, begins speaking to Mr. Orlov without looking at him. "We were hoping you would have had that new cable replaced at the northern port."
Mr. Orlov glances around but says nothing.
"Are you having second thoughts?"
"I have a new situation," says Mr. Orlov.
"Yes, we have heard about your new promotion; it may be useful in the future."
"I am not talking about that. There is a KGB lieutenant who works with spies, and he is asking questions about the cable."
The American agent looks concerned but insists, "We have more subs waiting. We put the money in your account, but you haven't followed through on your part. We need the cable replaced at this new location."
The sales lady looks in their direction. Mr. Orlov turns his back to her and says in a whisper, "Right now is not the best time with this KGB lieutenant breathing down my neck."
With this, the agent, who is still not looking at Mr. Orlov, takes a different tone and bumps him with his shoulder. "Nothing is going to be compromised, is it?"
Mr. Orlov then deliberately knocks over a vase. The American agent tries to catch it, but the vase shatters on the floor. Mr. Orlov raises his voice. "Sir, you should be more careful. If you keep bumping into things no one will help you."
The sales lady is looking at them. Mr. Orlov bends down as if to help clean up the pieces, as does the agent, and says, "Put double the amount in my foreign account, and I'll send out another unshielded cable for the new location."
Both men then stand up and the American agent looks directly at Mr. Orlov, "We had a deal!"
"And I have a new situation."
Mr. Orlov then walks away, leaving the American agent standing there and upset. He stops at the checkout counter and pays for his large bouquet.
The sales lady says, "I'm sure your wife will like these."
Chapter XXIII
God is Working
I was in the secondary control room listening to the eight-track stereo, when James (Chief) came up the ladder from the aft torpedo room.
James asked, "How did it go with your dad? You said you were going to try and witness to him before we left port."
"Not so well. The last time I was home, I was on the roof of my parents' house, helping my dad nail down some shingles. I mustered up all my courage and said, 'Dad, have you thought any more about being saved?'"
"You know what he did? He stood up and took the hammer that was in his hand and bounced it off the roof. The hammer spun through the air all the way to the ground."
"And he said, 'Yes I have thought about it!'"
"And, as usual, he started cussing. I couldn't get a word in edgeways."
"Sorry to hear that," Chief said.
"Then just before our sub left port, I called my dad on the phone. Something he said gave me a crack in the door, and I knew I had better go through it because I didn't get opportunities like that from him."
"'Dad,' I said, 'you know God loves you …' He immediately became upset and said, 'Son, why do you always bother me about this?'"
"God gave me the right thing to say, 'When you love someone enough, you will tell them what they need to hear.' Then he hung up on me."
Chief said, "I'll be in prayer for him."
"Thanks. Hey, James, what do you think my chances are of being chosen to be one of the eight divers?"
"There are definitely more than eight of you who want to make these dives."
"I talked to the diving officer about it. He mentioned that you had also asked."
"So others have 'also' asked?"
"Of course, Garry. The competition for the project dives is always there.
"I doubt they will pick anyone over 30, so I am not in the running. And it's fine; I have done this before. Just keep praying about it."
Worshiping Under the Waves
Davison whom I called the Preacher, taught a Bible study, and on Sunday he preached to us. I had never heard preaching before. It wasn't some sermonizing from a denominational textbook, but standing up and declaring God's Word, and it stirred my heart. Teaching is giving out information but preaching has urgency in it. Teaching tells you how to do something but preaching makes you want to do it. Though teaching the Bible is also of our Lord, God chose preaching as one of His main ways to grab hold of people (I Corinthians 1:21).
Though usually we had about 30 men meet together, at least one Sunday services we had forty! Incredible when you consider that, at any given time, a third of the men had to be on duty station. We met in the chow hall between meals, as no other place could hold us. When we sang, if the hatches were open, it went through the whole sub. I asked an officer who came regularly to the services if this was normal, and he said that even on an aircraft carrier with thousands of sailors, he had never seen more than eight Christians meeting together.
We were having our Sunday service, and after we sang, Chief asked one of the submariners if he would read a passage from Psalm 107:23–32.
"They that go down to the sea in ships,
that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the Lord,
and his wonders in the deep.
For he commandeth,
and raiseth the stormy wind,
which lifteth up the waves thereof.
They mount up to the heaven,
they go down again to the depths:
their soul is melted because of trouble.
They reel to and fro,
and stagger like a drunken man,
and are at their wits' end.
Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
He maketh the storm a calm,
so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad because they be quiet;
so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Oh that men would praise the Lord
for his goodness,
and for his wonderful works
to the children of men!
Let them exalt him also in the congregation
of the people, and praise him in the
assembly of the elders."
When the submariner finished reading the passage he asked, "Would anyone like to thank or praise the Lord for something?"
Two of the sailors in the service made comments. One said he had recently trusted Christ. Another shared that though he didn't know how a certain problem in his life would turn out, he knew the Lord was going to solve it. God was working on our sub. He had called two of us from the Halibut to be missionaries and start churches in other countries.
Then Chief asked Davison to speak. Davison was in his late 20s, dedicated to the Lord, and I liked listening to his messages.
"Glad you're all here. God is doing something on this sub. And He can hear the prayers of men under the sea. I think of Jonah who prayed when he was in the bell of a great fish, and God heard and answered his prayer." (Jonah 2:1-10)
"I have a question for you. How do we get to heaven? Does man save himself or does God save us? Do we clean up ourselves or do we trust God's Son to save us and He cleans us up?"
"Someday we'll all stand in front of a holy God. And He won't ask us what church we go to, but He will know if we have trusted His Son Jesus Christ to save us or not. There are many good things, and we should do them all, but things cannot forgive sins, only Jesus Christ can. God's Word says, 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast', you'll find that in Ephesians 2:8–9. Salvation is 'the gift of God,' not the gift of a church or the gift of a minister, but it belongs to God. And if you want it, you will need to go to Him to get it."
"We don't deserve it or work for it, but we humble ourselves and ask Him for it. Man's way gives the glory to man, by his earning his own salvation, but in God's way, only Jesus will receive the glory. Because our faith is in Him and what He has done for us, not in ourselves and what we have done. That's why the verse said, 'Not of works, lest any man should boast.' God doesn't want to listen to us boast to Him about how great we are; He already knows we're sinners."
"Let me ask you all a question. How many of you have ever gone skydiving? Please raise your hand if you have. Only one of you. Well, that means even though most of us believe a parachute works, still only one of us has ever trusted a parachute."
"For a moment, let the parachute represent Jesus Christ, and the plane represent our religion and good works. To trust the parachute, you have to let go of the plane, and to trust Jesus Christ, you have to let go of your religion, ordinances of the church and good works. Certainly these are good things and you should do them but not put your faith in them to get you to Heaven. Only God's Son can save our souls."
"When people say, 'I believe in God, and if I'm good, I'll go to Heaven,' they're not trusting the person of Jesus Christ Who suffered and died for their sins but the good things they have done. Let go of the plane!"
Chapter XXIV
Submarines Rendezvous
One reason for the high interest in our operation was the audacious nature in which it was done—with not one person risking his neck, but the crews of two nuclear submarine meeting in Soviet territorial waters.
USS Halibut (587) & USS Seawolf (575)
Both subs homeported at Mare Island, but Seawolf was not the sub we rendezvoused with, as explained under Disclaimer at the front of the book.
There was a prearranged rendezvous point in the Sea of Okhotsk, just inside the Kuril Islands. This rendezvous had each sub at a different depth, to avoid a possible collision. The nuclear submarine USS Stingray had already positioned herself in this sea and was listening for us to come in through the channel. This was to verify that we had made the transit into this Russian sea and were not being followed by an enemy sub.
The Stingray was to listen for us and then listen to see if a Soviet sub was behind us. Though it was not expected that a Russian sub would try and sink us in international waters, it was expected that they would try once we entered their territorial waters. If a Soviet vessel would have intercepted the Halibut, our other fast-attack submarine was to be the distraction by making noise and thereby also mask Halibut's sound signature. The Stingray was a newer sub, very fast, and able to outrun Soviet destroyers.
Verification of the rendezvous was by listening for the voice signatures of each other's sub. These voice signatures had been uploaded to both subs' sonar computers before leaving port.
Kuril Islands,
entrance into the Sea of Okhotsk
Entering Soviet Territorial Waters
High above the ocean was a US Navy Transit Satellite circling the earth and transmitting coordinates to navy ships and submarines. The Halibut was positioning herself in a channel between two islands at the entrance into this sea. It was sunset, and 400 feet below the waves, the Halibut was receiving these coordinates via a floating antenna. The antenna was protruding above the waves and slowly moving toward the channel and then disappeared below the water line.
USS Halibut
The main sonar man on our sub was in his late 20s and had graduated top off his class. Over Halibut's intercom, he said, "CONN, Sonar: Our floating antenna has been lowered, and the chart man is verifying the satellite coordinates."
"Sonar, CONN: Aye."
Captain Larson said, "XO, see if we are lined up for the channel."
"Yes, Captain."
Aft Torpedo Room
In the aft torpedo room two divers, Johnson and Nolan, competed to see how many push-ups they could do in one minute, while the other divers were encouraging their favorite. Johnson had bet Nolan $20.00 that he could do more push-ups than him, and other divers had made side bets.
We were in anticipation to hear who would be chosen for the dives, and the competition between us divers sometimes carried over into other areas.
"Johnson, if you can't do any better than that, then you can forget about the dives," Bates said.
Johnson didn't respond to his harassing, saving his breath as he continued his competition, but Brown, his friend, did respond. "Bates, when they're done, let's see how many you can do."
Johnson and Nolan were still competing, but in only a second the focus shifted to the dives. Their quick replies revealed they had been thinking about who would be chosen.
"Brown, you think you're a shoo-in because you've made these dives before. Well, don't bet on it!" Bates said.
Brown responded, "Real experience outweighs your practice dives any day of the week."
Though all of us were experienced divers, only Brown and Nolan had made the dives in Siberia before, the rest of us had only made practice saturation dives.
As they were exchanging comments, Johnson and Nolan finished their competition, but no one noticed.
Johnson, gasping for air, said to Bates, "I won!"
"I'm happy for you," Bates said sarcastically.
Suddenly it became quiet and one of the divers said to Brown and Bates, "Thanks for the entertainment."
The crackle of the sub's intercom was heard by everyone: "This is the captain. Rig for all quiet. No talking until further notice. Those not on duty station are to remain in their bunks."
"You heard the captain. To our bunks." said a diver.
The CONN, USS Halibut
The sub's intercom had been turned off, small talk was no longer allowed, and the pitch of the orders had fallen to a whisper.
The XO was studying the charts, then looked at the Captain and nodded, affirming that we were lined up for the channel.
Captain Larson said, "Dive Officer, make our depth 300 feet."
"Aye, Captain, making our depth 300 feet."
For the next three and a half hours much of our sub became like a ghost town that had buildings but no people. No one was milling around and the passageways and the chow hall were empty. Only the CONN and Sonar had men at their duty station but they were quiet and had rigged for red. Each watertight compartment on our sub required one man to be at watch station but the rest of us went to our bunks and remained silent. Some would try to sleep or read a book. But others would lie on their bunks and stare, thinking about what we were trying to accomplish—to enter Soviet territorial waters without being detected, as our sub glided over their acoustic range.
I thought about where we were and what we were hoping to accomplish, but as usual my thoughts went to making the dives. And something Williams had said, that he thought the reason they waited to tell us who was going to make the dives, was because they were afraid that if a diver was not chosen he might try to miss the deployment. It already seemed like a long deployment but we were barely two weeks into it.
USS Stingray, Submerged
Rigged for Red
Stingray's captain: "XO, stand by the sonar room and let me know when they pick up the Halibut."
"Aye, Captain." The XO went to the sonar room, which had two sailors, one on headphones and one looking at the readouts from their computer.
"Sonar, have you picked up anything on the Halibut?"
"Nothing, XO, only background noise."
The XO walked back to the captain. "Captain, they hear nothing. Do you think Halibut will wait for a freighter to mask her sound?"
He shakes his head no. "Halibut could just let the current take her through the channel."
"So she won't need her screws?" asked the XO.
"Yes, she will need them, but only enough to steer so as to maintain course, but not for speed."
"Captain, the torpedoman's mate is here to see you."
The captain of the Stingray walked the torpedoman's mate over to one side and said, "You know why we are here, and we hope you and your crew will never be needed, but, it's our job to protect the Halibut. So we are going to be ready. Flood torpedo tubes one and four now, and then open their outer doors."
"I have already instructed Sonar that if they pick up any Soviet sub trailing the Halibut, they are to listen for the outer doors of their torpedo tubes being opened. If that happens, then we'll be a step ahead of them. You understand? Be ready."
The torpedoman's mate nodded, and the captain walked back to the CONN.
