Dear Maryanna: 
Progress Report 27: Six ATF' s sunk, all personnel hung in the sun to 
shrivel. Other big wheels covered with honey and staked out on ant hills. 
; ' 1, '■ Project data burned. - w It's a shame to have to wake up 
from such great dreams. As the last ATF sinks in the -west one sees Captain R v 
swim ing frantically for shore where two S.I. personnel are slowly roastirg 
Huber over some hot guano.( This typewritten doesn't wrtietvpe so great 
since Huber but.p the luggage on the airplane - sf> r ta ike warned it.) 
To return to the serious and muck-a-dav world. T, • going great 
The Present Party works sro hard that they accumulate a great back log of 
records, etc. which k°eos there nobile leader working until all hours of the 
forenoon* 
Unlike previous trips there is nothing to bitch about and Hackman and I 
spend all day hitfrkLng things and then jumping on some poor assistant for 
misplacing it. The assistant then has to race off and find it and return 
with rrorer excuses. 
The ship is still the best one we have had (i.e next to Lipan of Feb., 1964 
although the captain is a little dangerous on the Islands. "Say Fred did You 
see my new pistol. It shoots 75 rounds a minute. Watch! " At this point the 
entire libetty party starts digging down to the water table while the captain 
riddles everything in sight and half a do ze n objects on the next island. I 
don't know how good he is sober but after 1 beer ( case that is) he caAt even 
hit a twenty foot &h8 sand bank. He has very kindly offered to exterminate 
t e cats on Jarvis with his trusty (i.e always goes off) over and under, 
automatic ..with automatic reloading of magazine, rapid fire, 400 mm noise 
maker. H Ji ,.„an says he can't bare to see anyone kill a cat and that he will 
stay on the ship (far side) while the captain is on the island. 
ihe ship brought along 50 cases of beer which they dole out three cases to 
q .liberty party. The captain comes over with all the nondrinkers and the X0 
° drinkers. ••• t, first 1 thought this was because the captain didn't like 
drunken sailors around. It turns out that the real reason is that the captain 
doesn't like to see people drinking HIS!!! beer. If he doesn't get at least 
a case once a week he snaps and snarls until the next rarty* 
ihe photographer is really a load of laughs. Since the equator crossing 
he has been all smiles and lugs his ten tons of equipment all over the island 
to get the true flavor of ATF life( yes he even sank in up to his knees and 
had to be nulled out), 0n*S Sydmey Island he got even with Hackman while 
photographing our hero assistant leader fighting his way out of waist deep 
guano. Just as Doug started down for the third time Bill velled"wait. hold it, 
I have to change film." After three minutes Doug was allowed to continue his 
struggle !or freedom. Needless to say H a ck was finished for the day, 
A1 ( death) and Paul (near death) are finally adjusting to the rigors of 
aTF life. Merrill after being counted out of the ring has sprung back with 
- second wind and is going strong. Sibley not having to contend with Huber 
or Clapp has found that there is nothing to be sick about on these ships aad 
is h-ving a great time. Even breaking all Hubers old records by turning out 
75 birds in one dav. Long has found that growing a beard wards off seasickness. 
Unfortunately he shaved it off yesterday and hasn't moved out of his rack since. 
Hacks one big pleasure in life is to complain and he'.q not going to change now 
" just because we have a few new assistants." 
