590 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



Mr. Dow. You are certainly right. 



Thank you. 



Mr. TuppER. Mr. Chairman, if I may, if Commander Walsh has no 

 objections, I would like to make a part of the record the biographical 

 information on Commander Walsh. He is a very modest man, and 

 I think that the record should show he has had the Legion of Merit 

 Award by President Eisenhower and a great many significant awards. 

 I think this might be very helpful as part of our record. 



Mr. Casey. It also shows that he chose Texas A. & M. to further his 

 studies. 



Mr. TuppER. I think so. 



Commander Walsh. It also shows I am an admiral in the Texas 

 ISTavy, Mr. Casey. 



[Laughter.] 



Mr. Caset. There is certainly no objection to putting that into the 

 record. 



(Information referred to follows :) 



Biographical Information : Lt. Comdr. Don Walsh, U.S. Navt 



Lieutenant Commander Walsh was bom in Berkeley, Calif., and attended 

 schools in the San Francisco Bay area until his graduation from Alameda High 

 School in 1949. In 1950 he entered the Naval Academy from which he graduated 

 in 1954. 



His naval career began in January 1949, when he enlisted in the Naval Air 

 Reserve at Naval Air Station, Oakland, Calif. He received his appointment 

 to the U.S. Naval Academy through the Naval Reserve in 1950. After gradua- 

 tion from U.S. Naval Academy with the class of 1954 he participated in the 

 Bermuda yacht race on board a Navy sailboat before reporting to Coronado, 

 Calif., for Naval Amphibious Warfare School. After 2 months at this school 

 he reported to his first ship, the U.S.S. Mathews (AKA-96), an attack cargo 

 ship. During 2 years in the Mathews, Lieutenant Commander Walsh held 

 many jobs on board, ending his tour as the ship's navigator. In 1956 he was 

 ordered to the U.S. Naval Submarine School at New London, Conn., for the 

 6-month course of instruction for submarine duty. In January 1957 he reported 

 aboard the submarine Rasher (SSR-269) at San Diego, Calif., where he served 

 until September 1958. During this time he qualified in submarines and was 

 promoted to lieutenant. In September 1958, he was ordered to duty on the 

 staff of Commander Submarine Flotilla One in San Diego where he served 

 until March 1959 when he was ordered to duty as ofiicer in charge bathyscaphe 

 Trieste at the Navy Electronics Laboratory, San Diego, Calif. After a 3%-year 

 tour with the Trieste, Lieutenant Commander Walsh was ordered to the sub- 

 marine Sea Fox ( SS^02) at San Diego in the summer of 1962. During 9 months 

 aboard the Sea Fox he served as the operations officer and navigator. In March 

 1963 he attended Prospective Commanding Officer School for submarines and 

 in April qualified for command of submarines. April also brought another 

 change of duty when he was ordered to report to the submarine Bugara ( SS-331) 

 for duty as executive officer. He was detached from this San Diego based ship 

 in November 1964 in order to accept a scholarship in oceanography at Texas 

 A. & M. University in College Station, Tex. He reported to Texas A. & M. in 

 mid-January 1965. 



Lieutenant Commander Walsh is married to the former Joan Betzmer of 

 Carlsbad, Calif., and they now live at 405 Fairway Drive, Bryan, Tex., 77803. 



One of the high points of his career was his tour as the officer in charge of 

 the bathyscaphe Trieste. As pilot of the Navy's first deep submersible he helped 

 pioneer deep ocean research in the United States. Though many important 

 diving operations were conducted during his 3i/^ years with this program the 

 best known of these was the nearly 7-mile-deep dive made into the deepest known 

 part of the ocean. This dive took place in January 1960, in the Challenger Deep 

 located in the Marianas Trench some 200 miles southwest of the island of Guam 

 in the western Pacific. This dive was the final dive in a 6-month series of deep 

 dives known as Project Nekton. The four principal pilots of the Trieste during 



