REFLECTIONS OF A TEKTITE WATCH DIRECTOR 



EDITORS NOTE 



The following treatise, prepared by one of the TEKTITE watch 

 directors from the Department of the Interior, was forwarded to 

 the program office several months after the program was completed. 

 The document so aptly describes conditions existing throughout 

 much of the program that it was decided to include it as part of 

 the program report. It conveys quite well the spirit of the 

 program which is so difficult to describe in an otherwise formal 

 report. 



People, and what they did, is what this report is all about. Scientific 

 accomplishment was the purpose of TEKTITE II and many people's reward for 

 their efforts. Not only the efforts of the aquanaut scientists who performed 

 brilliant research tasks underwater, but the equally strenuous and inspired 

 efforts of support personnel above water. It was they who watched over the 

 aquanauts and insured them against the many hazards that might disturb their 

 lives beneath the sea. 



Little has been said for those topside who provided vital "logistic support" 

 for the 11 missions of TEKTITE II. Since their efforts were crucial to the 

 success of these missions, how and what they did is just as important as what 

 the aquanauts themselves accomplished. This treatise is devoted to what moti- 

 vated the topside team to perform their tasks so well. 



Early in the project the judgment was made to staff the project from a wide 

 range of disciplines. And rather than fix solely upon specific required tal- 

 ents, to look as well for what else each selected individual could offer the 

 program: There indeed proved to be nothing routine or ordinary about the tasks 

 these individuals would be called upon to do; thus, this method of selection 

 proved to be an immensely sound judgment. 



Life in a bush camp was a brand new experience for many of these people. And 

 a bush camp it was, complete with all the "amenities" of damp cots, humid 

 sticky weather, drenching rains, the ever-present contingents of bugs, lizards, 

 spiders, and other crawling things they'd have to make friends with- -and roads 

 that were forever a sea of mud. 



After a brief period of shock, each fell to, many finding themselves doing 

 things they never thought they could. Nowhere had there been earlier mention 

 of such tasks in their list of duties: They found that much of what they were 

 called upon to do fell within that classic last line of most job descriptions, 

 "... and other duties as assigned." Now, far from their nine-to-five coat-and- 

 tie desk jobs, they quickly abandoned both: There were jobs to do all the time, 

 and a dress fashioned somewhat along the lines of Blackbeard's crew proved to 

 be their best choice of habit for bush camp living. 



A sense of himior became every man's best friend--and the grease that allowed 

 this strange society of talents, so far from home, to function smoothly. This 



IV-15 



