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The

Adventurers’ Club NewsVolume 53 February / March 2009 Number 1

Illustration courtesy of Deep Submergence Group, San Diego, CA

MYSTIC – DSRV-1(Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle)

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS February / March 20091

The

ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWSVolume 53 February / March 2009 Number 1

(Mystic continued on page 2)

MYSTIC Retires – End of an EraThe Editor, Robert G. Williscroft (#1116)

MYSTIC and its sister minisub AVALON were part of the U.S. Navy’s Deep Submergence Systems Project (DSSP)commencing around 1971. Both these Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles (DSRVs), their mother submarine rescueships USS PIGEON & USS ORTOLAN, the fly-away cargo aircraft, and the mother submarines comprised a vast,completely functional cover for the highly classified Project Ivy Bells described in Sherry Sontag’s & ChristopherDrew’s bestselling book, Blind Man’s Bluff. The end of the Cold War ended any ongoing need for Project Ivy Bells andits successors, but the function cover – now called the Deep Submergence Group – continues playing a vital role in theU.S. Submarine Service. The following article is compiled from Navy sources and the author’s personal experience.

At the beginning of the 20th century, allmajor world navies turned their atten-

tion toward developing a weapon of im-mense potential – the military submarine.The highlyeffective useof subma-rines by Ger-many inWorld War Iheightenedthis interest,and an em-phasis wasplaced onthe subma-rine thatcontinuestoday.

The U.S.Navy hadoperated submarines on a limited basis forseveral years prior to 1900. As Americantechnology expanded, the U.S. submarinefleet grew rapidly. Throughout the period

of 1912 to 1939, however, the develop-ment of the Navy’s F, H, and S class boats(the traditional name for a submarine) wasmarred by a series of accidents, collisions,

and sinkings.Several ofthese sub-marine di-sasters re-sulted in acorrespond-ingly rapidgrowth inNavy divingcapability.

U n t i l1912, U.S.Navy diversrarely wentbelow 60fsw (feet of

sea water). In that year, Chief Gunner GeorgeD. Stillson set up a program to test Haldane’sdiving tables and methods of stage decom-pression. A companion goal of the program

February / March 2009 ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS2

(Mystic continued from page 1)Mystic Retires – End of an Era

was to improve Navy diving equipment.Throughout a three-year period, first div-ing in tanks ashore and then in open waterin Long Island Sound from the USS Walk-ie, Navy divers went progressively deeper,eventually reaching 274 fsw.

USS F-4. When the submarine USS F-4sank near Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1915, theexperience gained in Stillson’s program wasput to dramatic use. Twenty-one men losttheir lives inthe accident,and the Navylost its firstboat in 15years of submarine operations. Navy diverssalvaged the submarine and recovered thebodies of the crew. The salvage effort incor-porated many new techniques, such as usinglifting pontoons. What was most remarkable,however, was that the divers completed amajor salvage effort working at the extremedepth of 304 fsw, using air as a breathing mix-ture. Decompression requirements limitedbottom time for each dive to about ten min-utes. Even for such a limited time, nitrogennarcosis made it difficult for the divers to con-centrate on their work.

The publication of the first U.S. Navy Div-ing Manual and the establishment of a NavyDiving School at Newport, Rhode Island,were the direct outgrowth of experiencegained in the test program and the F-4 sal-vage. When America entered World War I, thestaff and graduates of the school were sent toEurope, where they conducted various salvageoperations along the coast of France.

The physiological problems encountered inthe salvage of the F-4 clearly demonstrated

the limitations of breathing air during deepdives. This concern that submarine rescue andsalvage would be required at great depth fo-cused Navy attention on the need for a newdiver breathing medium.

USS S-51. In September of 1925, the USSS-51 submarine was rammed by a passengerliner and sunk in 132 fsw off Block Island,Rhode Island. Public pressure to raise the sub-marine and recover the bodies of the crew

was intense.Navy divingwas put insharp focus,realizing it had

only twenty divers who were qualified to godeeper than 90 fsw. Diver training programshad been cut at the end of World War I, andthe school had not been reinstituted.

Salvage of the S-51 covered a ten-monthspan of difficult and hazardous diving, anda special diver training course was madepart of the operation. The submarine wasfinally raised and towed to the BrooklynNavy Yard in New York.

Interest in diving was high once again andthe Naval School, Diving and Salvage, wasreestablished at the Washington Navy Yardin 1927. At the same time, the Navy broughttogether its existing diving technology andexperimental work by shifting the Experimen-tal Diving Unit (EDU), which had been work-ing with the Bureau of Mines in Pennsylva-nia, to the Navy Yard as well. In the follow-ing years, EDU developed the U.S. Navy AirDecompression Tables, which have becomethe accepted world standard and continueddevelopmental work in helium-oxygen breath-ing mixtures for deeper diving.

The physiological problems encountered in thesalvage of the F-4 clearly demonstrated the limi-tations of breathing air during deep dives


Mystic Retires – End of an Era

3


Losing the F-4 and S-51 provided theimpetus for expanding the Navy’s divingability. It took another major submarinedisaster, however, for the Navy to confrontits inability to rescue men trapped in a dis-abled submarine.

USS S-4. In 1927, the Navy lost the sub-marine USS S-4 in 102 fsw after a collisionwith the Coast Guard cutter USS Paulding.The first divers to reach the submarine 22hours after the sinking exchanged signalswith the men trapped inside. The subma-rine had a hull fitting designed to take anair hose from the surface, but what hadlooked feasible in theory proved too diffi-cult in reality. With stormy seas causingrepeated delays, the divers could not makethe hose connection until it was too late,and all of the men aboard the S-4 died.Even had the hose connection been madein time, rescuing the crew would still haveposed a significant problem.

The S-4 was salvaged after a major effort,and the fate of the crew spurred several ef-forts toward preventing a similar disaster.Submarine Officer LT C.B. Momsen devel-oped the escape lung that still bears his name– the Momsen Escape Lung. It was given itsfirst operational test in 1929 when 26 offic-ers and men successfully surfaced from anintentionally bottomed submarine.

USS Squalus. The Navy pushed for de-velopment of a rescue chamber that wasessentially a diving bell with special fittingsfor connection to a submarine deck hatch.The apparatus, called the McCann-Erick-son Rescue Chamber, was proven in 1939when the USS Squalus, carrying a crew of50, sank in 243 fsw. Divers attached a

down-haul cable to thesubmarine hatch, andthe rescue chambermade four trips andsafely brought 33 mento the surface. (Therest of the crew,trapped in the floodedafter-section of thesubmarine, had per-ished in the sinking.)The Squalus was raisedby salvage divers. Thissalvage and rescue op-eration marked the firstoperational use of He02in salvage diving.

