Bruce,
Just wanted you to know that your trouble-shooting visit to Adak did accomplish something. When I arrived in Nov. 1973 there was definitely a plotting table in the center of the room right next to the Watch Officer and Supervisor's desks! I definitely made use of it as a plotter during my year on Adak. Thanks for your improvements to the system.

Rick:

Thank you for your cogent observations and useful suggestions.

With reference to the first SCORPION conspiracy book, it appears the author had, for years, harbored the delusion that the Soviets were involved. He selected only those “facts” that supported his theory. Fact checking may have been beyond his ken. I am sure your assessment of how the tape fiasco became airborne is accurate.

The author of the “bath tub” discussion, self-identified on the History.net site, as Vince Collier, also provided the statement in the book that the ECHO-II was in “split-plant” propulsion mode; nice trick for an ECHO-II to detect, track and successfully attack a near 30-knot US nuclear submarine while restricted to speeds below 14 knots in that propulsion mode.

I remember well the Foxtrot Relays; it was a great concept; brought the “threat” home to many sites otherwise unlikely to have that experience. For whatever use seems appropriate, I have provided CUS with a CD copy of the Canary Island hydrophone A detections of the SCORPION acoustics.

The problem with merging data from multiple sites - at least for SCORPION - is that the Canary Island data, despite being a singe phone and altered by bathymetry, was significantly more detectable at a range of 821 nm than 3141 was at a range of 976 nm. In fact, the extremely weak 3141 signals – and the even weaker 3131 signals at 1021 nm – would not have been identified without the Canary Island data. The mid-Atlantic Ridge almost totally “eclipsed” the SCORPION signals at Argentia. My SCORPION book discusses these detections in great detail. Email me your snail mail address and I'll send you a copy.

Best,

Bruce