Soviet Destroyer
Captain Nikolay was pacing the deck, hoping for some action. His destroyer was slowly moving in an elongated circle at the main point of entry into the Sea of Okhotsk.
"Radio Room, have you any reports from our acoustic range?"
"Nothing, Captain."
"Sonar, what about you? Anything?"
"No, Captain."
Between the Kuril Islands
No one was making a sound in the area of the CONN. The orders from the CONN were walked to Sonar instead of the usual speakerphone. The XO asked sonar if they could hear the Stingray.
"Nothing yet."
The XO then looked toward the captain and shook his head no.
The captain asked the officer on deck (OOD), "Lieutenant, is there a thermocline layer here?"
"Not here, Sir. Maybe once we get into deeper water, we'll find one."
Russian Acoustic Range
On the Kamchatka Peninsula, two technicians were listening for intruders into their territorial waters. In a room on the other side of a glass wall the acoustic officer was seated with his feet up on his desk and playing darts.
One of the technicians brought a paper readout to the acoustic officer, "Lieutenant, I have something here you should look at."
"It doesn't say what it is?" said the Acoustic Officer.
"Well, it's submerged, and if it's a sub, it's not one of ours."
Acoustic Officer went into the glass rooms to listen for himself. And then said, "That new destroyer captain, the one at the entrance into our sea, he was insistent that if we picked up anything, we were to give it to him. So, send it to him."
"Captain, Radio Room. We have just received a transmission from our acoustic range, and they have something. But not where we had expected. Instead it's coming in through the next southern channel."
"Is it submerged?" shouted the captain.
"Yes Sir, but it's very faint, there not sure what it is."
Captain Nikolay walked over to the charts and said, "Show me this channel."
"Captain, it's on the far side of the next island. Even at full speed, it will take us 20 minutes to get there."
Captain Nikolay then belted out orders to his XO. "Chart us a course to this channel and park us right in the middle of it! Officer on Deck, tell the engine room to make full speed, and stand by our weapons system!"
USS Stingray
"CONN, Sonar: We have a surface contact bearing zero niner five."
Stingray's captain and XO looked at each other with surprised expressions. The captain and XO both went to the sonar room.
"Did you say surface contact?" asked the captain.
"Yes, sir! The computer is working on it. But whatever it is, it's definitely Russian."
Stingray's captain asked, "Nothing on the Halibut?"
"Sir, we have no submerged contacts at all."
The computer readout was taken by the XO, who glanced at it and handed it to the captain. Stingray's Captain said, "It's a Russian destroyer, Skoryy class, bearing down on us and at flank speed. She will be here in fifteen minutes."
XO said, "Sir, we could outrun their destroyer."
"The Halibut couldn't," responded the captain. "That destroyer is not coming for us—they couldn't have heard us. We are barely moving. It has to be coming for the Halibut. It's the time she should be here. The Russians must have picked her up on their acoustic range."
The sonar man interjected, "Captain, you should know that if the Halibut is transiting the channel now, she wouldn't hear that Soviet destroyer till she is past the northern island."
"Let's make some noise." ordered the captain. "Officer on Deck, make our depth 200 feet. Tell Reactor to bring her to full power and Engine Room to stand by for flank speed."
The OOD looked concerned, hesitated, but began to pass along the orders.
"We have a submerged contact, possibly the USS Stingray. It's from the area she should be in." The XO relayed the message to the captain and then returned to the sonar room.
"XO, I am sure it's one of our boats. The noise from her screw is definitely US. Just a moment, while the computer spits it out." Out came the readout and the sonar man smiling, said, "Yes. It's the Stingray."
"Odd though. She is making more noise than I would have expected for the rendezvous. Sir, I'm afraid the Russian acoustic range can hear her."
The XO informed the captain. The captain asked, "How much longer before we are out of the channel?"
"We are almost out now."
The USS Halibut continued on her course and headed out into deeper water, dived below a thermocline, and entered safely into the Sea of Okhotsk.
The Rendezvous was Missed!
USS Stingray was making noise trying to contact the Halibut, but didn't realize the Halibut had already heard her. The Halibut assumed that if she heard the Stingray, then the Stingray must have heard the Halibut. But the Stingray never heard the Halibut, and the rendezvous was missed. One advantage of the Stingray's loud noise was that it masked the sound of the Halibut from both the Russian acoustic range and any enemy vessel in the area.
The USS Stingray ended up leaving the Sea of Okhotsk and exited out the nearest channel. She travels far enough out into the Pacific Ocean so that when she radioed US Naval Command, her position wouldn't betray that she has been in the Sea of Okhotsk.
The Soviet destroyer showed up ten minutes too late. They were informed by their acoustic range that an American submarine traveling at high speed had exited out through the Kuril Islands and into the Pacific. Captain Nikolay didn't waste the opportunity and radioed the Soviet naval base at Vladivostok.
"Tell Admiral Gorshkov that I have just chased an American submarine out of our waters! I doubt they will try that again."
US Naval Command
OPERATION: Ivy Bells
HALIBUT LEFT PORT: Aug. 1
RENDEZVOUS CONFIRMAITON: Pending
EXPECTED RETURN DATE: Nov. 1
On the display board showing the status of Operation Ivy Bells, next to RENDEZVOUS, "Pending" has been removed and "Missing at Sea" is in its place. The operation officer rushes into the office of the secretary of the navy and says, "Sir, we have just received word from the Stingray that the Halibut did not make the rendezvous."
Secretary of the navy straightens up with a concerned expression on his face and says, "Any idea of what happen?"
"The Stingray said there was a Russian destroyer in the channel moving at flank speed, but they heard no depth charges or explosions. It's possible the Halibut just missed the rendezvous, for whatever reason."
Secretary of the navy says, "Schedule another rendezvous attempt but at a different location, though still inside the Sea of Okhotsk."
(This meant we had to turn around and go back for a few days and try again to rendezvous with the Stingray. This time we made lots of noise and succeed in the contact.
I have read that the USS Halibut was a noisy sub, and some even say this was the reason she was decommissioned. No, it wasn't! Even before Halibut's last deployment, all on board knew that this was her last run, because she had come to the end of her nuclear fuel. It would take a year and a half to refuel her, and her sister ship was waiting to take her place. Halibut had been tested by our own acoustic range, and at slow speeds she was very quiet. Captain Larson even said that the Halibut was quiet, by the fact that our other submarine in the Sea of Okhotsk wasn't able to hear us at the first rendezvous attempt.)
Chapter XXV
Struggling with a Decision
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 16:24-25)
While on our submarine, I wrestled with whether or not I would serve God and about being chosen for the dives. I wondered if somehow the two were connected—serving God and Him allowing me to make the dive. I had trusted Jesus Christ with my soul for salvation, but I still wanted to make the decisions on what I was going to do with my life. I would ask God to bless my plans but I didn't want to ask Him what He wanted me to do.
I have read online sites that called us divers "intrepid" for stepping out of a submarine in 400 feet of water—but then turned around and called us "babies" if we didn't get chosen to make the dives, saying we had bad attitudes about it. But we wanted to make the dives, and if it's okay to say, it was fun! We were well trained, in good shape physically, and chomping at the bit to make one of these dives.
The 21 saturation divers in our group were known as Deep Dive Team One (DDT1). Not only did most of us want to be selected to be one of the eight divers, we, or at least I, also wanted to be chosen to make the first saturation dive. The first saturation dive was "hook up," or doing what we had gone there for, and the second was "disconnect."
I am circled at the top of this 1974 photo of the USS Halibut's saturation divers. On the 1975 deployment half of the divers had been changed but I don't have the 1975 photo.
I was up in the DSRV in the secondary control room asking James questions about the Bible, and he said, "Garry, you ought to go to Bible college."
"Yeah, right, Chief," I replied, laughing. "I have no intention of going to any college, let alone Bible college. I won't fit in there."
Chief said, "God is not looking for perfect people—there aren't any! Just those who will let the Lord make them into who He wants."
"OK, Chief. Listen, there is something I want to talk to you about. We have practiced for more than a year for this one special operation, and I definitely want to be chosen for one of the two saturation dives that are planned. But every time I pray about it, I feel like God is saying to me, 'What if I don't let you make these dives?' I am not hearing any voices, only this impression that He might not let me do this."
Chief asked, "You don't believe God wants you to make these dives?"
"No, not that, or at least I hope He is willing to let me make one of the dives."
"When I pray, I tell the Lord I'll live a better life for Him and serve Him if He lets me make one of these dives. But when I ask God, I keep getting the impression He is saying, 'What if I don't let you make the dives?'"
Chief said, "If our decisions are based upon what God will give us, how strong is our love for Him?"
"James, I am holding nothing back on this, and I cannot bear the thought of being passed over and someone else taking my place. OK, maybe I'm childish, but for me, being chosen for this is the most important thing in my life."
"Why is the dive so important to you? You want that medal, the Legion of Merit?"
"Yes, I would like one of those. But that's not it. I can live without the medal."
"It's something else. I don't want someone looking down their nose at me as if I'm not good enough, physically or mentally, to make these dives. I want to prove to others that I can do this. I know I can do it, it's just jumping in the water to me, and I know the other divers can do it also. Still, some of us won't be chosen. And it makes me heartsick thinking about being rejected."
"The closest thing I can compare it to is when I was a senior in high school. I bought a car and went to football practice, but I played second-string football because I was a skinny kid. But the few times I played in a game were fun, a real adrenalin rush for me. But most of the season I sat on the bench. I didn't like the feeling it gave me, that I was somehow inferior to others. This is how I feel now about the dives: I want to play, not sit on the bench!" But when I pray about it, I get the impression the Lord only wants to know one thing, 'What if you don't make the dives, will you serve me anyway?'"
"James, I know that if I tell the Lord that I'll serve Him, even if I don't get what I want, that He will hold me to it."
James said, "God wants our heart."
"Regardless if I go into the ministry or stay a diver, I think God wants me to give Him my life, for whatever He wants. But I had wanted a different life. To make my own decisions, live for myself, go to parties, do whatever I wanted."
"But didn't you tell me you almost died in a car wreck doing your own thing? God can do a better job with our lives than we can. He made us He knows how to make us happy."
James paused for a moment, and then said, "By the way, I asked the diving officer again, and he told me it's now down to ten of you that they are going to pick from, and you're still in the running. They'll be making their decision any time now."
"Garry, you have to be prepared if it doesn't work out as you want. In the past, I have witnessed divers with bad attitudes who weren't chosen. As a follower of Jesus Christ, you don't want that."
I Will Serve You
The next day I was in my bunk praying, when I heard Chief's voice and I climbed out of my bunk.
Chief asked, "How you doing? I have been praying for you."
"Thanks," I said.
"Have you been able to give this into the Lord's hand?"
I nodded my head yes, "I prayed and said to the Lord I would serve Him even if He doesn't let me make the dive. But I added on to the end of my prayer, 'God, I really want to do this.'"
James half laughed and walked away.
The next day one of the officers came up to me and only said one thing, "You're making the first SAT dive." He then turned and walked off, leaving me standing there wondering how such a monumental thing to me could have been resolved in only one sentence.
Though I was certainly happy with the news, I was surprised by who told me, it wasn't the diving officer. I rarely talked to this officer who told me, as he was not involved with the dives. It seemed so out of place to have someone who was not a diver to share such news. I asked Williams, one of the diver, and he said it was because those who were over us didn't want to listen to the ones who weren't chosen get upset and complain.
Chapter XXVI
The Pressure Cooker
Sink the Halibut?
Because the Halibut was pushing through the water many things that had been added on to it, it was slow and almost anything the Russians had could outrun her.
There were codes and other secrets on our sub, not to mention the latest technology, and the last thing the navy wanted was for all this to fall into the hands of the Russians. Therefore it was necessary for our sub to have destructive charges to scuttle her in the event the Soviets tried to bring us to the surface.
These were locked in two safes with red tape around them. One was in the aft torpedo room by the bulkhead next to the engine room, and the other was in the forward part of the sub on the lower level by another bulkhead. We were told these were each 50 pounds of TNT, which would have done the job had it been necessary. The Sea of Okhotsk has deep water close to where we dove; therefore Halibut could have been sunk in water too deep to have been salvaged.
It was never explained how such a scenario would have been carried out, at least not while I was on board. I suppose COB or one of the officers would have set a timer on the explosives. I also believe they would have done it.
There were life preservers on the Halibut, but no rubber life rafts, at least not that I saw. A sailor without a life raft would die within a few minutes in the freezing waters. And unless there was a major problem on our sub, such as a radiation leak or fire, there is no reason our sub would have gone to the surface in Soviet territorial waters, unless forced to by the Russians. If a Russian vessel would have taken us off the Halibut, not only would we have been put in prison, but they would have boarded our sub seeking to stop us from sinking her.