USS Thresher. Just as the loss of the F-4, S-51, S-4, and the Squalus caused an in-creased concern in Navy diving in the 1920sand 1930s, a submarine disaster of majorproportions had a profound effect on thedevelopment of new diving equipment andtechniques in the postwar period. This wasthe loss of the nuclear attack submarineUSS Thresher and all her crew in April 1963.The submarine sank in 8,400 fsw, a depthbeyond the survival limit of the hull andfar beyond the capability of any existingrescue apparatus.

An extensive search was initiated to lo-cate the submarine and determine the causeof the sinking. A month after the disasterthey located and photographed the firstsigns of the Thresher. Collection of debrisand photographic coverage of the wreckcontinued for about a year.

As a result of the sinking, the Navyformed two special study groups. The first

The author in frontof the Navy’s onlyremaining McCann-Erickson RescueChamber at DSUon Coronado

February / March 2009 ADVENTURERS’ CLUB NEWS


4

(Mystic continued from page 3)

was a Court of Inquiry, which attributedprobable cause to a piping system failure.The second, the Deep Submergence ReviewGroup (DSRG), was formed to assess theNavy’s undersea capabilities. The DSRG ex-amined four general areas – search, rescue,recovery of small and large objects, and theMan-in-the-Sea concept. The DSRG calledfor a vast effort to improve the Navy’s capa-bilities in these four areas.Deep Submergence Systems Project

In 1964, with a fleet-wide expanded in-terest in diving and undersea activity, the

Navy commenced direct action on the rec-ommendations of the DSRG by formingthe Deep Submergence Systems Project(DSSP). DSSP laid ambitious plans fortwelve Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles

(DSRVs), a fleet of multipurpose catama-ran submarine rescue ships (ASRs) eachcapable of carrying and servicing twoDSRVs, and outfitted with redundant on-board saturation diving systems, severalNuclear Fast Attack Submarines (SSNs)modified to piggy-back a DSRV, and largecargo aircraft modified to transport a DSRV,along with its support equipment, and crew.

Ultimately, the Navy built only twoDSRVs, the Mystic and the Avalon, two cat-

DSRV piggy-back on SSN

DSRV in fly-away loadout on a speciallymodified cargo aircraft

DSRV without fiberglass fairing consisted ofthree presurized spheres – the front is thecockpit, the back is or passengers, and themiddle is for ingress and egress. Spheres canwithstand the pressure of 5,000 fsw.

DSRV cockpit – just room for Pilot and Co-Pilot (state-of-the-art 1972 electronics)




amaran ASRs, a handful of modified SSNs,and one DSRV capable aircraft. The DSSPachieved significant progress in three addi-tional areas: Saturation Diving, the devel-opment of Deep Diving Systems, and sig-nificant progress in advanced diving equip-ment design.USS Pigeon & USS Ortolan

In 1968 keels were laid on two new ASRs,and in 1973 the fleet welcomed USS Pigeon(ASR-21) and USS Ortolan (ASR-22). Thesemultipurpose catamaran ASRs were 251 ftlong with an 84 ft beam. Each hull carrieda Mark 2 Mod 1 DDS (deep diving system)– at the time, the Navy’s most advanced

saturation diving system. Each was de-signed to carry and service two DSRVs.Ortolan was berthed on the East Coast, andPigeon on the West Coast.

Ivy Bells. In 1970, Navy Captain JamesBradley sat in his Washington office think-ing about Petropavlovsk Kamchatskiy, theCold War Soviet nuclear submarine baseon the Kamchatka Peninsula. Bradley wasstruck by Petropavlovsk’s isolation on thecharts he examined, and surmised that theSoviets had to have laid a communicationscable over the peninsula, across the bot-tom of the Sea of Okhotsk, and then alongthe mainland to their Vladivostok NavalCommand Headquarters. It occurred to himthat this cable would likely carry a great

deal of unencrypted official information –information that could be accessed by asubmarine carrying the right men and equip-ment. Bradley remembered from his boy-hood along the Mississippi seeing signs thatread: Cable Crossing – Do not anchor! He sur-mised that the Soviets would likely protecttheir cable in the same manner.

Bradley promoted this idea discretely, and

DSRV beinglaunched betweenOrtolan’s hulls

DSRV launchmonitored by diversbeneath Pigeon

Kamchatka Peninsula and the Sea of Okhotsk


Mystic Retires – End of an Era(Mystic continued from page 5)

when he briefed President Nixon’s Secre-tary of State Henry Kissinger, the idea be-came a plan. In a highly classified opera-tion, the existing nearly functional DSRVsubmarine rescue project would be used asa cover for Project Ivy Bells, detailed inBlind Man’s Bluff, by Sherry Sontag andChristopher Drew.

Money was funneled through the newASRs to outfit three old SSNs, USS Hali-but, USS Sea Wolf, and USS Parche, withtopside mounted saturation diving com-plexes that appeared exactly like a DSRV,so the SSNs could operate with impunityalmost anywhere, without raising suspi-cions. The best saturation qualified divers

USS Halibut departing San Francisco for theSea of Okhotsk with a saturation divingcomplex disguised as a DSRV mounted onher stern.

from Pigeon and Ortolan were recruited intothe program, sworn to secrecy, and ultimate-ly embarked on these specially modifiedsubmarines to tap into the Sea of Okhotskcable, and later into a similar cable in theBarents Sea. (By the way, they found thecables using Bradley’s idea of looking for apainted sign.)

