Fleet Timeline

Our first task was a two-month special operation to monitor the Soviet submarine force in an area in which none of the crew was familiar but where I had been on Sargo on our last deployment. During the preparations for deployment on special operations it became apparent that the attitude towards the Soviets had mellowed since my last deployment on Sargo. During the preparations on Sargo, I, as weapons officer- was required to spend a day of training with the explosives demolition organization to learn to handle explosives and how to set and fuse the scuttling charges that we carried aboard during the special operations. In addition the whole Sargo Crew was required to attend one-day Prisoner of War indoctrination in a mockup of a North Korean POW camp focusing primarily on the experiences of the POWs in Korea. During the preparations for Bates to deploy, neither POW resistance nor scuttling charges were ever mentioned.

The operation was busy, but little of great significance was noted. Routine operations were observed. Some high interest testing was aborted by the Soviets due to a technical problem and some lesser interest operations were observed and recorded. All in all, a successful but not spectacular special operation.