Navy Times confirms that this ass has paid the eternal price. Glad to hear it. Celebrating now!

As most of you probably surmised, one of the areas - if not the most important area - of the Waller data - upon which the Soviets were focused - was information on the acoustic vulnerabilities of their own submarines.

It has been conjectured - probably correctly - that the reduced noise levels of the VICTOR III - compared with earlier VICTORs was the direct result of the Walker data.

I sometimes reflect - with a not so sly smile - upon the fate of those Soviet program managers who, having assured the higher levels of their Navy - that they were building "quiet" submarines, were confronted with real world data courtesy of the Walker Spy Ring.

As noted some time ago, quiet submarines are not cheap to build and the Walker data caused a complete redirection of the Soviet submarine design effort. Speed was no longer the top priority; it was relegated to second place behind noise reduction.

You may also remember my conjecture that the sustained 40-knot operation of the PAPA against a US carrier group returning from the Med circa Oct 1971 was not recognized and reported because the signature was considered too "extreme" to be a submarine, thanks, in part, to the "special eight-bladed propellers" (tandem) with which the PAPA was then fitted.

I'd like to know if he worked at CINCLANTFLT in 1979? A fellow OT told me that he was the SUBLANT watch officer and we actually gave him info from COSL so that he could give us his (an evaluation from SUBLANT) to validate the system detections. I almost fell over!!

He worked in comm Dick. "After Walker's arrest, Caspar Weinberger, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, concluded that the Soviet Union made significant gains in naval warfare attributable to Walker's spying. Weinberger stated that the information Walker gave Moscow allowed the Soviets "access to weapons and sensor data and naval tactics, terrorist threats, and surface, submarine, and airborne training, readiness and tactics." John Lehman, United States Secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration, stated in an interview that Walker's activities enabled the Soviets to know where U.S. submarines were at all times. Lehman said the Walker espionage would have resulted in huge loss of American lives in the event of war."

Thanks Rick for the reply on this. It's so bad that a person would do this to his or her's country. He chose the bad route to take because of greed. Oh well
life goes on.

For whatever it may be worth, information in circulation after Walker was arrested asserted that he did not have access to US submarine movements. That was at a security level to which he did not have access.

This is not verified but he was in CinCLant communications and all Kef went thru their SI channels so it can be assumed he had access at least to detections if not movements. If I remember correctly in the Book "Family of Spies" Walker is quoted as saying he saw these formatted msgs (Rainbows) did not know what they were but they must be important because of use of back channel classification and high precedence so he collected and sold them. That is what my old brain kind of remembers. EKD

When I was stationed in Norfolk I was tasked with looking at a summary of what it was believed Walker had compromised. I can say without reservation that he probably was the greatest aid to the Soviets in many, many years. While I don't ordinarily support a death penalty, in his case I believe it was more then justified. Too bad he got to live out his years on the taxpayer's dime.