Falcon. The Cold War is over. There isno more need for projects like Ivy Bells,ships like Pigeon and Ortolan, and SSNs car-rying mock DSRVs. The SSNs are mostlyforgotten, having long since been cut upfor scrap. The ASRs were decommissionedin 1992, having each been home to per-haps 400 to 500 sailors during their life-times. Mystic and Avalon have served theirpurpose and become aging relics of a by-gone era, difficult and expensive to main-tain, with only marginal use. Avalon wastaken out of service in 2000. Mystic re-mained operational while the Navy devel-

oped the next generation of submarine res-cue vehicle: the Pressurized Rescue Mod-ule Falcon, a tethered remotely piloted pres-

USS Halibut returning to Mare Islandfollowing a successful operation in the Sea ofOkhotsk


The author in front of the Pressurized RescueModule – the Falcon



surized vessel capable of more than Mystic,but lacking an onboard pilot, with an oper-ational depth of only 2,000 fsw, unlike

Mystic which could dive to 5,000 fsw.On March 6, 2009, under an azure blue

sky at the Deep Submergence Unit (DSU)on Coronado Island in San Diego, Mystic

stepped down as the Navy’s only operation-al DSRV, and Falcon assumed the watch.The ceremony was attended by about 200

The DSRV inactivationPressurized Rescue ModuleNaming Ceremony at DSU

men ranging in age from the late twentiesto the late seventies, men who have beenpart of an adventure like nothing the worldhas ever seen. A very small number of thesewere participants in Project Ivy Bells – ar-

guably the raison d’être for the entire thing.At the reception following the ceremo-

ny, a DSU spokesman had people from var-ious elements of DSSP stand to be recog-nized. Ivy Bells was not mentioned at all,of course, because of its still official clas-sification, but when he asked for crew mem-bers from Pigeon and Ortolan to rise, of apossible total of nearly 1,000 men, thiswriter was the only one to stand.

The world had moved on, and the alone-ness was overwhelming.

The DSU pennant is lowered for the last timeon Mystic (DSRV-1).

The DSU pennant is raised for the first timeon Falcon (PRM-1)

USS Halibut configured for Project Ivy Bells


THE PRESIDENT’S PAGE – Past, Present & FutureAllan R. Smith #1069 - President

President’s Page

As I start to writethis, I find that

I am distracted withfour other thoughts.And, while I willadmit I am easi-ly distracted,these thoughts are tak-ing me in a new writ-ing direction. I keep

thinking of the four important areas that wemust collectively focus on in 2009.

Increase our efforts to bring in newmembers.

Increase our outside activities topromote camaraderie.

Volunteer to serve on the board. Help by recommending speakers.

With the first quarter of the year aboutto be behind us, the club is facing somemajor challenges. First, we are working onthe extension to our existing lease and asthe landlord hasput the buildingup for sale, weare cautiouslyoptimistic that things will work out in ourfavor. As we will inevitably be seeing anincrease in rent, we will need to generatemore revenue than our previous year. Withthis said, we are adventurers and we knowothers that are adventurous. I challenge youto look across the street, to your coworker,and to the man on the trail. Gentleman,together we can bring in good members andyounger members that will take our clubforward for generations. This is paramount

to our existence!We are currently working on a photo semi-

nar to be held at the club. This will be anoutside activity and a club fundraiser for

members and guests.Also, we are speak-ing with fellow mem-

ber Fred Harland to explore the petroglyphsand museum at China Lake. These dateswill be posted on line at www.adventurersclub.org just as soon as weknow. A very special club event is comingup on April 25th when we will have a pri-vate tour of the Peterson Auto Museumand space is limited. Please contact 1st VicePresident Steve Bein if you would be in-terested in attending.

We have two important positions on theboard that need to be filled. For over a yearour esteemed editor Robert Williscroft hasbeen asking for a replacement. This hasfallen on deaf ears and if someone doesnot step up soon, we might be without this

wonderful newsletter. Please con-sider this important position andknow that Robert, others and my-self will be there to assist you.

Next, our 1st VP & program chairman SteveBein has also done a remarkable job andhas booked speakers into September. Hehas asked for a replacement so that he canfinish other work that needs his attention.This is a position where most of the workhas been accomplished and Steve has of-fered to assist the incoming chairman withthe rest of the year if needed. Again, pleaseconsider this rewarding position and con-tact either Steve or myself.

Increase our efforts tobring in new members.

Increase our outside activitiesto promote camaraderie.


President’s Page / Letters

Help by recommendingspeakers.

Volunteer to serveon the board.

NOHA, Night of High Adventure – thetime is here to find a new chairman and asthe clubs treasurer,Rick Flores does nothave the time to chairthis prestigious eventagain this year. We currently have a NOHAboard with three members, but lack a chair-man that can oversee the planning. We areactively looking for a new, more cost effec-tive, location. So, please considervolunteering for this position. Lastyear the club made a profit of over$3,000, and it was vitally importantto the club. This year making a profit iseven more urgent due to our rising costs ofoperation!

I have been asked how members can rec-ommend ideas for the club or things theyfeel the club could improve on. You arewelcome to contact any member of the

board or if you prefer, please direct themto myself either in writing, via e-mail at

[email protected], phone at 661.492.3188 or feel free to approach me atthe club. Also, members have asked if itwould be possible to get an e-mail ad-

dress from the club, ie: [email protected]. This is something we will look intoand if possible, it will be posted in thenewsletter. Next, per member’s requests, we

are setting upour Paypal ac-count so thatyou may have

the option to pay your dues on-line and thiswill be ready shortly.

Remember, the club is only as successfulas you make it, so please take a moment tohelp find a speaker, a new member or serveon the board and lets make this the bestAdventurers’ Club ever.

(Letters continued from page 10)

To the Editor:Just a note that we did not get anything in the last

Club News about the Stories from the Adventurers’ Clubbook project. Please ask members to update their e-mail address with the Club. After sending out DavidDolan’s e-mail, several have come back with no long-er valid e-mails. – Allan Smith (#1069)

You got it on both counts! 1. Everybody, please review the note on page 21. Wereally want to get your inputs as soon as possible forthis historic project.2. Regarding updated emails, if you guys want toreceive immediate notification of things important toour Club, then PLEASE supply us with your latestemail. In today’s world, this should not be that difficulta task! – Editor

To the Editor:On page 13 of the Dec-Jan News, I read “By the

oldest member of the Club, John Booth.” The lasttime I saw John was in 1974, when I taught somefilm courses at California State University in LongBeach. Please say “Hello!” to him, and pass on mywarmest good wishes!

Since I will turn 91 on May 7, 2009, it occurred tome that my Epilogue – inclosed herewith – might beof interest to some of the members who rememberme. – Norman G. Dyhrenfurth (#670A)

You can be sure that John Booth has gotten yourgreeting. As for your Epilogue, I will find a place for itin a forthcoming issue. Thanks for sending it. – Editor


With the passing ofMystic, featured inthis edition, we arereminded that theworld we live in andhave explored so in-tently, is a dynamicorganism that neverstops.

A short hundredyears ago, while the Wright brothers werein France demonstrating their new flyingmachine, and recording their demonstrationon another new invention, the moving pic-ture camera, Robert Perry reached theNorth Pole.

