The Reminiscences
                       of
        Vice Admiral Philip A. Beshany
              U.S. Navy (Retired)

             U.S. Naval Institute
             Annapolis, Maryland
                     1983

start page 556 .....

Well, anyhow, I received my orders to Submarine Squadron
16, which was a real bonanza because I had had a squadron
before, and this was kind of a bonus squadron.

Q: You must have been delighted at this.

v. Adm. B.: I was. It was a real challenge, because I knew
the problems that were besetting the introduction of the
squadron into Spain, which was the site selected.

Q: What would the problems be?

v. Adm. B.: Primarily, that the Spaniards were going through
the base negotiations again and were really holding us up for
more money and aid and restrictions on how we could operate
and not operate, and so on, than "the powers that be" were
willing to accept.

Q: Was this across-the-board with them? Did it pertain to
other bases over there too?

v. Adm. B.: It was a whole package, but it was all the focus
really, and the cause celebre was their knowledge that we needed
Rota for a viable, credible, strategic deterrent location with
the missiles we then had coming into inventory. We then had
the A-2, and the A-1 was being phased out and we were bringing
in the A-3, but still the most effective way to keep the system
on target to the most effective degree would be to base in
Europe with that missile. You know, today with the longer
range missile Trident we are able to pull back. With the
Polaris and the Poseidon you still have to have forward basing
for maximum effectiveness. Poseidon gives us a little more
leverage but not much more. There are ways to get more with
the Poseidon than you can with the A-3.

In any eventuality, I knew that this was the case. I knew
that I had a very difficult period ahead of me, and it was
bringing in a brand new type ship, namely, the Lafayette class.
I knew that we were going to have the A-3 missile support,
and I knew the political ramifications were going to be very
knotty.

Q: Who was handling the negotiations?

v. Adm. B.: Well, it was being handled by State and the
military and the ambassador over in Madrid, I think it was
Woodward.

Q: Stanley Woodward?

v. Adm. B.: He was in South America and I knew him from
before. I met him in South America and he was ambassador to
Uruguay then, a very fine gentleman. In any eventuality, he
was negotiating and a major general in the Air Force named
Donovan -- Moose Donovan, who was very active. The reason he
was very active is he was chief of the military assistance
group, but he also had a very close relationship, spoke fluent
Spanish, had a close relationship with the Secretary of the
Navy, the Minister of the Navy.

Q: In Spain?

v. Adm. B.: In Spain. As such, he wielded a lot of influence
and the ambassador used him to the max. He was very active,
of course, with us and he really became very helpful to me
later on.

Q: Did you, as commander of this submarine squadron get
involved in the negotiations?

v. Adm. B.: Yes, I did, but it was very carefully structured.
First off, when I left the staff I went through a series of
indoctrinational briefings, I went to Dam Neck, Virginia, for
instruction in the new fire control system that was in the
Lafayette-class submarine. It was a very power-packed
period, and I was able to pick and choose what I wanted to do
as far as instruction went and briefings, and also in
requesting briefings. Admiral Grenfell called me down and
said, "You lay out your own program and do those things you
need, but here are a couple of suggestions along the way." I
also talked to Admiral Galantin up in Washington about the
technical side of the house, those things that I would need
to know. So, I went through that period and then I went into
the political aspects and talked to the people in OpNav.

Q: Did you have any restrictions placed upon you by the
technical people?

v. Adm. B.: No, no, I look back at it now and I marvel at
the free hand I had and the fact that really nobody was
worrying about what I was doing. I just wonder how many
people could get away with that today, would be permitted
to do it. I don't understand it now --

Q: Well, you must have earned that confidence.