If Halibut became trapped by the Russians, she would have been scuttled, and I cannot see any likely scenario in which we would have made it off. But then none of us were forced to be on the Halibut—we were all volunteers.
According to the History Channel documentary Blind Man's Bluff (produced by A&E Networks with Will Lyman and Sherry Sontag), "Ivy Bells remained the most dangerous operation of the Cold War. Every cable-tapping mission required the personal approval of the president." Gary Powers in his CIA spy plane was shot down by the Russians when he entered Soviet air space.
Were we afraid? One diver confided in me that he was afraid of the saturation dives—there were more things that could go wrong. Still, he was chosen and he made the dive. Personally, I loved it, though something happened on my last water entry in Siberia which caused me to have real concern.
The truth is, it's was dangerous for me to just drive a car. I wouldn't want to do the dangerous things that those in war do—walking around land mines and having bullets whiz past their heads. But no one on the Halibut was afraid, and if they were, they did a good job of hiding it.
Discipline Would be Maintained
On our sub there was a small empty room next to the stairway by the entrance into the bat cave. The door to this room was metal, with bars on it, similar to a jail cell. I notice it every time I walked by, and I finally asked someone about it. I was told it really was our sub's jail, and if it was ever needed (which thankfully, it wasn't), whoever would be put in it would only be served bread and water until the captain released him.
There was one US Marine on board the Halibut, who was to some extent a security guard. He had a likable personality, but he served no visible purpose. He wasn't sub qualified, and he had no duty station. The only thing he did was to occasionally run on the treadmill. This marine and the cell were visible reminders, if only unconsciously, that no matter how fed up one might get, discipline would still be maintained.
Isolated Compartments
There was something about our sub that I hadn't expected, limited fellowship. You could talk to anyone but people tended to stay in their own group.
Much of our sub was off limits. Starting from the forward torpedo room till the bulkhead that housed the nuclear reactor, there were the normal off limit compartments. But because our operation was secret, to even the crew of the Halibut, the computer room, display room and NSA room, were also off limits. Then from the reactor room aft, was off limits to all but the nukes and divers. This included the engine room and aft torpedo room, one-third of our sub. And the nukes weren't allowed in the aft torpedo room. This compartmentalizing of the Halibut, though necessary, limited interaction to one's own group, torpedomen, nukes, divers etc., and also limited our space in what was already a very small world.
"Keeping Your Cool"
The above in this chapter was given so the reader would have a feel for the atmosphere on our sub. In the world if one has a bad day at work he can at least go home at 5:00 pm, but not on a sub. Try to imagine living in a steel pipe for three months, with no exit, no recreation (except the treadmill), no fresh air, and no communications with your girlfriend or family. Sitting on the bottom of a sea hoping that no leaks start with thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch all over the sub. And in the back of your mind you know that if the Russians ever find out you're in their territorial waters, it will be a very serious problem.
Under conditions like that, it is certainly possible to "fly off the handle". People do and say things they shouldn't, or a practical joke gets out of control. The problem was, there was no way to let off "steam" until we got back in port.
It was acknowledged by all that we were fortunate to have our cook, as he made the best meals, and even homemade bread. But his job was demanding, and he constantly worked. One time when we were at periscope depth, the Halibut was rocked by a surface wave, sending the food from the galley stoves onto the floor. Words and tempers flew.
I was in the aft torpedo room when the tallest diver on our team, someone not used to taking back talk, came in upset. He said it was because the cook had hollered at him. This diver started to say, "Sometimes that cook can … can … well …" But then he stopped his words midsentence and sat down.
No one said anything, thinking it would pass. After about ten minutes, the cook came in through the steel hatch wiping his hands on a towel. The aft torpedo room was off limits to him. Still, no one said anything, but only watched. He told the diver he was sorry (for which I admired him), and then he stood there, expecting some sort of response. But the diver just looked at him, and then barely nodded his head. Then the cook turned and looked at the rest of us, and then walked out. All this was done without anyone else saying a word.
On the Halibut, there were times when a sailor purposely made someone else upset and then went to the chow hall and bragged about it. Such things happen anywhere, but it's worse in a confined environment. And especially in the dive chamber, which was considerably smaller than our sub, and we were not even able to stand up in it. Therefore, when a team of four was picked for a week long saturation dive, consideration was given to our compatibility.
They Announced Who Was Chosen
There was one more thing "added to the mix." Shortly after we entered the Sea of Okhotsk, the eight of us who would be diving were informed. This meant there were some very happy people and some very unhappy people. Oddly, the competition between the divers seemed to grow after the divers were picked.
Before the dives, the eight who had been chosen met with the corpsman whom we called Doc.
"Now that we are past this rendezvous, we can get on with the show." Doc said.
"Those of you with beards will have to shave them off, as it affects the seal on your dive mask. You'll also need to practice giving injections and drawing blood from each other so that, if the need arises, a medical officer won't have to be pressed down in your dive chamber."
Meanwhile, while this was going on, something happened that was both interesting and unsettling to watch. Bob a diver who hadn't been chosen, showed up.
"What do you want?" Doc asked.
Bob responded, "I thought I would be, like, a substitute in the event one of the divers became sick."
"We don't need that."
"One never knows," Bob said.
Doc insisted, "I said, we don't need that."
Bob responded, "I heard two years back one of the divers was bumped at the last minute."
"The diving officer has prepared for that." Doc said, and then added, "I'm sorry this didn't work out for you, but forcing it is not going to work out either."
Bob said, "Well, I'll just watch then."
The diver wasn't going to leave and Doc was upset. A tense situation but I thought Doc handled it the right way. Doc folded his arms, looked down at the ground, and said nothing. It was quiet and uncomfortable for a few-long seconds. With the rest of us divers staring at Bob, as he staring back at us. Then he walked away.
No one said anything and the corpsman went on as though the other diver had never been there. But I think I knew how this diver felt, because I would have felt the same way, seeing my dream slip away. I found out later this diver was assigned to one of the following submarines that took Halibut's place. And then it worked out for him as he was chosen to make a SAT dive in Russian. He was not a quitter.
To say I was overjoyed at getting to make this dive would be an understatement. Which didn't help relations with those around me. One diver who was chosen was still not happy, because he was picked for the second saturation dive. He'd hoped, perhaps expected, to be on the first saturation dive. Even though he would be designated "Red Diver" (lead diver on the water entries) and was put in charge of the team of four divers who would make the second round of SAT dives. Nonetheless he was burned about not being on the first SAT dive.
I even started to call him by a new name. "Hey number two, how ya doing?" Referring to him being on the second SAT dive. This upset him. I shouldn't have done it, I feel bad about it now, but that was the sort of ribbing we gave each other.
He grew tired of it and thought he would get even with me. I was sound asleep in my bunk when I was awakened by Number Two and another diver. They both shook me and said, "Garry, wake up! There is bad news! I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but there has been a change on who is diving."
Normally when I wake up out of a sound sleep, I am disoriented. But not then, I knew exactly what they were up too. I said, "Oh, Number Two, you mean they aren't going to let you dive at all?" He got upset and left. Now before one judges us of being too juvenile, he should try living in a steel pipe for three months. With all this in mind, what follows happened only a few days before the dives.
Each day I walked through the length of the sub and fellowshipped with whomever might want to talk. After I made my way back to the aft torpedo room, I saw Jim, a diver friend who had watch. Every compartment on the sub was required to have a watch station to make sure no fires or leaks started. My friend was red faced and visibly upset.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Wilson is drawing pictures of my wife!"
We had a large book with blank pages, and whoever wanted could write a saying or a funny poem or draw pictures in it. This other diver had drawn three or four pictures of Jim's wife. These weren't sensual pictures, but of a past argument he'd had with her. Wilson had drawn Jim's wife and wrote what she had said in this book, which was open to anyone to read.
Jim was very upset and said, "I want to take a hammer to him!"
I looked at him for a second and realized I needed to do something. I found the book and tore out the drawings of his wife, ripped them up into small pieces, and threw them into a trash can. Then I went to find the master diver, who in our chain of command was over us. I found him in the chief's lounge, but this was off limits to me. So I stood at the door and asked him to come out and talk. But he said, "Later."
But it couldn't wait. There was another chief in the lounge and if I said what the problem was, the other chief would hear it and it could go through the whole sub. So I asked again, "Chief, it's really important. I need to talk to you, please." What he said next irritated me.
"What's the matter? You afraid we'll change our minds and not let you make the SAT dive?"
I knew where this came from. I guess one could say I got payback from Number Two. When I heard the master diver say this, I thought, OK, I'm just going to blurt it out.
"Wilson is drawing pictures of Jim's wife, and Jim says he wants to take a hammer to him."
The other chief in the room said, "Whoo!" The master diver ran out and asked, "Where's Jim?" I told him and he took off to find him. He found Jim and calmed him down. Later I was going through the chow hall and saw our master diver sitting at a corner table "talking" to Wilson.
Neither one of these divers were bad people; they were just enduring living in a submarine for three months. I heard years later that both men went on to become master diver.
Chapter XXVII
The Dives
Unforeseen and surprising
Events at the site of the dives.
Courtesy of H I Sutton, Covert Shores.
Divers in the drawing are placing a POD used to store recordings. On the seafloor is the cable, and to the right is a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) filming it. Us divers called it the "Eye"
"Ivy Bells … an undersea cable linking one part of the Soviet Union to the other across the Sea of Okhotsk, was bugged by a device set out by a submarine. A submarine pulled near it and frogmen went out and attached a device …" (Declassified and Approved for Release 2011/12/21, CIA-RDP90-00965R000100310013-6)
Though most sailors on the sub didn't know where we were or what we were getting ready for, still all knew the Halibut was "parked" on the seafloor and the dives were about to begin. The crew of the Halibut had got us safely here and they wanted the dives to be a success.
During this time the divers began startup, with their check-off lists. The tempo picks up, and we divers had a more alert look. Now the spooks, project officers, and us divers took center stage. A whole year's planning was about to be tested. It fell on us divers to implement this, and we were savoring the moment.
Display Room
All eight divers, plus the master diver and diving officer, were assembled in the display room. Before this meeting, I had only caught glimpses of the display room, when its door was open, for normally it was off limits. The display officer was one of the two project officers on board, the other was the diving officer.
The location of the display room is shown on the following drawing, right above the aquarium.
The computer room on the Halibut had a reel-to-reel system, a dinosaur by today's standards though the best technology for that time. This computer was used in conjunction with the Fish and side thrusters that helped position it. But the display room had always been a curious place to me, looking more like what I thought a computer room should look like. There we were shown the film footage from the Fish, of the cable and its inline amplifier.
The display room had a large screen, perhaps six feet across by four feet high. And their equipment was able to draw on this screen an exact replica of the cable and amplifier with amazing detail. This was more helpful than a picture, for I saw something on this that I hadn't recognized on the film footage from the Fish. It appeared to be some sort of pipe about two feet long by one inch wide. I asked the officer in charge of display what it was, and he said they didn't know but that they were interested in it and wanted us to bring it back.
Tapping Devices
During our training dives off the California coast, we had practiced with the "clamps" (tapping devices that were put on the cable). Similar to how an auto mechanic would place a clamp around a spark plug wire to see if it has an electrical current running through it.
These clamps we used for the taps were easier to put on and take off than the old wrap-around-wire type. Each clamp was about three feet long by five inches in diameter and painted yellow. One side of the clamp could be opened, and we would place the cable inside the clamp and then close the clamp around the cable.
The clamps also had a metal wire that pulled a quick release and detached them from the cable. So that should the Soviets ever bring their cable to the surface and inspect it, they wouldn't find our recording clamps. And if the Halibut ever felt threatened by a Soviet ship, she could, in an emergency, lift off the seafloor immediately and leave. This would leave the clamps hanging off the bottom of the sub. Though not an ideal situation, it would at least be possible for her to leave without having a saturation dive and sending divers out to disconnect the clamps.
It was necessary to position the Halibut near to the cable because the clamping devices had a relatively short wire that connected them back to the sub. We were to put seven of these clamps on each side of the amplifier. The more clamps the better for a clearer, stronger signal. If the clamps were not placed on both sides, we would only be recording communications from one direction.
"Pelton had compromised a costly, long-running and highly sophisticated electronic eavesdropping operation involving U. S. Submarines and a high technology device." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402820034-2)
The "high technology device" was the POD, which was shown on the screen. The display officer said, "The navy has developed a POD, or "Beast" as it is called, about three feet in diameter by 20 feet long. It will be left behind after our sub leaves the Sea of Okhotsk and store a year's worth of information.
"There are tapping clamps attached to this POD, which is the power source for the recordings. You divers will need to release the POD from our sub and position it.
"This POD is powered by a mini nuclear reactor, plutonium-238. Don't worry—you will receive less radiation from this POD than from our sub's reactor."
