due to the potential loss of the supporting ships for towing 

 and escorting services, the continuance of unfavorable 

 weather for diving operations, and the necessity to return 

 the majority of the project'stemporary personnel to their 

 original assignments at NEL. It was decided to leave the 

 bathyscaph on its cradle at SRF, Guam, and to leave all 

 equipment in place at the project headquarters at SRF 

 while the crew returned to NEL, San Diego, for reorgan- 

 ization and formulation of plans for additional diving 

 operations. 



March- May 1960. TRIESTE crew at NEL prepared 

 plans for Project NEKTON II, implementing permanent 

 staff with additional military and civilian personnel prior 

 to returning to Guam for the second series of diving opera- 

 tions. 



18 May 1960. Advance group of Project NEKTON II 

 personnel arrive at Guam to establish operations base. 

 Local supporting ships were available. Weather was 

 suitable for operations. 



12 June 1960. The bathyscaph was launched after 

 completing some minor repair work and installation of 

 equipment. 



15 June 1960. Two harbor dives were made for ma- 

 terial test and operating review for the two pilots, LTs 

 Walsh and Shumaker. 



21 June 1960. Dive Nos. 73 and 74 were made to 

 depths of 1070 feet and 1455 feet, respectively. First 

 solo ocean dives for LTs Walsh and Shumaker. These 

 dives marked the commencement of Project NEKTON II, 

 a program to measure sound velocity profiles at various 

 depths from ocean surface to sea floor. The original 

 intention was to culminate this diving series with a second 

 dive to 35, 800 feet to obtain a sound velocity profile in 

 the deepest known spot in the ocean. 



25 June 1960. Third dive of NEKTON II series was 

 made to a depth of 8530 feet. 



1 July 1960. LT L. A. Shumaker, USN, and Dr. A. B. 

 Rechnitzer made the deepest dive of Project NEKTON II 

 to a depth of 18, 900 feet in the Marianas Trench. It was 

 decided that a deep dive in the Challenger Deep would not 

 be possible during this diving series because of the 



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