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[Author's Note]
This is the fourth in a series of deleted sections from my initial draft that detailed the initialinvestigation of the mysterious objects.In this section, Mike's mentor, Bob McHugh comes face to face with the mysterious object thathad triggered the anomalous geo-magnetic reading. Mike is also recruited into a newly formedclandestine agency that was formed to investigate the puzzling discovery of other similar objectsoff the coasts of the United States.Thank you for reading my story.Phil
 
 Deployment - 1970Even though Mike Liu was not scheduled for a dive until later in the operational phase of the mission, he had plenty to do. Standing on the deck of the R/V Falling Star, Mike hadresponsibility to check out the instrumentation package prior to any operation. To do thiseffectively, Mike had to don his wet suit and SCUBA apparatus. Mike enjoyed this assignmentbecause it allowed him to be close to the Squid and to be part of history.The initial operational dive would be conducted by the Squid's regular crew of two: thepilot, Jim Anderson, and his crew chief, Walt Carver. Jim Anderson was an old hand in thesubmersible business, having trained on such vessels as the Deepstar 2000, Alvin, andAluminaut. Anderson had been stricken with deep-sea fever at an early age and like most pilotsof commercial submersibles had spent his entire career chasing that dream.When Robison figured that the Squid was going to become reality, he put out the call tohis old friend who at that time was at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute near Falmouth,Massachusetts, running its small fleet of submersibles, including the Alvin, which having a divedepth of 10,000 feet was one of the deepest diving free swimming vessels available. WhenAnderson heard 20,000 feet he didn't need much persuasion and was in Sunnyvale within aweek.Jim Anderson was just over six feet tall and had the leathery brown tan of someone whoprobably spent too much time in the sun. His brown hair was thinning and his blue eyes had apenetrating hardness tinged with the crinkles of a smile. He wore dungarees and white tee shirts,on his right forearm was a tattoo of a porpoise diving into the waves, if you looked hard youcould still see the heart with the name "Louise" that the porpoise was supposed to hide. On hisbelt, Jim always carried a stainless steel sailing knife in a leather case, the kind that has a fiveinch blade on one end and a five inch marlin spike on the other. Jim's reputation was hard work,hard play, joker when things went well and deadly, deadly serious about the dives.When things go wrong on the bottom, you can't pop the canopy and parachute out - here; therewas no out.Walt Carver had spent twenty years in the U.S. Navy and had retired at age thirty sevenas a Chief Petty Officer. Most of his career was spent in the engine room of various surface fleetvessels. After his retirement from the Navy, Carver got a job as a shop foreman in the MarineDivision of McAlear assembling hydrofoils used for patrol in Viet Nam. It was in this job thatCarver earned a reputation for meeting and exceeding performance standards and schedules. Soit was an easy call for Robison, when the funds actually started flowing from McHugh'sconfidential sources, to badger McAlear's management to spare Carver from his normal duties.Shanghaiing Carver may have been the smartest thing that Robison did during the entirefifteen months. Carver was all over the place, making sure that each component was correctlyassembled and checked out. The young engineers and technicians at McAlear called him Chief in deference to his retired rank and out of fondness for this gentle, soft spoken West Virginian
 
who had never even seen the ocean when he walked into the Navy recruiter's office in Beckley,West Virginia, one autumn day in 1942, Walt had decided to join the Navy right after PearlHarbor, but had to wait until autumn before he turned seventeen. Carver's dad had refused tosign for him when he was sixteen.A slight man of forty five, wiry Walt Carver was a contrast to Jim Anderson both inappearance and in style. No bravado, no jokes, just quiet listening and contemplative nods of thehead when listening to the many problems that were sure to occur. Walt always dressed in hisNavy dungarees and light blue work shirt. Even after twenty years in the Navy and eight atMcAlear, his weight had not changed one pound and he could still wear the uniform he wore as arecruit at the Great Lakes Training Center in Illinois.The Squid was beautiful, its fiberglass outer hull glistened white, royal blue lettering andstriping made for an impressive machine. The pressure hull hung inside the outer hull, butprojected from the bow of the vessel thereby enabling the pilot and observers to see frontwardand downward.A fiberglass conning tower, flooded during dives, enabled the crew to operate thesubmersible at the surface. Outfitted with a fully articulated robotic arm, the Squid could douseful work in addition to providing mobility during its dives. The Squid also had forwardscanning sonar which worked much like radar would for a surface vessel. Television camerasand strobe lights completed the standard instrumentation.Because of its mission, the Squid was also outfitted with a variety of oceanographicinstrumentation including the now familiar metastable-helium magnetometer. Launching theSquid was an art, in and of itself. The R/V Falling Star was a gigantic floating elevator inbetween twin hulls, not unlike a floating dry-dock.The Squid sat on a specially designed cradle in the center of the elevator. Designed foran earlier, shallower version of the Squid, the Deep Diver, the R/V Falling Star did not requireextensive refitting to accommodate the Squid. Because of the size of the R/V Falling Star, thewater between the two hulls remained relatively calm.Additionally, the hulls of the R/V Falling Star could be flooded, dropping the vessel'swaterline to create a pool of calmness even in moderately rough seas.Jim Anderson and Walt Carver climbed in to the conning tower of the Squid. Dressed inblue coveralls with the McAlear logo on the back, both Anderson and Carver had wisely wornlong johns underneath. Despite the 90 degree air temperature, the temperature of the oceanbeneath the photic zone remained generally a cool 32 degrees, Fahrenheit. At deeper depths, thetemperature could drop even further. The Squid was equipped with chemical heaters, butprudence dictated that occupants dressed warmly. Ed Robison served as dive director on thisfirst dive. Bob McHugh and Tom Sevson would help Robison launch the submersible.Mike Liu was dressed in his wet suit and SCUBA equipment. His job today was to ridethe outside of the Squid, along with two McAlear technicians to conduct a final instrumentation
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