Four years earlier, Albert Einstein hadstartled the world of physics by publishinghis Special Theory of Relativity. I imaginethat to the average person back then thepace of progress was breathtaking. This isall the more true when you pause to real-ize that just two years later, Rauld Amund-sen stood at the South Pole. Just fifty yearsafter that Jacques Picard and fellow Clubmember Don Walsh touched the ocean

THE THRAWN RICKLE From the Ancient Scottish: thrawn = stubborn; rickle = loose, dilapidated heap

Thrawn Rickle / Letters

Robert G. Williscroft #1116 - Editor

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

floor seven miles down in the ChallengerDeep, and a scant ten years later Neil Arm-strong became the first human to step onanother world.

On one hand we combat internationalterrorism, while on the other we continueto explore the far reaches of Space, the vastunexplored ocean world at our feet, and thebrand new horizons presented to us by thevirtual world of Cyberspace.

Our Club is beginning to tap into this cy-berworld. As we move into the future, ex-pect to see more and more on our website.Anticipate being able to log on with yourpersonal password, and review any past pro-gram right there in your home on your PCscreen. If you wish, you will be able to havea personalized email address linked to ourclub domain – adventurersclub.org. You willbe able to pay your dues online, purchasetickets to special Club events, and even helpa friend apply for membership – all online.

Meanwhile, with feet firmly planted backon Terra Firma, see you next Thursday!

The password for the full color online edi-tion is “acla0903”.

To the Editor:Re The Adventures' Club News, Volume 52, Number

7 – Dec 08/Jan 09. What happen to the minutes ofOctober 30th meeting? Heard it was a hell of an epicadventure related that night!– Peter Jensen (#1101)Unfortunately, Peter, no one took notes. Endresult, I have nothing to publish. If anyone outthere can remember this presentation, and iswilling to write something up, I’ll be happy topublish it – better late than never. – Editor

To the Editor:Good job on the most recent issue

of the News. I was concerned that somewriteups of meetings that I have submitted

have not been printed. These include Nov. 1,2007, June 19, 2008 and July 31, 2008. I attach cop-

ies of those write-ups.– Bob Zeman (#878)Thanks, Bob. See the previous letter. Obviously, I musthave missed these submissions. They appear in thisedition. – Editor

(Letters continued on page 9)


Minutes – November 1, 2007 / June 19, 2008

THURSDAY NIGHTS AT THE CLUBNovember 1, 2007 (really – we missed this one)Bob Zeman (#878)

11

Because of the length of the businessmeeting, President Robert DeMott dis-

pensed with those returning and leaving onan adventure. But Charles Rozaire #744showed up. Come by more often Charles.

Steve Peterman joined the Club as aguest of Bob Silver and has appreciatedbeing a member and friend of Bob.

Bob welcomed all to broken film night.He posed the question: “What constitutesadventure?” He said that doing somethingfor the first time probably would qualify.

He took off in a double ended, gaff-rigged, 34-foot wooden sailboat for a sailfrom California to Hawaii. He also broughtalong his 16 millimeter camera and film.

While film is a definite addition to a pro-gram, too many persons can have distortedmemories of trips, because we only remem-ber our film, slides, postcards and others.There are few night scenes and no printsof ships foundering.

He sailed to Hawaii, the Marquesas, Ton-ga, Cook Island, Tuamotus and Australia.There his trip was delayed due to a demast-ing. But he traveled on to Indonesia, Pen-ang, Sumatra and Hong Kong. His final sailacross the Atlantic was on a 46-foot cata-maran. He was the navigator with no com-pass, no sextant and little experience. Butthey made it.

His film was of the first leg from Califor-nia to Hawaii. There were about 12 onboard, most of whom were refugees fromHollywood. The sail was a good one, andthe footage excellent considering it was 50years old.

Bob landed in Maui where the feature film“The Hawaiians” was being filmed. Thestars Charlton Heston and Geraldine Chap-lin were there along with the false-frontbuildings and actors dressed as Chineseimmigrants.

Those who missed this program missed alarge dose of Bob’s dry humor and tidbits.

June 19, 2008 (really – we missed this one, too)Bob Zeman (#878)

President Robert DeMott welcomed aladies’ night crowd to our quarters. He

also announced the first session of our booksale. The Club is disposing of fiction booksand duplicates of our other books. Theprice is right.

First Vice President Paul Isley flew outof Torrance with his son P. J. He said thatit is neat sitting next to your son while hepilots the plane and talks to the tower.

Roger Haft returned from Boston. Hestopped by the Crow’s Nest which was fea-tured in the movie The Perfect Storm.

Bob Ianello and guest Eric Simmel par-ticipated in the 10K mountain runningevent in his area. He also went diving forscallops off Laguna Beach.

Vince Weatherby got a part in a movieas a British Officer on the HMS Queen Marywhich runs into an anti-aircraft ship.

Paul Isley is flying to Mojave for a birth-day dinner for Burt and Dick Rutan andthen turning around for the Explorers’ Clubdinner with Don Walsh and Stephanie Pow-ers.

David Glackin is chasing eclipses fromSpitsbergen to Novosibirsk. The longestone will be in July, 2009, of six minutes


Minutes – June 19, 2008

south of the south island of Japan. The lastwill be from Tahiti to Easter Island in July,2010. Dave let us know in advance becausehe is moving to Washington, D. C. for a jobtransfer.

Bob Walters will be attending the Amer-ican fighter aces association meeting inAustin, Texas.

Dick DeMarco came down from ChinaLake. He showed footage of the moray pro-

gram. Thistwo-man sub-marine has ano p e r a t i n gdepth of 1,500feet and can go

in reverse and submerge. At a speed of sixto eight knots its time limit underwater isfour hours. This program was cancelled bythe Navy in the early 1960s.

over 1,500 lectures in 50 nations on ocean-related subjects.

Tonight Don gave a short history on un-dersea exploration starting over 2,000 yearsago. Assyrians sucked on sheep bladdersand Greek sponge divers dove to 60 feet,but little progress was made.

In the 1920s, Dr. William Beebe designeda bathysphere that went down to a half milebelow the surface off the coast of Bermu-da in 1930. A bathysphere is connected bya cable as opposed to a bathyscaph whichis not connected. At that depth even a smallleak produces a knife-sharp cutting stream.

Auguste Piccard designed a balloon thatcould ascend to 70,000 feet. Experts saidthat it could not be done. He did it andthen used what he learned to design abathyscaph, the Trieste, to sink to the bot-tom of the ocean.