V. Adm. B.: The only thing I can suspect is that Admiral
Grenfell just gave me carte blanche. He never said that as
such, but I simply went about my way and did those things I
thought I should do. I went to Spain completely on my own.
I went to Madrid, but did send a message from my little
nucleus staff I had up in New London to the effect that I was
coming over there to look at the site and to pay a call on
General Donovan. When I got there, he said, "My gosh, you
know, this is scary seeing you here." He said, "'Did you get
my message back to come over here without wearing your
dolphins, the submarine insignia?" I said, "Yes, I did get
that." I was in civilian clothes at the time, but I'd even
left it back at the ranch because I didn't want to mistakenly
put it on. They said, "Well, OK, I would suggest when you go
down to Rota and you do wear your uniform that you not associate
yourself in any way in discussions with, except for a few people,
about what you're doing there, why you're there, that you're a
submariner.

Well, that was an effort in futility, because before I got
there, the people, the commanding officer and the Commander
Naval Activities Spain, who was located in Rota, had well
advertised the fact that the new commander of Submarine
Squadron 16, who was going to be coming in here, will be
arriving at such and such a time. I was met by an entourage
of people on the base, which was both good and bad. I didn't
want the focus of attention and I'd have been very happy to
just have a car meet me and whisk me off to the commanding
officer's office and then we'd sit down and talk about all the
problems I was foreseeing and the questions I had. I had a
slew of questions to be asked for the entry of the tender and
subsequently the submarines. We needed a lot of things in
the way of support, reception of materials and personnel
transfer and so on, and housing and accommodations, you know.
Such a tremendous logistic effort that goes on that people
don't appreciate.

Q: Well, how much surveillance did the Spanish Government
maintain over the Rota base?

V. Adm. B.: Very much. In fact, it was commanded by an ,
admiral. The base was commanded by a Spanish admiral. It
was a Spanish base on which the U.S. had all the facilities.

Q: Through sufferance?

V. Adm. B.: Yes.

Q: Complete sufferance.

V. Adm. B.: Yes, it was completely a Spanish base, and we were
permitted to fly our flag, but the commanding spot on the base,
the highest point of land with the dominating flag, was the
Spanish flag with the Spanish admiral with his headquarters
and about two or three small, as we call them, "spit kits,"
about the equivalent of a minesweeper.

Q: That's all he had. 

V. Adm. B.: That's all he had and the guards at the gate. 
Of course, we had our own Marines backing them up, and we had
a fairly extensive naval air station, but it was a sleepy
operation.

Q: What was the attitude of the Spanish Navy toward this
whole project?

v. Adm. B.: Well, I'll dwell on that in a little while here,
but basically very good, very warm.

Q: Somewhat different from the political --

v. Adm. B.: Even that turned out to be a lot warmer. They
were just looking out for themselves and looking out for --

Q: Looking for the money.

v. Adm. B.: They were looking for the money. It turned out
that the cormnanding officer of the base, whom I did meet, but
not on that trip, turned out to be a friend, the former naval
attache in Washington and a very close, personal friend of
Admiral Rebel Lowrance. So, I had a good entree right off
the bat when I came back officially.

Well, my reception by the senior naval aviators --
don't forget, I came into a very nice, peaceful, happy setup
for the naval aviation community. This particular station at
Rota was a sleepy, pretty much a backwater operation.

Q: Southern Spain.

v. Adm. B.: Southern Spain, lovely setting, and here was this
annoying character coming in with all kinds, they probably
called them, demands or requirements, whatever. He's going
to louse up the whole setting. He's going to make this a bee-
hive of activity, and I can just see what's going to happen.
You know, the kinds of reaction I was getting from some. In
all fairness, I didn't get it from all. The commanding officer
of the naval station turned out to be a very, very cooperative
and friendly person, but most of the senior naval aviators
looked at the introduction of Polaris as a real thorn in their
side. They gave it that kind of treatment.

I'll never forget the first question popped at me, literally
the first question. They found out I was the senior captain.
I would be the senior captain on the scene, was "You're not
thinking of kicking me out of my quarters, are you?"

Q: That says a lot. 

V. Adm. B.: That's a whole mouthful right there, and I was
inwardly incensed, because I had such big problems in my mind
that my personal housing was the last darn thing I was going
to come to, even though I wanted to take care of my family,
that was way downstream in my mind. I had to worry about the
moorings, the reception area, how the personnel would be 
handled in transit, recreational facilities for the tender
people. You know, we had over 1,100 people on the tender to
bring in all of a sudden into a fairly small base complex and
the sailors have got to do something or they'll get in trouble.