"However, the CIA doesn't want to wait a year to get recordings. Therefore, because the Halibut is already here on site, while the POD is recording, we'll also use Halibut's clamps, which will record while we stay here. Then when we're back in the States, we'll hand these to the CIA."
Display showed us a couple of more drawings from a zoomed-out position of the overall site and approximately where our sub was positioned next to the cable. On the display room's drawings of the cable, and their projected placement of our sub, the sub and cable appeared to be very close together, especially at the bow of the sub. I made no comment about this, for Halibut had already been winched down on her anchors (called "mushrooms") and was sitting on her skids. But I was curious to see just how close we were to the cable.
When we were done, the display officer wished us success. Our diving officer thanked him for the briefing and then shouted out four names. "Nolan, Matheny, Brown, and Bates. You four divers who will be making the first saturation dive. We'll meet with you in the aft torpedo room. Let's go!"
On the way to the aft torpedo room, all four of us divers, plus the diving officer and master diver passed through the chow hall that had about a dozen sailors in it.
COB said to us, "Hey, guys, we'll see you in a week. Good luck!"
The cook hollered, "Bring me back some crabs and I'll cook them up for you!"
As we left the chow hall, James was waiting for me to pass through, I shook his hand and said, "I am still thanking God He let me do this."
The medical diving doctor, who had also gone through saturation dive school, entered the aft torpedo room.
The master diver said, "Line up for your final medical check."
The four of us divers lined up, and the medical diving doctor spent more time looking over Bates, the second man in line, and asked, "How long have you had this sore throat?"
Bates responded, "A couple of days. It's nothing. It doesn't bother me at all."
The doctor took another look and said, "Sorry Bates, but I cannot in good conscience recommend you to be on this dive."
Bates insisted, "I'm fine. Really."
The diving officer raised his voice and said, "Bates, step out of the line!"
The ejected diver was hurt but said nothing and left.
The master diver shouted into the engine room at a nuke. "I want you to double time it down to the mess decks and get Farinella. He is scheduled to make the next SAT dive. Tell him he is being bumped up to make the first SAT dive and to get down here now!"
The medical doctor next checked me, and when I passed I gave a sigh of relief. Then the next diver in line was checked, and when done, the replacement diver arrived, stood in line, and he also passed.
Diving Officer said, "Thanks, Doctor. We will not be needing you now."
The doctor left and the diving officer said, "We need to go over the schedule of the two saturation dives. They'll be a week each and 45 days apart. The recordings of real-time conversations will be made between these two dives. Our NSA analysts tell us they expect at least eighteen channels on this one military cable."
"Things are subject to change, but we plan for two water entries during this first saturation dive. Two divers will enter the water together, and the other two divers will tend their umbilical cords. Then on the second water entry, those who tend will enter the water."
"Nolan and Matheny will be the first two divers to enter the water. Nolan will be designated Red Diver, or lead diver, and Matheny will be Yellow Diver. We'll be making recordings of these dives, and though you may listen to them afterward, they'll remain classified. You will be diving between windows in the tides to prevent fighting the currents and for better visibility."
"We'll take extra time to press you down to depth to help your body better acclimate to the pressure. This will take all night, so try and get some sleep. When you awake, it should be morning topside on the Sea of Okhotsk."
Master diver spoke up, "The captain is coming in. Stand to attention."
The captain entered and said, "At ease."
"Well, this is what we are here for. I want you to know I will be closely following these dives. I wish you success, and I'll meet you back here in seven days."
Then up the stern escape hatch we went and through the cramped secondary control room, manned by two SAT divers and into our diving chamber.
The technicians were surprised by a visit from Captain Nikolay of the Russian destroyer, who was very upset. Acoustic Lieutenant said, "Captain Nikolay, it's a surprise to see you. Is there a problem?"
"Yes, there's a problem all right! I understand you laughed about me at Naval Command and told them that the Americans tricked me. You said the sub I chased out of our sea was a decoy to distract my attention from another American sub that slipped in."
"Look for yourself. These readouts are from the night that American sub exited out into the Pacific. That same night we originally heard a very faint sound in the channel that we radioed you about. Later, after the American sub exited out into the Pacific, our technicians went back over the recordings and found this same faint signal again, on the same course but farther into the Sea of Okhotsk. It's not possible it was the same sub you chased after."
Captain Nikolay asked, "Why didn't you say something to me then?"
"When the American sub exited, she was so loud that she masked everything in the channel. It was not until she passed the outer islands that this faint sound showed up again."
"Have you heard this sub since then?" Captain Nikolay asked.
"No. Our technicians have been looking for it, but most likely this sub is under a thermocline layer. That sub would be expected to have changed course by now. A sub in a position like that would hear you before you would hear it."
"Give me these readouts. I'll have my sonar man compare them," replied Captain Nikolay, and he leaves as he came, upset.
First Saturation Dive
The third room of the habitat was flooded during transit to the dive station. So that morning after we ate breakfast, the first item of operation was to pressurize this compartment and remove all the seawater. Once the pressure was equalized between the third and second compartments (where we divers sleep), the metal door was opened. A strong rush of cold saltwater air came in from the freezing 27-degree sea, waking us up like a slap on our faces. A reminder that we were not on a training dive and everyone had a serious look, being fully alert.
We entered this third room and started getting ready for the dive. I put my hand into the seawater just to see how cold it felt, and I couldn't hold my hand in it. The salt water tried to freeze the blood in my hand, and I could feel it go up my arm and into my heart.
The two divers who would tend our cables helped us get dressed in our dive rigs. Then the 140-degree water began pumping between our two wet suits, and once full, the hot water started spilling out around our wrists and neck, falling down to the metal grate we were standing on. This caused the third compartment to fill up with mist, making it hard to see, but went away after a few minutes.
The dive tenders using the speaker in the second room said, "Topside, Tenders: We cannot get the speaker in the dive station (third room) to work. The connecting socket appears to have been clogged up. We will have to communicate with you using the speaker in this second room. This means you will have to speak really loud if we are to hear you, because we'll be in the third compartment tending."
"And, Topside, be advised that because of this, when the divers are in the water, they won't be able to speak to us or us speak to them."
Main Diver Control was watching the tenders, Brown and Farinella, on their TV screen and said, "Tenders, Topside: We understand. But the divers will still be able to communicate with us using their headphones. Let's try a mic check with the diver's descrambler."
"Red Diver, Topside. Do you read me?"
"Topside, Red Diver. Loud and clear."
Then I, as Yellow Diver, acknowledge the same.
This procedure of stating the name of whom you were addressing and then your designation of Red or Yellow Diver was standard and seldom deviated from. But when we divers talk to each other, we just spoke normally. Other than these checks, the communications with Topside was infrequent, except to report a problem or Control asking about our progress.
First Water Entry
"Red Diver, Topside: Are you ready to move out?"
"Topside, Red Diver: Entering the water."
After he entered the frigid sea, I followed, and the tenders started letting out our cables. We were done with our dress rehearsals and had made it past all the hurdles, and I was enjoying it!
It was 40 feet from where we enter the water to the seafloor. One of the things I liked to do when I dove at the Island of Diego Garcia, and later at Guam, was to drift down backward to the seabed. I would have my back toward the seafloor and my face looking up at the surface of the water and watch the bubbles from my dive rig go through my fins on their way to the surface. We had negative buoyancy with the lead weights in our wet suits, and it would take less than a minute to reach the bottom. But on our mission, there were no bubbles from our dive rigs, no surface to see—only the blackness of the sea.
It was morning topside on the Sea of Okhotsk, but this did little to help light up the seafloor 400 feet below. We had started our first dive right after the current had subsided, and there was still silt in the seawater. Our visibility in the icy-cold water, even when using our lights, was at best only six feet. Though, when the silt settled down, we could see a few feet more. When next to our sub, we could see even more, with the aid of the lights that were on the bottom of the Halibut.
The sea itself held little scenery at 400 feet; the silt and sand at the bottom were gray in color. There were some strange-looking fish about 18 inches long, with heads almost half the size of their bodies, eyeballs bigger than a human's, and huge mouths. These fish weren't afraid; they swam right up to us and stared. Some even sat in the silt on the sea bottom, still gazing up at us—eerie. One tried to swallow my flashlight, but I knocked him off. (Our lights were not mounted on our helmet but attached to our wet suits by a small rope.) There were also some giant king crabs, about two feet across, slowly walking on the seafloor. Except for these, I saw no other sea life.
The Russian cable couldn't be seen when we were next to the sub because of the darkness of the sea. But we knew it was close, maybe 30 feet from us, so Nolan and I swam at a right angle away from our sub until we found the cable. It was three inches in diameter (not five inches, as is commonly reported). The cable was parallel to our sub and thirty feet up the cable, we found the amplifier, with its strong signal.
We had traveled under the ocean more than 6,000 miles and had "parked" our submarine 30 feet from the Russian cable and its transponder. The equivalent of the proverbial saying of finding a needle in a haystack. But for the next several years it would become a routine.
Ours for the Taking
We were the first people to ever dive on this transponder. But there lying before us, was the mother lode of intel flowing through that one cable. I'd heard that it cost one billion dollars to get us to this point. But for a few seconds, we just floated there in the sea, looking at it. The Russians didn't know we were there, nor anyone else. All these secrets were ours for the taking, 24/7, as long as we stayed. But we were just staring at the cable, with the blackness of the sea all around us. It was as though we needed someone to tell us, "OK, guys, do something!" Then Nolan said, "Well, I guess I should get a clamp."
While he swam back to the sub to open a panel that had the tapping clamps, I inspected the forward skid. I wanted to see if the Russian cable, which was parallel to our sub, may have veered off toward the bow, as it appeared in the drawings in the display room.
I followed the cable toward the bow, and, yes, it went right under the front port skid! Halibut weighs five thousand tons, which was divided up on the four skids. So in theory, over a thousand tons of metal were cutting into the cable. This was one time I deviated from the standard communications procedure—this time I just said, "Topside, we got a problem!"
The master diver was manning the phones in the Main Diver Control, and he also didn't follow the normal procedure, which should have been: "Yellow Diver, Topside: What is it?"
Instead, he just said, "What, Garry?!" He could read the tone of my voice and knew it was a real problem.
"Our sub is sitting on the cable."
"No!" was his one-word response.
"Topside, yes, it is! The forward port skid is sitting on the cable."
For the next few minutes, Main Diver Control and the captain discuss what they should do. Then someone suggested we take one of the clamps and see if we could get a recording. If we had cut through the cable or shorted it out, there would be no signal running through it. We gave that a try, and the spooks from NSA, who were manning the readout on their screens, phoned Main Diver Control and told them they had a good recording. Then Red Diver and myself who were slowly drifting in the darkness and quietness of the sea, heard over our intercom loud cheers from the inside of our sub.
We hadn't cut through the cable—but it was still a problem. The seabed wasn't that soft and had rocks in it. The Halibut, when sitting on her skids, could rock from side to side if a surface storm was large enough, as could happen in the Sea of Okhotsk. On one of the training saturation dives off the coast of San Francisco, while sitting on the seafloor at 420 feet, a bad surface storm rocked Halibut. This rocking was strong enough to lift the sub off the skids on one side and then rock back and lift her off the skids on the other side.
There was also a concern that if we tried to lift the Halibut off the seafloor, she might not lift smoothly off the seabed, but sway as she broke free and possibly sever the cable.
Before Topside could make any decision on what to do, they wanted us to explain how the cable entered under the skid and how far it was till it came out the other side. This first water-entry dive was cut short because of this unexpected problem, and we returned to our habitat. Nolan made sketches of exactly where the cable entered under the skid, and these were sent to Main Diver Control.
Second Water Entry
On this water entry a problem occurred—a problem no one had ever considered a possibility.
The second water entry was tasked with two jobs. First, clear away the cable from under the port skid, and second, to film what we were doing.
Diver Control decided that an underwater fire hose would be used to clear the seabed away from the cable and pull it free. We were well prepared and had such a hose stowed inside a panel on the bottom of the sub. Nolan was picked to be Red Diver again, as he was the only one who had operated this underwater fire hose before. While he and Brown headed out on this second dive, Farinella and I tended their umbilical cables.
Much of the second water entry was taken up with clearing away enough sand, silt, and rocks to move the cable out from under this skid. The cable itself was bent but not cut into.
Then Nolan and Brown were to film everything, so they brought out the swimming eyeball (Eye) through the aquarium. The Eye would film the cable, amplifier, and the one clamp to show to higher-ups in Washington, D.C. This three-foot round Eye, with its thrusters, could maneuver well enough by itself if there was no current from the tide. It received its electrical current via a cord that was let down through the aquarium, and if need be, a diver could untangle its cord.
Our NSA spooks had special equipment set up that could take all the different channels running through the cable and separate them. Even though the recordings had come from the outside of this Soviet cable. So when the NSA analysts back in the States started deciphering, they wouldn't be listening to all the channels at once, which would be like listening to 18 people speak at the same time.