But during the 1950s, funding ran lowand the U. S. Navy bought the Trieste.

The Navy took it to the Marianas trenchabout 200 miles west of Guam and theChallenger Deep, 35,800 feet below thesurface. The Trieste arrived on site on Janu-

Don Walsh, oceanographer, adventurerand explorer

Captain Don Walsh, USN (Ret) PhDflew down from Oregon to tell of his

trip to the deepest point in the ocean.David Dolan introduced Don as the first

recipient of the Explorers’ Club trophy forundersea exploration named for our de-ceased member Ralph White.

Don spent 16 years at sea on surface shipsand submarines including two commands.He has dives in more than 21 differentmanned submersibles. He has worked onremotely operated vehicles (ROV.)

He founded and directed the Institutefor Marine and Coastal Studies at USC. Hehas written more than 200 published arti-cles and edited five books. He has given

The bathyscaph Triest I

Don Walsh & Dick DeMarco


Minutes – June 19 & July 31, 2008

13

(Minutes continued on page 14)

ary 23, 1960.Don and Jacques Piccard were the crew

on this nine hour, 14 mile round trip to thebottom. Near the time for the dive, theNavy nearly stopped the project becauseof safety concerns. The pressure at the bot-tom was eight tons per square inch or over200,000 tons of total pressure.

They saw fish all of the way down butmostly worms, jellies and plankton on thebottom, where they spent 20 minutes.

After surfacing, a ship was vectored topick them up. They were soon flown on along propeller-driven plane trip to Wash-ington D. C. where they were commendedby President Eisenhower.

Since then, no person has been down thatdeep. The Trieste was used in 1963 to findthe USS Thresher. In 1983 it was taken outof use.

The ocean floor is such that 97% is at20,000 feet or less. Therefore, many coun-tries are building submersibles that descendto 20,000 feet. These include the Sea Cliff,Nautilus, the Russian Mirs and the JapaneseSinkai. The Alvin goes down to 14,000 feetand is an acrylic bowl which provides great-er visibility than the small port holes onthe others.

In the late 1960s, the Navy developedautonomous unmanned vehicles and re-motely operated vehicles. These are nowbeing used extensively.

A plan was hatched in the late 1990s togo to the bottom at the North Pole. Amer-icans did virtually all of the planning, butin the end it was the Russians under Ana-toly Sagalevich and their Mirs. Funding wasa concern and the two Mirs accommodat-

ed a wealthy Swissnamed Paulson and awealthy Australiannamed McDowell topay for a trip. Amember of the Rus-sian Duma pushedfor it also.

Sylvia Earle wasthe first woman todon the inner-spaceJim suit for open sea

exploration. At onetime, tests were runoff of west Africa.The French assigneda ship commanded byJacques Cousteau totrack the tests. Donhad photos of bothSylvia and Jacques.

JIM – 1 Atmosphere suit

July 31, 2008 (really – we missed this one, too)Bob Zeman (#878)

Henry Von Seyfried showed up. He hasbeen in the Philippines for three

months.Treasurer Roger Haft has a trip planned

to the Gaspe Peninsula and the maritimeprovinces of Canada.

Bob Walters told of David Lawler whois a geologist and paleontologist. He wasworking for the Bureau of Land manage-ment to investigate toxicity in abandonedmines. Unfortunately, he found more thanexpected which ruffled some feathers in thewest, but the Inspector General in Wash-ington D. C. was pleased with his work.


(Minutes continued from page 13)Minutes – July 31 & December 4, 2008

14

David Yamada brought in a copy of theobituary on Bill Wheeler that appeared inSan Diego. Bill began traveling to Africa in1978 and documented 50,000 miles byLand Rover, 2,000 miles on foot with hors-es, donkeys and in the Sahara. In 2000 hisbook was published on the Efe Pygmies.

London Steverson returned from a cartrip to Memphis with his wife and threeyoung children.

Steve Bein donated a Cold Steel blow-gun, stun darts and hunting darts forNOHA. He also donated three books, someduck and quail calls and a watch with analtimeter, barometer, thermometer and al-titude gain recording.

Rick Flores said that ticket sales forNight of High Adventure are ahead of lastyear and urged all to buy now. Our speak-ers are set.

Roushes changed the boundaries, but theynoticed there had been some digging in theintervening time.

As a confirmed treasure hunter, Roy metFrank Howk who claimed to be the grand-son of Jesse James, and who supposedlyknew of where one of the treasure siteswas. This was in Glorieta Pass in NewMexico, the site of the biggest Civil Warbattle west of the Mississippi.

The clues to look for were an abnormal-ly bent tree called a hoot owl tree and foursided stones. Roy, Frank and friend foundthese clues and followed them. Eventual-ly, they reached a place but someone hadalready dug there.

They also found another site where theycould see the outlines of a big box, but theothers were nervous and left.

Roy discussed the reported shooting ofJesse James by Bob Ford, and noted sever-al inconsistencies. He was buried upsidedown. Ford says he used a 44 or 45 slugbut an exhuma-tion many yearslater showed abody with a 38slug. And Jesse’smother originallysaid the body wasnot Jesse’s. Also in about 1950, a personshowed up claiming he was Jesse.

Knights of the Golden Circle

After the Civil War, there were many inthe South who believed it could rise

again. The Confederacy only lost becauseit ran out of money. So the Knights of theGolden Circle was formed to gather gold,jewelry and other valuables and store them.

The Knights are believed to have buriedthis treasure in virtually all of the states.But they also practiced sedition and spy-ing, and so they kept their activities secret.

Roy had been interested in this since hewas a teenager spending time on his grand-father’s ranch in eastern Kansas. The ranchwas almost a perfect rectangle but a por-tion was cut out. This portion was watchedover by a sentinel who refused to let Royand his relatives on it. In later years, the

A stellar ladies’ night turnout was wel-comed by President Robert DeMott.

Paul Isley gave a brief recap of his andBill Morse’s trek from Lukla to Mt. Ever-

December 4, 2008 (really – we missed this one)Bob Zeman (#878)


Minutes – December 4, 2008

15


est base camp. It was 35 miles each wayand took a week to get there and a week toreturn. The trek was up and down virtuallyall of the way. The temperatures werewarm when the sun was up, but declinedto below freezing at night.

Bernie Harris drove to Bruin Woods, aUCLA retreat near Lake Arrowhead. Onthe map he saw an airstrip nearby. So hedecided to check it out, but the access roadhad grooves only driveable by a vehicle witha high clearance.

