Q. What if you had been discovered while tapping the cable?

A. There was TNT on both ends of Halibut in case we were discovered.

Q. What was towing the "fish" like?

A. To hang a 16 foot object (the fish ) from a 300 foot boat was like standing on a chair in your kitchen with a pencil on a string and keeping it two inches off the floor"

Q. Why did you receive personal recognition?

A. The fish was my "baby", I spent many hours fixing it...by the time we found the cable I was the Lead Petty Officer of the "fish gang" and that's why I received the NCM.

Note... Gerold's Navy Commendation Medal is the 3rd highest personal medal and the highest non-combat medal ever issued by the Navy.

Q. Did the President personally award the PUC?

A. Yes, Nixon came to the boat and delivered the PUC. We tied up at Sierra 23. It was as far from the other subs as possible. The pier was shut down and security tight. He said the words and left. Of course the crew celebrated mightily after he departed.

Note: Presidential Unit Citations (PUC's) are awarded by the Secretary of the Navy in the name of the President, to any ship, aircraft, or naval unit, for outstanding performance in action against an enemy of the United States (after Dec. 7, 1941). Although the commendation created as a combat award, Halibut's crew is one of only three to ever receive (non-combat) PUC's for its Special Ops in 1968 & 1972. For the succesful complition of their mission the Halibut was awarded the Navy Unit Citation (NUC). Later she would receive three more NUC's for repeat operations in the Sea of Okhost, in 1972, 1974 & 1975.

Q. What are some good books on this topic?

A. More about Halibut's previously classified missions can be found in Sontag and Drew's "Blind Man's Bluff- The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" and the book "Spy Sub" by Roger Durham which has more details about finding the K-129 and later recovery efforts.

Notes: The following are remarks from others about the books and the Halibut.

"A long overdue, well deserved tribute to those unsung heroes of the U.S. Navy's 'silent service' with whom I was privileged to serve." -- Lt. Cmdr. Roy H. Boehm, USN (Ret.), creator of the U.S. Navy Seal Team and author of First Seal

"Now, after six years of research in American and Soviet archives -- plus testimonies of officers and servicemen who could come forward only with the end of the Cold War -- veteran investigative journalists Sherry Sontag and Christopher Drew tell the exciting, epic story of American submarine spy operations from the years immediately after World War II to the 1990s. Among the many revelations found in these dramatic pages: ....How the Navy sent submarines into the heart of Soviet seas to tap crucial underwater communication cables"

...and some lines from "Man In the Sea...A Hidden Cold War Victory"

"These guys in their rickety relic submarines (Halibut and Seawolf) and later in the relatively modern Parche, pulled off the greatest intelligence coup in history. They repeatedly entered the Soviet missile test range splash zone, located missile parts, and using saturated divers, retrieved these parts and brought them back.

And if that wasn't enough, they located several Soviet underwater communications cables and tapped them. At first, the pods they attached recorded information which divers retrieved during the following trip. Later, with the more modern Parche, they were able to get the tapped information real-time. This activity went on for years in both the Sea of Okhotsk and the Barents Sea."

"These courageous men endured unimaginable hardships during several of their clandestine voyages. On at least two occasions, a submarine became mired in the bottom muck, once nearly killing one of the divers in the process of trying to free itself. More than once they were detected, narrowly escaping. All the while, each submarine was outfitted with self-destruct explosives, so that, in the worst possible scenario, they never were there in the first place."

"As I said, this reads more like a sci-fi techno thriller than real life, but nothing in real life ever matched the bravery, the heroism, the blood-and-guts courage of the men who carried out John Craven's fantastic dream. It was a Cold War victory the nation should have celebrated, but its essential secrecy made that impossible."