NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM— 1969 



THURSDAY, MAY 15, 1969 



House of Representatives. 

 Subcommittee ox Oceanography of the 

 Committee on Merchant Marine and Fisheries. 



Washington., D.C. 



The subcommittee met at 10 :15 a.m., pursuant to recess, in room 

 1334, Long-worth House Office Building, Hon, Alton Lennon (chair- 

 man of the subcommittee) presiding. 



Mr. Lennon. Ladies and gentlemen, the meeting will please come 

 to order. 



You all know that we have been conducting a series of hearings on 

 the Marine Science Commission Report, entitled "Our Nation and the 

 Sea" — and some may wonder why we have invited these gentlemen 

 here today to tell us about Project Tektite. 



This past November I visited the site of this project, and I thought 

 at the time if the four aquanauts were able to accomplish their 60-day 

 stay in the underwater habitat, this subcommittee should recognize 

 their exploit by asking them to come and tell this committee of their 

 accomplishments. 



Since that time, I have had an opportunity to look further into this 

 project and to learn that this was a cooperative effort on the part of 

 several Federal agencies and private industry. Of course, we now 

 know that the vice president, in ceremonies at the White House 

 yesterday, presented each aquanaut the Distinguished Service Award. 

 Unfortunately, subcommittee assignments prevented my attending. 



As the members of the subcommittee know, the basic theme of the 

 commission report is one of cooperation among all sectors in the marine 

 sciences, to form a truly dynamic national marine science effort. 



I believe the other gentlemen here share my enthusiasm for the 

 accomplishments of Project Tektite. and you can understand why I 

 invited the full committee, and Mr. Teague's Science and Astronautics 

 Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight. 



I might call to the attention of our distinguished visitors that this 

 morning the Space Committee is marking up their annual authorization 

 bill. We have a number of members of this subcommittee who are also 

 members of that committee, and after they complete the action on that 

 bill we expect them here. 



Our colleagues, Representatives Teague, Giaimo, and Shipley, all 

 visited the Tektite project site during the operation. We expect those 

 gentlemen shortly. 



(197) 