Steve Bein went to the Bosque delApache south of Albuquerque for the fly-in. He viewed 32,000 snow geese and 5,000sandhill cranes. The takeoffs were spectac-ular.

Ken Freund #1046 returned from a mo-torcycle expedition to India, Nepal andBhutan. His group reached heights of13,000 feet and crossed rivers by boat. Hehas another motorcycle trip planned to Pan-ama, stopping along the way at Mayan ex-cavations.

Linda Abrams attended a memorial ded-ication for the 38 WASP (Women Air Ser-vice Pilots) who died in World War II. Asearch continues for one who crashed justoff LAX in the Pacific Ocean. It has nar-rowed to one square mile.

Dave Grober stopped by the ChicagoClub. He drank at the whale bar and sawthe collection of shrunken heads.

Roger Haft’s trip to Africa is still on.He is going to Rwanda for trekking withthe gorillas and then to Ethiopia.

Patty Balian is going to Kona for tendays of diving. She will be doing night div-ing for the jellyfish and phosphorescent fish.

Past president of the Society of WomenAdventurers Patricia Sullivan is movingto Del Ray, Florida.

Upon his passing, Ralph White request-ed that his ashes be scattered in farawayplaces. Reda Anderson has met with Celes-tus pilot Charles Schafer who will take Ral-ph’s ashes into space.

Linda Abrams is flying her 1946 ercoupeto Los Angeles airport.

Steve Lawson went down to the Sher-man Library and Gardens in Corona del Mar.He found out that it holds the largest col-lection of memorabilia of Dana and Gin-ger Lamb. Ginger designed our Club flagand there is a Club flag there along withthe bowsprit of the kayak and paddles.There are also 200 photo albums.

Bob Oberto, dressed in a jumpsuit-typeoutfit, told of the Undersea VoyagerProject. The Project will utilize a submers-ible to circumnavigate the Earth on a five-year mission, traveling 27,000 miles under-water. The submersible will cruise between100 and 1,000 feet below the surface.

Its first efforts will be to cross to Catali-na and then go down the coast of BajaCalifornia. A showing and presentation willbe held December 15th at the Aquarium ofthe Pacific in Long Beach.

Eric Simmell told of a remembrance ofJay Fiondello who ran Chez J’s restauranton the Santa Monica pier. It will take placeon December 6th from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.Tony was also an underwater explorer.

Eva Wahlroos is going to London for adedication of a plaque to Peter Heywood.He was a 17-year old midshipman on theBounty. He was tried and convicted for


(Minutes continued from page 15)Minutes – December 4, 2008

16

mutiny, but pardoned. Eva attended theunveiling of a memorial plaque at St.Michael Highgate School in London. Thecommemorative address was given byBounty scholar Donald Maxton. SvenWahlroos had reviewed a manuscript pre-pared by Don.

Robert DeMott and sponsor Paul Is-ley then welcomed and inducted DaveBarr as a new member. Paul read a letterfrom Dave’s commander in South Africawho noted that Dave is one of only twopersons to be awarded the South Africanequivalent of the medal of honor. Dave’sarmored carrier hit a land mine and thoughbadly wounded he aided his friend’s escapefrom the burning vehicle.

Dave lost both legs but resolved to bean achiever. He acquired a Harley David-son and drove north through Africa. Helater drove his motorcycle around Austra-lia, down from northern Alaska to south-ern South America and then across Europethrough Russia and Siberia.

them for explorations of the Titanic, Bismarckand other wrecks.

Vladimir Putin supported Anatoly in hiseffort to put a Russian flag on the bottom ofthe North Pole. A book was written with arough English translation. Anatoly called onPaul to improve the translation which he did.The book is being printed now in Japan.

Metropol, a large Russian conglomerate,then offered to finance an extended explo-ration of Lake Baikal. Anatoly invited Paulto the lake for a dive. He said yes.

The flight from Los Angeles to Chicagoto Moscow to Ulan-Ude took 36 hours in-cluding layovers.

The lake is 395 miles long and 35 to 50miles wide. It is also 4,000 to 5,000 feetdeep. It isthe oldestand deep-est lake inthe world.There isfour tofive kilo-meters of silt on the bottom and then bed-rock. There are about 330 feeders into thelake and only one outlet.

The lake is out in the middle of nowhere.There are no trees and the elevation is1,250 feet. The Trans-Siberian Railroad cir-cles around it. During the winter, it freezesup to 27 feet thick, and cars and truckscan cross it. Paul went for a swim.

Ulan-Ude means red river in Russian. Itspopulation is about 300,000 and the bustof Lenin’s head displayer there is the larg-est of its kind in the world. There are manycolorful structures in the city.

Underwater Exploration of Lake Baikal

Club member Anatoly Sagalevitch wasbrought in to develop the Soviet un-

derwater ex-p l o r a t i o nproject in1987. TheseMir submers-ibles weres u c c e s s f u land RalphWhite con-tacted Ana-toly to use Lake Baikal

Mir being launched


Minutes – January 8, 2009

17


January 8, 2009Bob Zeman (#878)

A local boat was completely modified tohold the two submersibles Mir-1 and Mir-2. A heavy duty, 200-ton crane was truckedin from Vladivostok to be put on the boatto load and unload the Mirs.

The Mirs are made of nickel alloy. Twelvehalves were made and the best four wereused. Two are bolted together. They usesyntactic foam for buoyancy.

The lake’s water is clean and drinkable.The temperature is three degrees centigradeand there are no thermoclines.

There are three viewports on the Mir. Paulsaw a rare blue sponge, small crabs and shrimp.There is lots of rock and mud on the bottom.Core samples were also brought up.

Metropol will be using the Mirs for a num-ber of months for exploration and then theMirs will be brought back to their home portin Kaliningrad.

The Mir program is a follow-on to thePisces project which had previously done

limited ex-p lora t ionof LakeB a i k a l .The Miridea wasconceived

in the United States, designed in Canada, builtin Finland, and then sold to the Soviets.

Bottom of Lake Baikal

Our new president Allan Smith wel-comed the new Board of Directors and

the members to the first meeting of the year.Sadly, the passing of Al Adams #688,

former president of the Club, on January

1st on the great adventure was announced.Al was a marine surveyor who cruised morethan 300,000 mails under sail. On the 50th

anniversary of the Club in 1972, Al gaveeach member a wooden plaque commem-orating the event.

Bob Aronoff noted that the Club’s bur-gees on display were a gift from Al. Al hadsailed with many notables including WalterCronkite. He even made friends with theking of Tonga.

