584 NATIOISTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



are important, but we must have a vigorous ocean technology pro- 

 gram, and this must be considered not as a separate bill or separate 

 area but as an integral part of any national plan, and we have talked, 

 I feel, too much, about oceanography here as an entity unto itself. 



We must relate it to our national goals, we must relate it to the appli- 

 cation of this knowledge, technology, and finally, we must consider 

 human resources, because education in this country is receiving a 

 great deal of interest. Currently I am in graduate school myself 

 in oceanography at Texas A, & M. University, and I sense the interest 

 of these young people but I also feel that we must develop more 

 facilities. 



The final area I would like to present to you is that there has been, 

 I feel, something of a critical tone, and I may be wrong, just a thread 

 through these hearings that we are somewhat critical of what has 

 been done to date. 



I would take the other tack and say that we should be very grateful 

 to this very small band of dedicated scientists, administrators, and 

 technologists who have carried the great load since, say, 1958, when 

 oceanography and ocean technology really began to move in this 

 country. Through their own inertia they have worked in the dark- 

 ness doing what they thought was best for the Nation. From this we 

 have seen our national programs triple or quadruple in these 7 

 years. Despite lack of formal organization we have done well. 



I think it is amazing that we do not have to take our hat off to 

 any nation as far as our progress in imier space is concerned. We 

 are not involved in me-tooism, we are not trying to catch up with 

 a sputnik clamor; we evolved, and our program is competitive with 

 any program in the world. 



Granted, we have finished I would say, the first generation of 

 growth, and now it is time to organize, it is now time to define our 

 goals, it is now time to provide an essential framework, a skeleton 

 upon which to really take off. 



I do feel that the commendation from this committee would be in 

 the best interests of all of these dedicated men who have tried to play 

 it the way they saw it. Of course we have had proliferation of pro- 

 grams as we grew up in the dark. 



It would be a very fine thing, I think, if this committee went on 

 record as acknowledging and thanking the efforts of these unsung 

 heroes who work in the clamor of the space age, because we certainly 

 are in the space age today, who felt that our real future lies in the 

 ocean. I doubt that much wheat or food resources will come from 

 space ; and I wonder what the cost of mineral resources from the moon 

 might be by the time they are shipped back to earth. 



I believe that the United States should be engaged in two world- 

 important programs — one, our space effort, and the other, our "inner 

 space" effort. 



On this note I would like to complete my testimony and I thank you 

 very much for the opportunity to be here. 



Mr. Rogers. Thank you very much, Commander Walsh, that is an 

 excellent statement and I think you have pretty well summarized for 

 us here a lot of the testimony that has been given. 



I think there has been a critical note, I would agree with you, come 

 forth in the hearing throughout the questioning, not so much as criti- 