We used the inductive mode of recording, as we weren't splicing or cutting into the cable. And if someone can pick up a signal from the outside of a cable, produced by its electromagnetic field, then the reverse is also true. If another source of electricity (the Eye, with its thrusters, lights, and cameras) came close to the cable, it could project a signal onto the cable. The spooks who were observing their screens in our sub, notice that the Eye was causing some static on the cable. Not just sound, but also making the readout look fuzzy. But they still could receive all the channels off the cable, each one being displayed on the same screen, parallel to each other.
But then, unexpectedly, a diver's fin appeared on one of the NSA analyst's screens! Then the diver's leg and then both fins and the trunk of his body appeared, and this image of the diver then swam across the analyst's screen!
In a panic the NSA analyst took off running through our sub on his way to the CONN. (He later told me he knocked over a man on his way down the narrow passageway.) He raced up the ladder and into the CONN, hollering, "Shut off the Eye! Shut it off! Shut off the Eye now!"
This message was relayed to the display room that was controlling the Eye and the divers were told to move back from the cable. Then the NSA analyst explained to the captain that there was enough of an electromagnetic field generated by the Eye (when it came close to the cable) to project a fuzzy image onto the cable. A diver had swum between the cable and the Eye, and wherever the diver's body blocked the electromagnetic field of the Eye, it was no longer picked up by the cable. As a result, on the screen, the fuzzy static was only seen around the outline of his body, thus showing the outline of the diver's image.
The concern was, that those who were using this cable might also have watched this at the Soviet fleet base at Petropavlovsk, on the Kamchatka Peninsula, or in Siberia, at Vladivostok.
The display officer came to the CONN and talked to the captain and Main Diver Control about what had happened. "Captain, besides the fact that this was only for a few seconds, the equipment and screens of the NSA are of special design. Though the Russians could make something like this, they would have no need for it. The Russians only need telephone receivers to listen to someone on the other end of their cable. But because we are taking this from the outside of the cable, we developed new equipment to verify that the different channels are each being separated and not mixed together. The Russians couldn't have seen the diver because they would have no need for such equipment like this."
(According to the History Channel documentary Blind Man's Bluff, the submarine that took Halibut's place was reported to have slammed down on the cable during a storm. But even this didn't alert the Soviets. The same documentary acknowledged that it was Ronald Pelton who gave away this operation, not a storm or some unforeseen problem.)
Halibut's Sonar Man
"Captain, on sonar we picked up a Russian destroyer that is using active sonar pinging into the sea. He is several miles away from us and no threat now, but I thought I should bring it to your attention."
"Yes," said the captain, "and keep me informed if he comes any closer to us."
The captain of Stingray said, "XO, I want you to take the CONN. But be advised that the Russian destroyer that tried to follow us out of the Kuril Islands is back and he is pinging on the seafloor. It's doubtful she will find us under this thermocline layer, but the Halibut is above the thermocline. Still, that destroyer would have to be almost on top of the Halibut to pick her up sitting on the seafloor. "
XO asked, "How far off is it?"
"Too far off right now to be any threat; it's near to the area where Halibut first entered this sea. But we'll need to keep an eye on her. That destroyer is probably looking for the Halibut. Sonar told me that the Halibut may never have heard that destroyer the night she entered this sea, since we came between where we believed Halibut was and that Russian destroyer. Thus, we masked not only the noise of the Halibut from the destroyer but we would have also masked the sound of the destroyer from the Halibut. Halibut wouldn't know that it's her they are looking for her."
XO responded, "Maybe that destroyer is only looking for more intrusions into their sea."
"It's possible, but be aware of it. You have the CONN."
Last Water Entry
This third water entry started off with a "hiccup," then success, and then a serious problem.
Both Farinella and I who had tended for the previous dive were picked to make the third, and final, water entry of this first round of saturation dives. This time, I was designated Red Diver and Farinella was Yellow Diver.
On the first water entry some gas leaked under my face mask, which was attached to the one-eighth-inch neoprene liner. The gas seeped over my head and was trapped under the liner, causing my face mask to rise up on my face.
On this last water entry I didn't want to fight my face mask again, so I had this "bright" idea to cut two small holes in the thin liner so any bubbles could go through it and not cause my mask to rise up. The problem was, I didn't realize it would take time for the hot water to circulate up that high in my wet suit. So when I entered the sea, in came the freezing cold water straight to my head. It felt like someone was driving two spikes into my brain.
I wasn't sure what to do, and when those in Main Diver Control kept asking through our communication system why I wasn't moving out, I stalled for time. A diver just didn't bail out and crawl back into the dive chamber; he might not be allowed to make the dive, as another diver could take his place. Fortunately, after a couple of minutes the hot water circulated up to my head, and I was able to make the dive.
Only one clamp had been attached, and we had several more to put on. Also we had not yet placed even one clamp on the opposite side of the amplifier. Therefore we were only getting one-way communications and hadn't achieved one of our main goals of our mission. The transmissions that had been recorded on Halibut's previous deployments were only from Eastern Siberia.
When Yellow diver entered the water we went straight to where the clamps were stowed. I took one and went to the cable, found the amplifier, and put the clamp on the opposite side of the amplifier.
"Topside, Red Diver: I have placed a clamp on the far side of the amplifier. You want to check with the spooks to see if they're recording Moscow?"
A couple of minutes passed, and once again we heard over our diver intercom, a cheer come up from the Main Diver Control.
Topside said, "Great, guys! The signal is coming in really strong from off that amplifier. There is going to be some happy people back home." (The 1975 deployment of the Halibut was the first to achieve two-way communications.)
"Red Diver, Topside. You divers will need to release the POD from our sub. Once you have it in position, start putting on the clamps that are attached to it."
Once the POD was in position and while Farinella was putting on the clamps, I looked for what I thought was a pipe we had seen on the screen in the display room. I knew approximately where it should be and only swam a short distance until I found it. It turned out not to be a pipe but the hard, white plastic core from the center of the cable. When the Soviets had spliced in the new section, they had dropped a piece overboard.
This center core of the cable had six or seven copper wires, each one about an eighth-inch thick, twisted together on the inside of this hard, white plastic. We divers wanted to cut it into pieces as souvenirs, but the project officers wanted all of it.
Red Light!
We were almost finished and working on the last couple of clamps, when on the inside of my face mask, I saw a red light. This light was triggered by a decrease in pressure from my come-home bottle for emergency return. So either my hose had been bent sharply enough to block the flow of gas, or somehow it had been cut. I knew it wasn't a problem with the push-pull system that sends the gas to us, because Farinella was not having any problem.
I immediately said, "Topside, Red Diver: I have a red light!"
The quick, calm reply was, "Red Diver, Topside; return to the Dive Station." Those who were over us were professionals. They knew that the tone of their voice could calm someone down and assure them. Nonetheless, it was serious, I had a red light in my face. This warned a diver that he only had a few minutes to get back or he died!
Though the voice from topside was calm, they were not sitting back in their chairs. The diving officer had the medical officer start a stopwatch. He was to remind them when five minutes had passed.
Stingray's sonar man said, "Captain, you said to tell you if there was an aspect change on that Russian destroyer. Well there is, she has started a much wider loop. If she continues on her present course, that destroyer will be near the Halibut in less than ten minutes."
"How near?"
"It's hard to say, but perhaps within a half mile of Halibut. The Halibut is vulnerable."
The captain ordered, "CONN, Captain: Let's go shallow above the thermocline. And tell forward torpedo room to ready tube number three. XO, ready our weapons system."
Halibut's sonar man said, "Captain, that Russian destroyer I told you about before has moved out of its search area. It now seems to be headed close to us. It's not moving in a straight course, so it's hard to judge, but definitely closer than before. Perhaps within a mile of us, and she will be here in a few minutes."
"Keep me abreast of her movement."
Over the sub's intercom: "This is the captain; go to all quiet."
Then Captain Larson stepped over to the Main Diver Control and said, "Diving officer tell the divers to get out of the water now!"
"Yellow Diver, Topside: stop whatever you're doing and return to Dive Station, now!"
Diving Officer then said, "Captain, be advised. Red Diver, Matheny, is already coming back; he had a warning light come on in his helmet."
"Something has malfunctioned. It could be his diving rig, or his gas supply has been blocked. Matheny has an emergency return bottle for this. We're timing him. If he goes straight back, he should make it."
Captain Nikolay was upset that his name was laughed at by those in the acoustic range. And his desire to find an American sub was second to his desire to prove himself right and the Russian acoustic range wrong.
"Sonar, have you found anything yet?"
Sonar replies, "No, Captain. Maybe our acoustic range has something."
Captain Nikolay hollers into the ship's communications, "They're useless!"
The scene on the Russian destroyer is tense and the crew is on edge, afraid to upset their captain.
Halibut's Divers Are in the Water
I had all 350 feet of my umbilical cable out, and the communication box in the third room of the dive chamber didn't work. I had no way to tell the tenders I was on emergency return and to help bring in my umbilical cable.
Pings from the Russian destroyer could be heard by us divers and were growing louder. The pings were also affecting the communications between us and Topside.
"Topside, Yellow Diver: What's these pings we're hearing?"
"Yellow Diver, Topside: Say again."
"Topside: What's the noise?!"
Main Diver Control with raised voice, "Yellow Diver, Topside: We have a visitor, return now!"
Dive Tender
Dive Tender, using the communication box from the second room, asked, "Topside, Tender: What's the pinging from?"
"We'll explain later. Just get the divers in, especially Matheny, he has a red light."
Red Diver
I was a few minutes ahead of Yellow Diver and reached the side of the sub. I swam up from the seafloor to the top of the Halibut, dragging all 350 feet of my umbilical cable. As soon as I reached the top of the sub, I went aft to find the DSRV. The visibility was poor, about five feet without my light.
The tenders had started to bring in my cable, which caused my cable to drift out in the sea and was pulling on me from a right angle. This made it hard to hang on to our sub as the surface near to the DSRV was slippery, and the only thing to grab hold of would be a leg of the DSRV. I glanced at the red light in my face mask, which was reminding me I was running out of time.
I made it to the first leg of the DSRV but my umbilical cable was now causing me to slide off the top of the sub. Trying to prevent myself from slipping off our sub, I went on the inside of the first leg of the DSRV. But this only made a bad situation worse.
I should have gone on the outside of the first leg of the DSRV because when I had entered the water, that was the side I was on. But instead, I went on the other side and, as a result, wrapped my umbilical cable around this metal leg. Because of this, every time the tenders pulled on my umbilical to bring me back into the dive chamber, it had the opposite effect and I was pulled backward from where I needed to go. And when I pulled up on my umbilical cable, it was pulled out of the hands of the tenders. In essence we were playing tug-of-war with my umbilical cable, though at the time neither the tenders nor I knew why this was happening.
I pulled up more of my cable so it wouldn't drag me back and then tried to reach the next leg of the DSRV. I only went a few feet before my cable stopped moving, not budging at all. Then suddenly my umbilical cable yanked me backward!
I was at a loss to understand how this could be happening. My feet landed back onto the leg of the DSRV, which prevented me from sliding back any farther. I pulled up on my cable, about 30 feet, giving me enough slack to make a dash for the next leg coming down from the DSRV. I made it!
From there I saw the light shining down in the water from the entry point back into the dive chamber. I pulled up a few more feet of my cable, intending to push off this last leg. But, again, I was jerked backward and with a sharp pull!
Main Diver Control
The medical officer said, "The five minutes are up. Red Diver has only two minutes, possibly less."
"He is fine," said the master diver. "We have timed this before. From where he was at, it takes five minutes to get back. He'll be back any moment."
Dive Tenders
Nolan and Brown, who were trying to bring me back in, had my umbilical cable jerked out of their hands. "What's going on?!" asks Nolan. "Yellow Diver wouldn't have pulled back Red Diver's cable, and why would Red diver do it?" But mindful of Topside's order to "especially" get Red Diver in, the tenders grabbed hold of my cable and tried again.
I had made almost a hundred dives using a cable and never had such a situation before. So who was pulling me away from the dive chamber? And what was it that had caused my gas flow to be blocked and triggered my emergency bottle? I was now remembering what the sonar man had told me about killer whales being in the area, and wondered if one of them had found my umbilical cable and decided to "play with it." The Russian destroyer's pings were echoing in my ears and the red light was warning me my emergency bottle was about to be empty.
I had emptied my air tanks a couple of times at Diego Garcia while making scuba dives. What happens is, it becomes increasing harder to draw a breath of air. Each succeeding breath fills your lungs with less air, until there is nothing left to breathe, in a short time one would suffocate. But at Diego Garcia we rarely dove deeper than 60 feet and all one had to do, was go to the surface and breathe. But there is no such escape from a saturation dive.