Bob Silver said that Al had the ability toraise money and morale, and referred to thelarge plaque of donors to the building fund.

A memorial to Al will be held on March26th at the Thursday night meeting.

Allan Smith shared some Christmas odd-ities including what to give and what notto give as presents to in-laws.

We received a postcard from Roger Haft whois now in Addis Ababa. He said that he was closeto a dominant male silverback gorilla.

Bob Zeman participated in the annualChristmas bird count in Santa Barbara.There were five bird watchers in his smallarea. One of the five was Jon Dunn whowas the chief consultant on National Geo-graphic’s book Birds of North America. Thespecies count in Santa Barbara was 208which was first in the state. Orange Coun-ty and San Diego followed with 205 each.

Charles Carmona spent a few days inthe Mojave Desert. The Kelso railroad sta-tion has been redone and turned into a mu-seum. He explored the dunes and other ar-eas showing former human habitation.

Jay Foonberg entered the Santa Barbarahalf-marathon and finished. Unfortunate-ly, he tripped over a mound at the finish


(Minutes continued from page 17)

18


line and fell cutting his head. He had tohave 11 stitches. Jay has completed 35 fulland 25 half marathons.

Jay also planned a Caribbean cruise out ofNew Orleans. He flew a day early to Hous-ton. But because his L. A. flight was delayedby five hours, he missed his connecting flightto New Orleans. Not to be denied, he renteda car and drove all night to New Orleans andboarded his cruise ship.

Jim Dorsey took a multi-week trip tothe Yucatan and Guatemala viewing May-an ruins. He saw some Maya ceremoniesthat were not publicized and he rode a 27length zip line in Tikal. He scattered someof Ralph’s ashes at Tikal and Chichen Itza.

Alan Feldstein has tickets to the inau-guration.

Rosalie Lopes will appear on a televisionshow on space on January 16th in the evening.

Don Waters celebrated the 67th anniver-sary of his first date with Jean.

Bob Silver said there is a television showon India on January 12th on PBS. Bob spenta year in the India-Pakistan area long ago.

Steve Bein and Bob Aronoff have com-piled a list of the Club’s programs goingback to 1998.

On January 15th Bernie Harris has in-vited Bob Gilliland to speak to the Air Ven-turers at the Valley Inn.

Allan Smith grew up in Hollywood as a child ac-tor. He rode and raced motorcycles at an early age. Hespent six years in the Marine Corps and later becamea firefighter and paramedic.

He got into adventure film work and did a lot offilming in Alaska. He met the legendary Norman Vaughnand stayed in his cabin. Allan has just returned from 23days in Indonesia with Chuck Jonkey.

Some years ago Allan and Jerry Freeman decided toretrace the route of the 49er expedition which turnedsouth from Cedar City, Utah, and passed througharea 51 and crossed Death Valley. Allan and Jerry’strek took 33 days going 300 plus miles on foot. Theyfound an old trunk holding clothes, coins, dolls, let-ters, a plate and other items. They photographed it,but had to give it back because it was found on Na-tional Park land. The original expedition gave theValley its name.

Your Board of Directors in 6 Minutes

Our new first vice president Steve Beinasked members of the 2009 Board of

Directors to give a six-minute summary oftheir lives and adventures as tonight’s pro-gram.

Jim Heaton our new second vice president raftedthe Snake River. The dory capsized near Grand Falls.Jim almost drowned and needed 12 stitches. He sawwhere Chief Joseph crossed the Snake.

Jim also flew in an Aero Commander in Baja toMalaremo Beach. He later flew in a Cessna to Guerre-ro Negro with a tire that had a leak. On a hop to a saltmine, the plane crashed on landing. The three pas-sengers fled from the plane with minor injuries. Theyacquired a new plane and flew over Scammon’s La-goon and also buzzed a house of prostitution.

Rick Flores was born in Los Angeles and trav-eled to China with his wife before the Tienamen squareincident.

Rick learned scuba diving, and dove the areas off thecoast of southern California. He went by himself toTruk Lagoon and Palau. He met a Brit who aided Rick ingetting down to the 120-foot depths of the wrecks atTruk. He got good views of the wreckage of the Japa-nese auxiliary fleet including an intact light bulb.

Three years ago, he started his Saturday day hikes.He has made 130 of them in the many forests andmountains in the area. He has not seen any big ani-mals, but the flora and fauna are spectacular. He hasvisited many old campsites. His hike to Mt. Pinos isnext on his schedule.

Gene Arias, our new secretary, was born in Coloradoand raised in California. He joined the Naval Reserve at17 and was not sent to Vietnam but to Barbers Point



19

on Oahu. He jumped out of a plane, but at the wrongtime, and landed in a pineapple plantation. He workedfor NBC in the publicity department, and took up run-ning. He has completed the Western States 100. He wasalso the Clinton family photographer.

Later encouraged by Steve Bein and Alan Feldstein,Gene took up kayaking. He was a strong kayaker butcould not swim. He also took up horseback ridingand participates in ride and tie events.

Larry Schutte grew up on Indian reservations inArizona. His parents worked at the trading posts andtraded with the Indians. He and his family were theonly non-indians at a smoke dance on third mesa.

Larry moved to Phoenix in his late teens and formeda band that played in clubs. He hooked up with Son-ny and Cher and played with them for seven years.During this time he traveled around the world fourtimes.

He left that and went to the Art Center School ofDesign and graduated. He now produces videos, slidesand power point productions for big sales meetings.He scuba dives the Bay Islands looking for whalesharks.

Robert Williscroft was born in Montana and grewup in Germany. He came back to the states and be-came a submariner in the Navy. He went on eightpatrols. He entered the University of Washingtonand earned degrees in oceanography and meteorolo-gy. He also trained in Poseidon-class submarines andlearned Vietnamese.

Robert took a one-year advanced Navy divingschool, and dove the Sea of Okhotsk near the Ka-mchatka Peninsula. He joined NOAA and spentthree years in the Arctic. He taught diving to about3,000 persons. He was later sent on a 13-monthtour to the South Pole for atmospheric research.He met Roger Haft, who was his ACLA sponsor.

Stuart Bird-Wilson’s father was a pilot at theBattle of Britain for the RAF. He flew 265 differ-ent types of planes in his career. He completedfour tours in World War II. Stuart grew up in Brit-ain, but he lived in Egypt in 1947-48. He witnesseda man die working on a construction project. Hetraveled from England to South Africa overlandby hitching rides.

