11 



With respect to your contacts with the Coast Guard, and I realize 

 that you may leave before the Admiral speaks or whoever it might 

 be, how would you characterize their reaction? I mean, obviously, 

 you have characterized it as being slow, but were they stonewall- 

 ing, or were they just avoiding it altogether? And I realize it is one- 

 sided. You only know what — you made the calls and they either re- 

 sponded or didn't respond, but what, in the course of the seven or 

 eight months when nothing was happening, what was your conclu- 

 sion as to how they were reacting on the other end of it? 



Mr. Levett. They indicated initially that they were excited at 

 the tape and the case being presented to them along with our testi- 

 mony. Subsequently, it seemed to fall somewhat to the wayside. I 

 had a sense that if I hadn't been calling on a fairly regular basis 

 and putting a little bit of a spin on it, that there is just no telling 

 whether progress would have been made or not. They were courte- 

 ous when I spoke with them although in certain instances the offi- 

 cers I spoke with, when I would leave a message, would not call me 

 back. I would have to call them back a week or so later after giving 

 them an opportunity to get to their messages. That was a little irri- 

 tating. 



Mr. Castle. Did you talk to multiple people? I mean, every time 

 you called would you tend to get somebody different, or did you 

 talk to two or three people? How expansive were your contacts by 

 the time it was all done? 



Mr. Levett. I believe I spoke with four officers from the Marine 

 Safety Office; a Lieutenant Jones, a Lieutenant Kubler, a Captain 

 Ross, and another individual whose name I don't recall. My pri- 

 mary contacts were — I believe it was Lieutenant Jones and Lieu- 

 tenant Kubler. 



Mr. Castle. Did they appear to be passing the buck or just not 

 being responsive? In other words, passing it up the line or were 

 they just not being responsive as far as you could ascertain or con- 

 clude? 



Mr. Levett. I think they were somewhat baffled. I think they 

 just simply didn't have enough information how to proceed, and I 

 think they were being cautious — perhaps overly cautious. 



Mr. Castle. Thank you. 



Mr. Tauzin. Thank you, Mr. Castle. Mr. Hochbrueckner for ques- 

 tions? 



Mr. Hochbrueckner. No questions, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Tauzin. Thank you, Mr. Hochbrueckner. Al, we were just 

 commenting, Mr. Coble and I, as strange as it is that we are talk- 

 ing to you in the familiar, but that was part of our agreement here, 

 and yet it is also fitting because I think it is important for us to 

 recognize that you come here as a friend, as a friend of the envi- 

 ronment and marine environment and friend of this committee and 

 a friend of this nation when you and your wife took the trouble not 

 knowing that there was a financial reward in it — took the extreme 

 trouble, not only to report an incident in violation of our laws, but 

 to see to it that public pressure was brought to insist that our 

 agencies of government responded to it properly. 



You make a telling statement. "It was our feeling that the threat 

 of public pressure and the embarrassment of having to explain the 

 eight-month delay in processing our complaint through the nation- 



