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My name is Jerry Hogan. In 1979, I was an MM2 (SS) who had been riding around on the Abe Lincoln
(SSBN-602) out of Hawaii/Guam for almost four years. I decided to "expand my horizons", so a buddy
and I put in for Navy Divers' School, and I was accepted (my buddy was not). I was given a class date at
the school in San Diego, but weeks before I was scheduled to go, there was a fire at the school and my
class date was postponed. It was going to take almost a year to get into another class -- I was devastated.
I got a call from my *(help me with the word, here -- what do they call the guy that helps you find
billets? I want to say "detailer", but I think that's wrong -- please insert the word, if you know it),
who said that he was sorry for the problem, but that he had another set of orders he thought I would
like. He told me I could ship out on the same date I was already planning on (in April), and become
a crew member on the Trieste II (DSV-1) -- what the HECK is that, I seem to recall saying. He gave
me a brief explanation -- enough to get me interested, and told me that I had a couple of days to
decide, but that it was a highly valued billet, and that I would be crazy to pass it up. I spent the next
few days reading up on the Trieste (I even read Piccard's book), and decided it WAS a great
opportunity, so off I went.
I arrived in San Diego on a Friday evening in the middle of April, 1979, only to find the Point Loma
virtually abandoned for the weekend. There was the Trieste, nestled in the dockwell, the "trailers"
were stationed just forward of it, but there was no Trieste "crew". The (skeleton) Pt. Loma crew
was of little help (maybe a bit of foreshadowing for how the Trieste crew was treated by the Pt.
Loma crew), so I just found a rack and settled in as well as I could.
I rode out the weekend and met up with the crew on Monday morning, just in time to (literally) castoff
and head to sea for a months-long op that would take me half way around the world, and provide me
with a crash course in DSV operations. We left port that morning and didn't return for almost eight
months! We dove off the coast of southern California, moved down to Panama and did a few dives
there, then through the Panama Canal. We dove off of Florida a couple of times -- I seem to recall that
this was where we dove in a Mk 48 torpedo testing range there (though I MIGHT be mistaken -- we DID
dive on a testing range, but I may be remembering the location incorrectly). Point being that I vividly
recall having to spend an entire evening trimming copper "trailing wire" off of the lead ball that the
Trieste used to maintain depth (called?). The wire had accumulated as the ball was dragged around the
range -- apparently the whole area is covered in this wire, and the lead ball proved to be a good tool
for dredging it up. We then pulled into Ft. Lauderdale just in time for spring break (no bad deal, there!).
We worked our way up the east coast, all the way to Nova Scotia, where we spent over a week refitting
and preparing for an extended trip into the Atlantic.
Exactly where we dove was (is) classified, but suffice it to say there was some EXTREMELY
interesting diving done. We took miles of photos, grabbed some samples, and took some radiation
measurements around "a sunken US nuclear submarine". We spent quite awhile in that general area, then
moved to another area to do a similar operation. I'll NEVER forget developing hundreds of feet of
120 roll film from one of the cameras that clicked away during the entire dive to generate a "trail"
of photos for the records. There were literally hundreds of photos of the wreckage -- some were
very difficult to look at, and even more difficult to think about.
The Pt. Loma went dead-in-the-water in the middle of the Atlantic, and had to be towed into the
nearest port by the a passing ship. We ended up in the Azore Islands for about a week -- beautiful place
with great food/wine.
We went back out into the Atlantic and made a couple more dives, then worked our way back down
the coast to Norfolk, where we refitted/regrouped and headed back down the coast, back through the Canal,
and back home to San Diego. It was a (long) eventful trip -- we set several records for the Trieste, including
longest dive, most dives in a period of time, quickest turnaround between dives, and I'm not sure what
else, but suffice it to say it was a busy cruise. A fitting "last tango" for the boat, as it was decomm'ed shortly
thereafter. I got out of the Navy and moved back to Texas, where I live today with my (beautiful) wife and
two sons.
Too many brain cells have fallen by the wayside to allow for total recall, but I remember a few of the
crew members' names: Gary Winkelman, Richie Daniello, Misha (Michael) Yermakov, Chris Lampmann.
The skipper was Les Parsons, and the Eng. Officer was Burt Tharp.
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