I pulled up a few more feet of my cable and pushes off the last leg of the DSRV. As I did this I reach out for the entry point, but once more I was jerked backward and this time my face mask slammed into the leg of the DSRV. I hurriedly grabbed back on to this leg to prevent getting dragged back even farther.
It was my dream to make this dive, but not to die doing it. And I had the thought, Am I getting back?
The medical officer warned, "Forty seconds!"
Diving officer raises his voice, "Master Diver, ask Matheny where he's at."
"Sir, the communications with the divers is not going to work. Last time we spoke to Yellow Diver, both of us had to holler at each other to be heard, and now the pings are louder."
The diving officer ordered, "Check with the tenders!"
"Tenders, Topside: Can you see Red Diver in the water?" The diving officer and master diver saw the tenders on their TV screens, shaking their heads no.
Nolan, who was tending said, "No, Topside. And be advised Red Diver's cable is being ripped out of our hands!"
"He has 20 seconds," said the medical officer.
"Where is he?" asked the diving officer.
I wanted to go back and see what it was that was pulling me away from the DSRV. But there was no time left, I had no idea why this was happening and physically I was drained.
I did the only thing I could do—I tried to pull up more cable, but it wouldn't budge. Unbeknown to me, the tenders were pulling my cable from the opposite direction. I then wrapped my legs around the leg of the DSRV, and with both hands I pulled toward me about six feet of my cable. Once more I pushed off and tried to make it to the entry point. Thankfully, this time I make it, and a minute later, Yellow Diver followed.
My cable was discounted from my wet suite and drop back into the water. The tenders then pulled it back around the DSRV and into the dive chamber.
The tenders hurriedly started taking off our suits and equipment. As they were doing this Yellow diver said, "You all heard the pings. The Russians know we're here!"
Brown said, "Hey, the pinging has stopped."
The four of us divers listened momentary for the pings. We weren't sure what to make of the silence, but being inside of the main dive chamber (where we decompress) would be the safest place.
I said, "I don't know if our sub is leaving, but she won't lift off the bottom until we have closed the outer chamber door." All four of us then quickly enter our dive chamber and shut the metal door.
Captain Nikolay hollered over the ship's intercom, "Who stopped the pinging?!"
The sonar man responds, "Captain, good news! Our assistant sonar man has been going over that readout you gave us from our acoustic range, and he has come across a faint sound identical to that readout! We turned off the pings to see if we could hear it better. Not only have we found it but also that same American fast-attack sub you chased out before. They are both less than two kilometers from here!"
"Great! Give the duty officer the coordinates. And if you can follow those subs using passive sonar then keep using it."
"Radio Room, tell our acoustic range to wake up! Let them know we have found what they couldn't. And Radio Room, be sure you tell them just like I'm telling you!"
After Captain Nikolay stopped using the ship's intercom, he says to himself, "I'll show them!" He then gave chase at flank speed.
Stingray's Captain and XO are standing outside their Sonar Room. "Captain, the destroyer is giving chase." said the sonar man.
Stingray's captain said, "Very good! Officer on Deck, let's get our sub out of here and if that Russian wants to give chase, all the better."
Over the intercom, the destroyer's radio man said, "Captain, our acoustic range has confirmed they also hear both subs, and I told them we are already pursuing them."
Captain Nikolay tells the officer on deck, "Make ready our weapons system."
"Sonar, how far away is the faster sub?"
There is a brief pause, then Captain Nikolay who is irritated says, "Sonar, I'm waiting for a response!"
The sonar man said over the intercom, "Captain, I think you better come here."
Captain Nikolay rushed to the sonar room, "What?"
"Captain, we'll never catch that fast-attack American sub. And that slower sub was not a sub at all. It was a countermeasure."
"Countermeasure?!"
"I'm afraid so. It's no longer making any sound, and I heard it hit the seafloor. The sound it made at impact with the seabed was too weak to be anything but a countermeasure."
"We were told at sonar school that the Americans were believed to be working on such a countermeasure. It's designed to replicate the sound of their submarine, and it plays this into the water. We have been chasing a recording of a sub, not a real sub. They've tricked us again. Captain, I'm sorry about this."
Captain Nikolay blurted out, "I'm not sorry! I just proved there was no second submarine. The Americans are only using countermeasure. It was our acoustic range that was tricked, not me! I can't wait to see their faces when I tell them that! And again, I have chased an American submarine out of our waters!"
Chapter XXVIII
The success of this mission brought a joy to many, and even little pieces of information were passed along to share in the success of it. The captain and project officers were eager to tell those in the States that it was a success, as they were waiting in anticipation of our mission's results. After leaving the Sea of Okhotsk, Halibut was a full ten days out in the Pacific before a radio message was sent with a simple, "USS Halibut, all is success!"
It was a bright sunny day when our sub and crew safely returned to San Francisco Bay. As the Halibut approaches the Golden Gate Bridge, a huge sign made by the wives of the submariners could be seen hanging from it: "Welcome Home USS Halibut!"
Under the Golden Gate, while still in route to Mare Island, the Halibut was met by a naval vessel that came alongside to receive our recordings. All the recordings had been placed in plastic bags in case they fell overboard.
Those from the naval vessel who took the recordings were armed and had on bulletproof vests. These guards were scurrying around the deck of the Halibut with their eyes wide open, as if to make sure they had everything. Quite a contrast from us as we were tired from our long deployment and hadn't seen the sun for three months. To these guards we must have looked like albino rats coming out of a cave.
Before the guards shoved off, they unloaded several boxes of fresh fruit that were passed around to all the crew. We sat on the deck of the Halibut looking at San Francisco, enjoying the sun and eating grapes and oranges.
During the deployment I noticed that two or three of the older submariners seemed to shut down their personality, as though they had gone into hibernation. But now they were in the sunshine, smiling and fellowshipping. Looking forward to their well-deserved time off to be with their families. The chiefs, officers and the youngest of us, everyone, was glad to back!
Captain Larson and the project officer were on the deck of the Halibut, and were watching the navy's guards unload the recordings.
"Good to breathe fresh air again after 96 days." Said the project officer.
Captain said, "I radioed we recorded two-way communications. The CIA and NSA are ecstatic. They don't even want to wait until we make port to get our recordings."
"Captain, I have to remain with the recordings. I'll be flying out from Alameda Naval Air Station. Before the sun goes down today, I and the recordings will both be in Washington, D.C."
"That white plastic core that was found during the dives, it was from the inside of the Russian cable. I even found a picture of it in the Soviet's own books of their cables. I know what its capabilities are, and in all probability, we now know more about this cable than the ones who are using it in Siberia."
"I have to shove off now."
The captain and the project officer saluted each other and part.
The Head of the KGB
"Mr. Faulkner said the $35,000 was a 'very, very minimal' payment compared with the value of the secrets that Mr. Pelton had compromised." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP91-00561-R000100120029-7)
"Mr. Pelton told F.B.I. agents last year in two interviews that he took no classified documents into the embassy." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201830069-6)
Head of the KGB
Mr. Sokolov, the head of the KGB, has summoned Lieutenant Mirgayas Volkov to his office. Lieutenant Volkov rushes in. "Mr. Sokolov, it's a pleasure to finally meet you!" Mr. Sokolov motions for Lieutenant Volkov to take a seat. Seated beside the desk is Mr. Orlov, the security expert of the KGB.
"This is Mr. Orlov; I believe you know him."
"Yes, we have talked over the phone before." responds Lieutenant Volkov.
But Mr. Orlov does not get out of his chair to greet Volkov or speak even a word to him but only looks in the lieutenant's direction.
"I have gone over your proposals. They are interesting, especially your request to station one of our destroyers at the entrance into the Sea of Okhotsk. I have been informed by Admiral Smirnov of the Soviet Naval Command that your recommendation may be needed after all. Have you heard?"
Volkov shakes his head no.
"Yes, apparently the Americans did try to enter our sea. At any rate, one of our destroyers blocked them and then chased their submarine out into the ocean."
"Great! I am happy to hear this," says Volkov. "Have you seen all that Mr. Pelton gave us? It's all written there in my brief. This is a real eye-opener to our vulnerabilities. I hope you can see the needs from my proposals. I believe these should be implemented without delay."
"Our cable in the Sea of Okhotsk has almost 20 channels of military communications, in just this one cable. All the Americans would have to do is lay a fiber-optic line from our cable to one of their islands. And then they could listen to us live, not just from recordings. In the event of a war, our naval and submarine base in the Sea of Okhotsk would be one of the first alerted. But with the Americans tapping us, we would, in actuality, be alerting them."
Mr. Sokolov taps his desk with Lieutenant Volkov's folder. And Mr. Orlov sits tight-lipped, staring at Volkov.
Lieutenant Volkov is excited and continues: "Right now we are test launching missiles from Siberia to the Kamchatka Peninsula. And whichever is most successful we hope to station in Eastern Europe. All this information is presently being carried through our cable in the Sea of Okhotsk. But we have even more locations with cables, and they are all vulnerable. They are tapping us with something called the inductive mode …"
The head of the KGB waves his hand to stop Lieutenant Volkov in midsentence. "Sir, you're now an expert on missiles? And our cables aren't safe?" He continues, "Mr. Volkov, your research is lacking some important and pertinent information. Do you know what a shielded cable is?"
Lieutenant Volkov doesn't respond, and now Mr. Orlov is smiling. "It's when a special insulating factor is put in the cable so that it cannot be tapped, including the inductive mode. We have one here at our KGB headquarters, and it runs to the Kremlin. And I have been informed by Mr. Orlov that our cable in the Sea of Okhotsk is also shielded and cannot be tapped, again not even by this inductive mode." Mr. Orlov nods his head in agreement.
Lieutenant Volkov responds, "Mr. Sokolov, I am not sure what to say to this. But I can assure you, no one ever said anything to me about 'shielded' cables."
"I am sure of it. Like I said, you could have done more research. And this American submarine you wanted us to look into—I believe it's called a flat fish or something?"
"Halibut is its name," interjects Volkov.
"Well, you were partially right. It does have a large complement of divers who do this diving for extended periods. But not, as you fancifully imagined, for wiretaps. They were instead looking for our cruise missiles on the bottom of the sea. We have a splash zone in the Sea of Okhotsk where we test such missiles. And that is what the Americans have been interested in."
"But how do you know this?"
"It's above your pay grade, Volkov."
"At any rate, even if the Americans could locate these cruise missiles, they will not find anything of value. When they crash into the sea, they break up into thousands of pieces. And about this Mr. Pelton—you had no reservations about him?"
Lieutenant Volkov is now not certain how to respond. "It never occurred to you that he was playing you?"
"Playing me?!" Volkov utters in surprise.
"How much did you pay him for this information?" asks Mr. Sokolov.
"Just 35,000 American dollars. I can assure you this is a very modest sum for this sort of information."
"So we got a bargain?" says Mr. Sokolov sarcastically, while Mr. Orlov chuckles.
"Lieutenant Volkov, in all the interviews you and your subordinates did with this Mr. Pelton, did he ever present you with any documents? He gave you no documentation, did he? All he told you of the NSA and everything else is what he wanted you to believe. And it seems you were eating right out of his hand and paying him to do this."
Lieutenant Volkov responds, "Sir, I still believe my basic conclusions are right."
"Yes you do, and that is why you will be reporting to Mr. Orlov from now on. He is involved in our security. He is an expert on these sorts of things. He is also the one who brought your failures to my attention."
"You have a big imagination, Volkov, possibly useful. You were lucky about the destroyer, or it could have been worse for you. I am willing to give you another chance after more maturing."
"Now all of your travels and phone calls will first be checked by Mr. Orlov. You will report to him and follow his advice. Follow it to the letter!"
"But you have the wrong impression …"
Mr. Sokolov again waves his hand to stop Lieutenant Volkov from talking. "That will be all, Lieutenant Volkov. Good day."
After Lieutenant Volkov leaves the office, Mr. Sokolov shakes his head in disgust and says to Mr. Orlov, "Keep me abreast of his progress."
Chapter XXX
Icing on the Cake!
This operation turned out to be pure gold intelligence for America. And to my knowledge has never been equaled. There are websites that list Operation Ivy Bells as the most top-secret military operation in history.
https://list25.com/25-most-top-secret-military-operations-in-history/
https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/top-secret-military-operations-in-history.387322/
Captain Larson told us divers that at the debriefing he gave of our mission, two admirals told him it was the best operation they had ever heard of.
The CIA released that our "submarines … were able to intercept high-level military messages." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/05/08: CIA-RDP90-00965R000605140016-2)
"Ivy Bells, allowed the United States to intercept messages that Soviet submarines sent to military command posts ashore when they returned to their harbors after sea cruises. Among other things, the messages included information about where the Soviets subs had been and what they had done." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/24: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403270006-3)
CIA Headquarters
Director of the CIA is talking to the CIA officer who had been at the arms negotiations. "This information from the taps is better than we hoped for. We know everything they have, both equipment and troops. We know their strengths and weaknesses, where their ballistic-missile submarines make their patrols, and even their plans in the event of war. We've got them!"