He made a sailing trip in the Channel Islands andsurvived a 30-foot wave. He later traveled in WesternEurope and went on to North Africa and Tunis. He ranout of his six-minute limit before he could tell of hiscareer with the British SAS. To be continued.

Steve Peterman was born in Los Angeles andjoined the Navy at 17. He spent 14 years in theservice. He took up sailing, and is on his fourthboat. In the late 80s, he sailed from Moorea toHuahine which has a huge lagoon. He then hitch-hiked to Fare, the largest village on the island andsaw the homes which had gravestones in the yardsmarking burials.

Steve became a friend of Randy Resnick, who wasthe son of Albert Resnick, photographer of AmeliaEarhart.

Bob Oberto was born in Los Angeles and back-packed in the Sierras in his teens. He joined the AirForce at 17 and later entered USC, graduating with adegree in aerospace engineering. He then joined theNavy and went through flight training at Pensacola,FL. He flew A-4 jets on Oahu with VC-1. This wasten years after Gene Arias was in VC-1. Later he flewS3As as part of a carrier squadron and made twowestpac cruises, traveling around the world. He hasmade 200 carrier takeoffs and landings.

Bob got a Master’s degree and worked for JPL as asystems engineer and led Team X. He now workswith Scott Cassell on the Undersea Voyager Project.Rosaly Lopes will make the first official dive on theremodeled submarine in February.

Steve Bein was born at Melrose and La Brea, andgrew up in Alhambra and west L. A. He was studentbody president at LACC. He was also president ofthe California Assn. for Preventive Dentistry. He wentto see the movie Exodus and was inspired to shipout to Israel. He traversed the Panama Canal andMediterranean ports before landing in Haifa. He livedin a kibbutz and hiked the Negev desert. He alsoclimbed Masada and brought back some potsherdswhich he donated to the Club.

Steve later went into dentistry and taught at USC inthree departments. He has been a paraglider pilot,hang glider pilot, single engine airline pilot, scubadiver since 1960, training under the head diver in theWWII OSS frogman team, 4-wheeler, hiker, back-packer and sailboat cruiser. He holds a Coast Guardmaster’s 100-ton cert with sail endorsement, and is aham radio operator among other things.


Book Review - We Die Alone

20

BOOK REVIEW –WE DIE ALONE: A WWII Epic of Escape and EnduranceAuthor: David Howarth, Ace Mass Market Paperback, New York, NY, 1955, reissued by The Lyons Press, Guilford, CT,1999 (272p; paperback), ISBN: 1558219730. Review by Bob Zeman (#878)Editor’s Note: If this story of espionage and survivalwere a novel, readers might dismiss the Shackleton-likeexploits of its hero as too fantastic to be taken seriously.But respected historian David Howarth confirmed thedetails of Jan Baalsrud's riveting tale. In Bob Zemansown words:

islands and then headed toward Swedenwith few clothes, no money, and no identi-fication.

For two and a half months, Jan waschased by the German occupiers. He hadto sleep outside or in an abandoned cabin

for fear of jeop-ardizing thosewho aided him.He sufferedfrom lack offood, lack ofsleep, frostbite,gangrene, snowblindness, andother problems.

For four days,Jan was lost inthe LyngenAlps. He spentthirteen days in

a straw bunk in a ten by seven foot hutalone except for a visitor every few days.Later he was buried in a snow grave at thebase of a rock for two periods of a week ata time. At one point, rescuers walked ontop of his hideout but could not find him.

Even though the Swedish border was lessthan 100 miles away he had to cross nu-merous mountain passes in the snow toavoid his German pursuers.

This is a story of a man who absolutelyrefused to die.

Available online from Amazon.com, and

I have always thought that the book Maw-son’s Will by

Lennard Bickelshowed thegreatest effortsof man’s struggleto survive undersevere weatherconditions. ButWe Die Alone, al-though lesserknown, is anoth-er epic struggleto make it to safehaven.

On March 29,1943, a fishing-boat with 12 men set outfrom the Shetland Islands. Its objective wasto land four saboteurs in German-occupiednorthern Norway, to blow up the Germanairfield Bardufoss.

The plan was to land at Toftefjord andmeet up with an Allied sympathizer whowould give them connections to the baseand then to neutral Sweden. But they werebetrayed by their contact and attacked bythe Germans in a warship.

One of the party, Jan Baalsrud, escapeddespite being wounded. He swam between


Forthcoming ProgramsPrograms / Notes

“Adventures in Mongolia” Andrea DonnallanNONSPONSORED ACTIVITY – “Alaska Aurora Borealis Trip”Dr. Rosaly Lopes

Al Adams (#688) Memorial“The Rolex Sydney Hobart Ocean Race” Bill Star“Update on Phoenix Project (Mars exploration)” Leslie Tamppari“Wilderness Survival and Wild Foods” Chris Nyerges“Petersen Automotive Museum” Dick MesserNONSPONSORED ACTIVITY – “Private tour of the PetersenAutomobile Museum”

LADIES’ NIGHT – “Exploring the Nile” Pasquale Scaturro“Surfing Rabbi” Nachum Shifren“Mapping the World” Will Tefft“The original Sky Chick” Ramona Cox“Members Show Case”

March 19, 2009 –March 19-25, 2009 –

March 26, 2009 –April 2, 2009 –April 9, 2009 –April 16, 2009 –

April 30, 2009 –

May 21, 2009 –

May 7, 2009 –

NOTES

The Club is preparing a book project: Stories from the Adventurers’ Club. This book willcontain stories of adventure from several of our members. We are looking for input,especially from our older members. Please send us your story, keeping the text to between1,500 and 2,000 words, or less – if you are a person who is able to say much with fewwords. If you have a quality illustration or photo to accompany the story, send it as well.We will use it if we can.

If possible, send your material in electronic form, including your illustrations, BUTdon’t let that stop you. If you must, write your story on the back of an envelope and mailit to us. It this was good enough for President Lincoln, I think we can deal with it as well.So get your material in to President Allan, Rick Flores, or myself as soon as you can. Thedeadline is fast approaching.

One more short matter. A large percentage of you have email addresses, but the emailaddress we have on file for some of you is outdated. We really need to have your workingemail address so we can contact you in a hurry. It’s not a big deal – please send us yourcurrent email, and should you change it in the future, please put the Club on your mailingupdate list. Thanks!

April 23, 2009 –April 25, 2009 –

May 14, 2009 –

May 28, 2009 –

February / March 2009

The

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