Andrews 



Technical Advisory Group, as well as the officer responsible for the 



assignment of much of the technical equipment and personnel to Task 



Force 65. Ocean Systems, Inc., also acted as prime contractor for 



all commercial assistance to Task Force 65 in carrying out the 

 H-bomb salvage operation. 



The general purpose of this paper and the paper which follows 

 is to present in brief the significant information contained in the 

 two reports cited before, and in the executive summary report. The 

 author of the first paper was general editor of both the interim and 

 final report and was with Task Force 65 for 10 days assisting in the 

 establishment of an on-scene operations analysis group. The author 

 of the second paper was the principal writer of the executive 

 summary. 



The specific theme of this first paper will be the analysis of 

 the Search, Identification, and Recovery phases of SALVOPS/MED. 

 Significant lessons and recommendations derived from these phases 

 will be listed. 



A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE OPERATION'S SCOPE AND ENVIRONMENT 



The general area of interest is shown in Figure 1. The Naval 

 Task Force which was collected in this area to conduct the salvage 

 operations was ultimately composed of 25 navy ships, four research 

 or commercial ships, four svibmersibles, and over 3000 men. Twenty 

 civilian contractors were used to assist in the operation at a 

 monetary value of effort of 2.1 million dollars. 



The search areas designated by Rear Admiral Guest, Commander 

 Task Force 65, are shown in Figure 2. The first, named Alfa I, was 

 a circle one mile in radius, located approximately 5 miles off- 

 shore, and centered at a point where a local fisherman sighted a 

 large parachute and object falling into the water. The second, 

 named Alfa II, was approximately a semi-circle with radius 4500 

 yards, located immediately adjacent to the beach area where three 

 of the four weapons had been found by Air Force search parties. The 

 other areas, named Bravo and Charlie, were defined from Air Force 

 calculations of possible bomb splash points given various combina- 

 tions of ballistic fall (without parachute) and wind-affected free 

 fall (with parachute deployed). AI and All were considered to be 

 the highest priority areas; Bravo and Charlie were considered to be 

 lowest. 



The bathymetry of the area is given in Figure 3. One can note 

 the relatively flat bottom terrain in All, Bravo, and Charlie, The 

 depth of water in All ranges from to approximately 300 feet. The 

 depth in Bravo and Charlie is 400 feet slowly increasing to 3600 

 feet. The bottom terrain in All was a hard, cemented gravel plat- 

 form with numerous exposed black rocks. The terrain in Bravo and 

 Charlie, on the other hand, was soft silt predicted to be as much 