"We also found out something else. The Russians fear a nuclear first strike by us more than we do by them. That being so, they might be tempted to strike us first. I'll recommend that we position our forces to ease the tensions between us."
"Now because of the advantage this will give us at the arms negotiations, the Russians will realize that we were getting information from them—but not how. They'll probably suspect traitors among themselves."
CIA officer says, "It should be fun at the arms negotiations. Like playing poker with someone but knowing what cards he is holding in his hand."
Strategic Arms Negotiations
American arm negotiators look confident, and the Soviets look confused. CIA officer is in the background smiling.
Soviet negotiator says, "We are still willing to trade our SS-18 missiles if you can match it with a comparable equivalent."
The American negotiators, sitting across from their Soviet counterparts, are looking at a CIA readout titled, IVY BELLS. Under "Missiles" it lists the Soviet SS-18, next to it is a hand-written note that reads, "Tell them to keep it!" American negotiators try not to laugh.
Soviet negotiator asks, "Is something funny? Look, we are trying to work with you. Are you even listening to us?"
American negotiator says, "It won't be necessary to trade off your SS-18 missiles. We are interested in your SS-21 missiles."
Soviet negotiator says, "SS-21 missiles? There are no such missiles."
"We suggest you call Moscow. Let's adjourn for a break."
Soviet negotiator is on the phone to Moscow. Upset, he occasionally raises his voice. The CIA officer who is watching from a distance is smiling.
"Why didn't you tell us we have such missiles?"
"I don't know how the Americans found out."
"You want me to bluff them, how? They know more about what we have than we do!"
Chapter XXXI
Near to where the Halibut docked from her last patrol, her sister ship was tied up. This was the sub that would take Halibut's place, she was better equipped and had a few modifications helpful for the divers. The crew of this sister ship were getting ready for their patrol, and they walked about with a determination to get the job done, as did the sub that would follow them. But at that time the Halibut was waiting to become scrap metal.
She was mothballed in Washington State, her reactor was removed, and she was struck from the Naval Vessel Register. Later she was disposed of and cut up for her HY-80 steel. Today there is no USS Halibut; she exists only in pictures and the memories of sailors. She was decommissioned at Mare Island, California. After 1,232 dives, Halibut's colors were lowered for the last time on June 30, 1976.
There were other great submarines, USS Seawolf (575), USS Parche (683), and USS Richard B. Russell (SSN-687), and in some ways they eclipsed the Halibut. But it was the USS Halibut that led the way. Farewell to a great submarine!
Some of the crew on the Halibut were "lifers" (20 or more years on active duty), and some were only in the navy for four years. But all of us on the Halibut had a significant impact on the Cold War. We came from many different states and backgrounds, and the navy trained and formed us into an effective force. I am thankful for that time we had and the exciting adventure we shared, but everything has its end. We were discharged and returned to our hometowns, never to see each other again.
We have all seen those who wear ball caps with the name of their duty station or their ship's name written on it. Sometimes it will say "WWII Veteran" or "Pearl Harbor Survivor." They are rightly proud of their service and we salute them. And those of us involved in Operation Ivy Bells also had a mission and a goal which we accomplished. It was a true adventure, and we were having the time of our life. But then it was stamped "TOP SECRET" and remained under this seal for the next four decades. One diver jokingly said, "Hey, guys, I'm a national hero, but I can't tell anybody about it!"
I had almost completely blocked this mission out of my mind. I wasn't against it, but after all, I couldn't talk of it, so why think about it? Then I found out the CIA had dozens of these reports in their FOIA reading room. Going over them, and especially writing about it, brought back all sorts of memories and feelings I had as a young man. Looking back at that time period I see a young man who needed more courage to live for God. Thankfully, God brought Christians around to encourage me. God had blessed me.
Things Changed
I was glad I had accomplished this dive, and I had helped my country. In truth, these dives shouldn't have been so important to me, but they were. And yes, I had a big head about it, but something changed. I realized the cards weren't stacked against me, nor would I have to always "sit on the bench" and think life was passing me by. And now everything else seemed small in comparison. The only catch was, we couldn't tell anyone about what we had done, because we had all signed nondisclosure agreements. Still, even that didn't seem to matter. I no longer felt the need to prove myself, instead I saw the need to please God. And for the first time, I thanked the Lord that He didn't let me die in that car wreck.
While in Siberia, on the sixth day of our saturation dive, I celebrated my 25th birthday. I made more than 300 dives in the navy. I am now 70 and have made only six dives since I left the navy. It's a chapter in my life that I closed a long time ago, but I enjoyed going over it very much.
My Gift to Dad
My wife Nancy and I, both want to shine for Jesus Christ and are thankful that He has allowed us to be missionaries among the gracious Romanian people. But my greatest mission challenge has been my dad.
Once, when I was witnessing to some old friends, one said, "You like to bug your dad about this salvation thing, don't you?"
I responded, "Yes, I don't want my dad to die and go to hell and burn."
There is no other man on this planet that I loved more than my dad and I had decided that if my dad didn't go to heaven, it wouldn't be because I was too afraid to witness to him. My mom wasn't saved until she was 86 years old. I led her to the Lord over the phone from Romania. But my dad wasn't saved, and I had to try to reach him for Christ.
"And of some have compassion,
making a difference."
(Jude 1:22)
Author witnessing to his dad.
When my dad was 94 years old, while I was home on furlough from Romania, I went to visit him in a veteran's rest home in Minneapolis, Minnesota. On the third day of our visit, I rolled his wheelchair outside and shared with him something I had never told him before.
"Dad, you remember me going into the Seabees for the navy, don't you?"
"Well, yes, I was glad you went in the service, son. That was the best thing for you."
"Yes, it was. And you remember when I became a diver and then a saturation diver and I was on that submarine the USS Halibut?"
"Of course I do, Garry. I was very proud of you."
"Yes, I know, and I'm glad."
I paused and said, "One more thing. Do you know why I joined the navy and became a diver?"
He pulled his head back and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well, I did it for you. All that was for you Dad. Don't get me wrong; I really enjoyed it. And I am so thankful to God that he let me do all that. But my decision to go into the military in the first place was to please you."
I told him how I had made that decision while in the hospital because of my car wreck, and I had seen how disappointed he was in me. And because of that I wanted to do something that would make him happy. When I was telling him this, I also shared how I had trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior while I was in the navy.
I asked him, "Dad, did you know that was my reason for going into the navy?"
"No, not that part you shared about why you did it."
"Well, that is how it happened. I did it all for you." I paused momentarily and then asked him one more time, "Dad, would you like Jesus Christ to be your Savior?"
He simply said, "Yes."
"Dad, here are some things you could say to God. You could admit to God that you're a sinner like all men. And tell God that you believe His Son Jesus Christ died in your place and that his body arose from the grave. And then directly call upon Jesus Christ to save you and come into your soul, and put your faith in Him to do that. Could you do that Dad?"
I asked him if he would take his cap off, because we were going to talk to the One who made us. I asked him to repeat the following prayer after me but to say it back to God in heaven. The words in themselves have no magic in them, but if one prays them from his heart to God, He will hear and save that soul. Could you pray from your heart the following prayer?
"Dear God, I believe, that your Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross and that on the third day his body arose from the grave. And now I ask Him to save me. Dear Jesus, thank you for taking my place on the cross and paying for my sins. Please come into my soul, and when I die take me to heaven. In Jesus's name."
I have led people to the Lord for over 40 years. But my dad did something when he was praying that I had never heard before. He called God "Sir." This won't mean much to others, but knowing my dad and how sparingly he used the word "sir," I knew it was his highest form of respect.
"Dad, you meant that, didn't you?"
"Well, of course I meant it!" he said. "A man would have to be a [blankety-blank] fool not to do something like that." He didn't know not to use those "adjectives," but I was smiling anyway.
The fifth commandment says, "Honour thy father and thy mother." And God is faithful to His promise that is attached to this commandment, "that it may go well with thee" (Deuteronomy 5:16). And as setting out to please my dad had made me happy, so setting out to please God has made Nancy and me very happy!
God had used that mission to have me turn over to Him what I would do with my life. And I'm glad I gave that decision to Him, not wasting my life on myself but I gave it to Christ! After graduation from Bible college, I served as associate pastor and then pastor in the state of Washington for a total of 12 years. Since 1991, Nancy and I have been missionaries in the country of Romania.
To God be the glory!
© Copyrighted
Why the Red Light?
As to why the Red Light came on in my helmet, this happened to another diver on one of the earlier training dives. And both situations were determined to be leaking fittings on the come-home bottle.
Relic of the Cold War
"Eavesdropping operation involving U. S. Submarines and a high technology device that officials now believe is in Soviet hands." (Declassified in Part—Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000402820034-2)
This POD was found by the Russians and placed on public display in Russia's Great Patriotic War Museum in Moscow. Soviet Vice Admiral Alexander Zhardetsky, former head of Military Intelligence, said many transistors inside this device were stamped "Made in the USA." Once the Russians found out about Operation Ivy Bells, they would no longer transmit their intelligence in the same way. (I have heard that a cable which uses wire mesh as a shield can still have the wire mesh separated enough to allow communications inside the cable to bleed through.)
This POD worked well on the surface but kept malfunctioning at depth. Before I was attached to the Halibut, I had seen the device, and the barge I was then assigned to gave support to those who were trying to solve the problem. It is my understanding that the Halibut tried to use it before I was assigned to her. The POD was not used when we dove in 1975, instead we used only the clamps from the Halibut. However, it was used in subsequent missions and apparently worked well until the operation was betrayed.
I was awarded the Legion of Merit for this dive, along with all the divers who entered the water. Several months after I was out of the navy a congressional committee approved my Legion of Merit. I returned to Point Loma for a brief ceremony and a two star admiral pinned the medal on.
The commendation I received reads: "SW2 [DV] Garry M. Matheny, USN. Deployed for a second and even more arduous deployment. During this 96-day deployment he participated in a submarine operation of great importance to the government of the United States. Although description of this operation is precluded by security constraints, the ratee performed in a hostile environment under great operational stress requiring exceptional courage, constant vigilance and keen professional competence. His performance in that environment was superb and was a key factor in the ship's success in that operation." This was signed by C. R. Larson, Capt. USN Commanding Officer.
Author receiving plaque from Captain Charles R. Larson. Commanding Officer of the USS Halibut 587. Captain Larson later became a four-star admiral and was given command of the entire Pacific. Born November 20, 1936—Died July 26, 2014.
Helped End the Cold War
The intelligence gleaned from Operation Ivy Bells aided our arms negotiators and led directly to the SALT II talks in 1979. Many believe it helped bring about the end of the Cold War. It can be debated how much help this operation was in ending the Cold War, but it did have a part. It must have been very frustrating for the Soviets when they found out that we knew every secret they sent through these cables. All their plans were being read by the CIA, and we would have countered their weapons and countermeasures. At that time the Soviet Union was going broke trying to keep pace with America. Giving up on the Cold War probably seemed like a good idea, and then the Soviet Union collapsed.
A month after our sub returned to the States, I completed my time in the navy, was honorably discharged, and from there I went to Bible college.
"Why go to Bible college? Isn't God big enough to bless your ministry without that?"
Question: How do you become a navy diver? Answer: You start by joining the navy. I wouldn't call boot camp fun, but I would never have become a navy diver without it. There is a logical progression of the training we need to reach the goals we want. If we are not willing to learn from others or if we have too much pride to place ourselves under other people's authority, then we'll end up with unfulfilled dreams. One may have zeal, but without proper training, he is no better than an unguided missile. There are prices we pay for the dreams we want.
USS Halibut's Presidential Unit Citations
Even before Halibut's last deployment, all on board knew that it was her last run—because she had come to the end of her nuclear fuel.
Captain Larson presided at her decommissioning with about 500 people present. Many people I have never met worked behind the scene to develop the innovative technology of the USS Halibut, and they also share in her remarkable success. Halibut's awards and Presidential Unit Citation from this and her other missions, which were also great, were acknowledged at this ceremony. I was in summer school at Bible college when she was decommissioned, but my heart was there.
While the USS Halibut was still in service, she had the distinction of being the most highly decorated submarine of the post-WWII era. (This honor was later passed to the USS Parche, SSN-683) In 1968 the USS Halibut received the first of her Presidential Unit Citations. Many people are aware of the our government's mission to recover the sunken Soviet submarine K-129, known as Project Azorian (the press called it "Jennifer"). In 1974 the Hughes Glomar Explorer raised up from the ocean floor at least part of this Soviet submarine. However, this Soviet sub wasn't found by the Hughes Glomar Explorer but by the USS Halibut.
The Halibut had found K-129 using her Fish. The Russians had searched for their lost sub for several months but were unsuccessful; but the Halibut found K-129 in only three weeks, and that at a depth of over three miles, a feat nothing less than spectacular.
President Nixon personally presented this award to the crew of the USS Halibut. This ceremony was conducted in secret so the news media wouldn't ask questions as to why he was there.
Presidential Unit Citation—1968
"For exceptional meritorious service on support of National Research and Development efforts while serving as a unit in the Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet. Conducting highly technical submarine operations, over an extended period of time, USS HALIBUT (SSN-587) successfully concluded several missions of significant scientific value to the Government of the United States. The professional, military, and technical competence, and inspiring devotion to duty of HALIBUT's officers and men, reflect great credit upon themselves and the United States Naval Service."
In 1972 the USS Halibut received yet another Presidential Unit Citations for Operation Ivy Bells. These citations stopped after this, Halibut was, after all, a spy sub, and the attention these Presidential Unit Citations were drawing to the Halibut wasn't welcome.
"For extraordinary heroism and outstanding performance of duty as a unit in the Submarine Force, United States Pacific Fleet during 1972, USS HALIBUT successfully accomplished two highly productive and complex submarine operations of immeasurable value to the Government of the United States. The superb professional competence, extremely effective teamwork and exemplary devotion to duty displayed by the officers and men of USS HALIBUT reflect great credit upon themselves, the Submarine Force and the United States Naval Service."
The Cable Taps Ended
The cable recordings continued after I left the navy in 1975 and remained safe until the 1980s, when it was compromised.
In 1980 when Pelton first informed the Russians, they didn't immediately search for the POD. Different theories exist as to why the Russians waited. Some believe that after Pelton informed the Russians, they may have fed us disinformation. If that were so, then why did the Russians recover the POD and stop the taps? If they wanted to give us false information, it would have been to their advantage to keep it going.
It seems more likely that at the beginning, without another corroborating source, Pelton's story may not have received attention at a high level.
Deputy CIA Director Robert M. Gates, when talking about the Pelton case, said, "Whether you're a Soviet or an American intelligence officer, you often won't take at face value what you hear from a single source …" (Declassified and Approved for Release 2013/05/21: CIA-RDP99-01448R000301220033-5)
Also, for much of the year this sea cannot be navigated by surface vessels. According to New World Encyclopedia, "In winter, navigation on the Sea (of Okhotsk) is difficult, if not impossible, due to the formation of large ice floe … Between October and April, temperatures are bitter, and the area is ice-covered. …"
But in 1981 our satellites saw a Soviet salvage vessel at the site of the taps. The navy sent one of our project subs to the site to see if the taps were still working, but that was when we learned the POD was missing, the Russians had it.
Still Useful
Halibut was the spy in Soviet headquarters, with admirals, generals and members of the politburo, listening to all their uncensored calls. And this went on for a decade! In short, we learned how they thought, and this is still valuable today.
Dives Before 1975
There was another reason why they would not lift the bow of the Halibut to remove the cable. Before I was assigned to the Halibut, on one of the dives at location, a dangerous situation arose. At that time, the dives were made with the Halibut floating a few feet above the sea floor but held in position by her anchors. The sea is never completely motionless, which caused the Halibut to sway. During a dive the cable to the forward anchor broke. The sub was then at the mercy of the sea, while the divers were still in the water. One of the divers looked up, and to his surprise, he saw the bow of the Halibut coming at him. Obviously a dangerous situation. The crew of the Halibut was able regain control, and the divers were able to reenter the habitat safely. But after that, divers were not allowed in the water while the sub was held in place with only her anchors. We would need to be in the water in order to move the cable out from under the skid. Therefore raising the Halibut at the bow was not an option.
Side Thrusters
There were two deployments of the Halibut in 1974. The second one, which I was on, made no saturation dives but only looked for the amplifier that was on the Russian cable.
The search for this amplifier wasn't simple, with our sub fighting currents and moving at a snail's pace in order for the Fish to follow the cable. Sand covered this cable in many places, and the cable itself was not always laid in a straight line. The Soviet ship that replaced this amplifier, after finishing the job, didn't drop it directly on top of the cable that was below on the seafloor, but laid it off to one side. That meant the full 400 feet of the cable, the distance from the seabed to the surface, was pulled to one side and dropped overboard. So every time our Fish passed over this section of cable, one leg did veer off, but the Fish picked up the other side only a few feet away as it was coming out of the sand. They naturally thought the cable was still running in basically a straight line, but it wasn't, and this was the section the amplifier was on. This section was eventually searched, and there they found the amplifier. Without the side thrusters, this wouldn't have been possible.
The cover story of recovering debris from the Soviet cruise missiles was actually carried out by the USS Halibut, even though it was still used as a cover story for the cable taps. This was done before I was assigned to the Halibut in 1974.
A saturation diver told me that when Halibut returned to America, she was "parked" offshore near San Diego and close to the Point Loma sub base. At night divers from the Halibut detached an undercarriage that was attached to the bottom of our sub and moved it close to shore. There the contents (broken pieces of the supersonic Russian SS-N-12 Sandbox missile) were transferred to a waiting truck.
In order to keep from widening the circle of those who knew about the operation, the navy used saturation divers to drive the truck. One of the SAT divers who drove the truck told me he felt like James Bond when he took bags from divers coming out of the water and then hurriedly placed them in the back of a tarp-covered truck. These pieces were then transferred to a navy research laboratory to make a countermeasure against this missile. It was discovered that the Soviets were only using a radar guidance system, not an infrared system.
Ask God
I am thankful to all those who were watching out for our country and had a part in making it possible: NSA, CIA, and the US Navy. But God allowed it, and He can allow your dreams also. Of course, God may say no, many times I haven't received what I asked for. Still He wants us to look to Him in prayer for our dreams. There are things God will not give us simply because we will not ask Him. The Bible says, "Ye have not, because ye ask not" (James 4:2). For some it's pride that keeps them from asking God. "I don't need any help" is their attitude. There are some things we could have had already in our lives, but we haven't asked Him. So, again, "Ye have not, because ye ask not."
When I get to heaven, the last thing I would want to hear is, "See all these things I wanted to give you while you were on Earth, but you forgot to ask!" And if God gives us something, then He expects us to use it for Him.
The Quest for the Great Stones
of the Prophet Jeremiah 43:9-10.
In both eBook and paperback.
Kindle 0.99 cents!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981082832
The first in our Quest Series.
Stories about mystery or adventure have planted the thought that you have to be single and chasing your girlfriend to have any fun. And at the end of the story the couple embrace, kiss, and then on the screen or the printed page, appears "The End." The unspoken thought is, when you settle down and get married, the fun is over.
My wife, Nancy, our son Caleb, and myself, with Jesus Christ as our leader, made our own "special ops team," gathered "intelligence," and set off on an adventure of discovery! This took place between February 2005 and October 2008 and shows how Christians armed with the Bible found what the scholars could not.
What others are saying. "Garry Matheny makes a terrific adventure story out of just two verses in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah. The amateur sleuth beats some of the world's top archaeologists at their own game, and you get to go along for the ride. You'll enjoy it!"
The second in our Quest Series and should be read before our book The Quest for Mount Sinai.
https://www.truechristianshortstoriesfreebygmmatheny.com/the-quest-for-the-red-sea-crossing.html
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Did the ancient Egyptians leave an account of the Red Sea (Yam Suf) crossing? Most people who have studied this would respond, "But the ancient Egyptians never monumentalized their defeats." Yes, and today no one is expecting to find an ancient Egyptian inscription that says, "The God of the Hebrew slaves beat us up." However, there is an Egyptian legend (not the el-Arish Shrine) that does more than just lend itself to the sea crossing by Israel. It is about a battle between two Egyptian "gods," and in this battle, the "good god," who represents Egypt, loses (something very rare), and the "bad god," who represents the foreigners, wins, and it takes place at the bottom of the sea! And what is of more interest is that this takes place right in front of the four place names of the Red Sea/Yam Suf crossing, as given in Exodus 14:2! (Pi-hahiroth, Migdol, Baal-zephon, and "the sea.") But because this Egyptian legend was said to have happened in an unexpected location, it has been passed over.
Both paperback and Kindle.
The third in our Quest Series.
A pharaoh of Egypt went to Mount Sinai
and engraved his named there!
In December 2013, two years after our book was first published, an inscription made by a pharaoh of Egypt was found at the mountain that I have proposed as Mount Sinai. And more than a hundred years ago, a hieroglyphic inscription was found in the East Nile Delta, also made by a king of Egypt, describing an expedition to a location the scholars have hotly debated. But the location is now confirmed, for the same king made both inscriptions, and he found something there that Israel left at Mount Sinai.
This one is presently on sell for 0.99 cents!
Paperback and Kindle.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DBF8TYV
Real Life Adventures
True Christian Short Stories for Your Edification and Enjoyment!
0.99 cents!
Kindle, https://www.amazon.com/Real-Life-Adventures-Christian-Edification-ebook/dp/B07XXG21RH/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Real+Life+Adventures&qid=1568641163&s=digital-text&sr=1-1
Paperback, https://www.amazon.com/dp/1693371936?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860
Of the short stories, all are true, from a US Navy diver in Soviet territorial waters to being on a train with six small children in Europe. Some are funny or serious but all are helpful for our Christian walk. Adults and young people enjoy these and parents may find it helpful to read them to their children.
"When I was five years old something happened one day in a museum that caused me to have my only recurring nightmare. There is not much I remember before I was five, but I remember several things that happened that day."
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081THGMN8?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420 eBook 0.99 cents!
Paperback $7.00.
Devils Watchers Angels
The premise of this book is that aliens are evil spirits, the fallen angels of the Devil. God created animals, man, and angels, but no little green men from Mars. But both the angels of God (elect angels) and the angels of the Devil (devils), with their superior abilities, if they had not been named angels and evil spirits in the Bible, would be thought of as "aliens."
How will the Antichrist explain the rapture? He most likely will say we were taken by aliens, and thus this book, "Aliens" in Revelation. How else could it be explained? And during the Tribulation many angels will be coming and going (Revelation 8:13, 12:3-4, 9, 12, 14:6, etc.).
There will be a one-world religion during the tribulation, the entire world will worship the Antichrist (Revelation 13:4, 8, 12). Many who go to church now but are not saved, will be left behind after the rapture. But the Muslim religion will never join what is left behind from Christianity, it will be the other way around.
The Muslim religion teaches that in the end times, their 12th Imam (or Mahdi to Shiah) will return to earth, and will rule the world. However, the Muslim religion teaches that there is someone else who will return to the world during the end times, and that is 'Isa'—their Jesus.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ of the Bible, not the Jesus of Islam. However, it is interesting that God's Word tells us, that besides the Antichrist in Revelation 13:1-3, that there will be someone else on earth during the tribulation (the false prophet), and he will point men to the Antichrist. "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth;" (Revelation 13:11-12). This "other beast" comes out of the "earth", which in prophecy means he is an Israelite; the Antichrist comes out of the "sea"—which represents the Gentiles. Islam teaches that their Jesus was born of a Jewish maiden, and the false prophet in the Bible will be an Israelite. There will be enough similarities with the Jesus of Islam for the lost in churches who are left behind after the rapture to accept him.
Kindle .99 cents! Also Paperback $7.50.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZS5DMKP
The Layman's Biblical Handbook
What the Bible say about the
END TIMES * ALIENS * CAPITAL PUNISHMENT * ANTICHRIST * FOREKNOWLEDGE * MARRIAGE * RAPTURE * TEMPTATION * VOWS * REINCARNATION * DEVILS * FORGIVENESS * DISAPPOINTMENT * PREDESTINATION * WAR * RETURN OF CHRIST * FUNERALS * INSURANCE * SALVATION * WILL OF GOD * FORNICATION * DEATH * VEGETARIAN * TRINITY * TEARS * PURGATORY * GAMBLING * ARK OF THE COVENANT * CREMATION * ABORTION * TONGUES * CHILD ABUSE * ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT * FASTING * TRIBULATION
More than 200 subjects!
Kindle 0.99 Cents! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085RFLGT4
Or FREE!
http://www.thelaymansbiblicalhandbook.com/
Besides English it is also in,
Spanish http://www.manualbiblico.com/
Romanian http://www.471633614246918175.com
Sites by Author
True Christian Short Stories
FREE, and besides short stories, this site has books and articles by this author.
http://www.truechristianshortstoriesfreebygmmatheny.com/
Besides English, this site is also in,
Romanian, http://www.scurte-povestiri.com/
French, http://www.petites-histoires
chrtiennes-vraies-pargmmatheny.com/
Chinese (Mandarin),
http://www.gmmatheny.com
Spanish http://www.pequeashistoriascristianasporgmmatheny.com/
Was Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty" judging?