Q: Well, this base had been negotiated back in the '50s, but
it was --

v. Adm. B.: Never designated for this though, for the support
of Polaris. 

Q: Was not that in the back of our minds at the time? 

v. Adm. B.: No, this came out of a base survey conducted about
a year or so before.

Q: I see.

V. Adm. B.: And it looked like the most logical place to go 
to provide submarines for the Mediterranean areas and for the
north and, you know, all of the patrol areas that we had.

Q: As I remember, John Lodge was one of the chief negotiators
in the '50s when he was ambassador over there.

v. Adm. B.: Yes, and then he was back again, you know, later
on. Well, in any event, I sensed the problems I was going to
have and the fact that we were not there officially, that the
squadron was not coming in in an official status, really posed
a major problem to me, because nothing could be done until
the squadron's position was legalized. No support could be ear-
marked. There were no funds to be designated for any facility
development, even though it was well known we were coming in
by this time in Defense and in Congress, but in Congress it was
being fought rather viciously by the -- they weren't hawks or
doves -- but it was those who were opposed to us getting
involved in another European country, those who felt that we
were being held up for lots of reasons, so it was not easy
getting Congressional support for this military move.

Q: Well, that had something to do with Franco himself.

V. Adm. B.: Yes, Franco was a symbol to many people of
Fascism and World War II and Hitler support and, you know,
the whole background of Spain is a tough one.

Q: The same opposition didn't pertain to Scotland.

V. Adm.B.: No, it did not, although there were people, of
course, who were opposed to the Holy Loch in Congress. There
still are to this day.

Q: But that's the nuclear aspect of it.

v. Adm. B.: That's right, that and being involved overseas,
but that's more the ultra-liberals. I did let the base com- 
mander and the naval activities commander know what I foresaw
our needs to be and asked that they get them at least in the
planning stages, and then I got into housing for people as my
last subject. There, I ran into a stone wall. They immediately
pointed to the fact that we were not coming in officially, and 
therefore, would not be entitled to housing. Of course, they
were covering themselves. They didn't want anybody to make
an inroad into their housing.

Q: Well, how much space was actually available on base?

v. Adm. B.: It was limited, but I think there was something
like 400 units, so it wasn't exactly paucity, but there was
not enough to go around for their needs and our needs, certainly.
As I said, I brought in 1,100 enlisted men with the tender and
as I recall it there were 400 or more requiring housing for
their families because they were pretty senior people. These
were all technical people and very capable individuals that
you can't afford to have unhappy. They've got to feel that
their families are going to be coming along, you know, with
some place to go, and boy, that became one of my biggest head-
aches, trying to get support for housing which is a whole
other story.
	
About the end of my first visit there --

Q: And that was when, in October?

v. Adm. B.: This was in November. President Kennedy was
assassinated the day I left.

Q: From Spain.

v. Adm. B.: The day I left from Spain which was in November,
I think, it was around the 20th, right around there. The reac-
tion over there was remarkable. Everybody, the Spaniards, took
it so hard. They literally went into a state of mourning. As
I later found out it was prevalent worldwide.

Q: Yes.

v. Adm. B.: And I was to see it years later, people still talk-
ing about it, but between Rota and getting on the aircraft --
I flew back commercially out of Madrid -- I was accosted by any
number of Spaniards who expressed their grief to me and then
broke down crying. It was fantastic. I had never seen such
an expression of deep sorrow for a national leader as I
experienced in that period, and then got back to the United
States just in time to cross Washington the day of the funeral.
That was another shocker, because here was Washington that I
knew, a bustling, busy, thriving city and absolutely like a
ghost town. I drove from Union Station over to National Air-
port and it was just like a ghost city, nothing, no traffic.

Later I marveled that I got a cab and I flew down to Norfolk
to report in down there about the results of my trip and
witnessed the funeral on TV down in Norfolk, which as we all
well know was a very moving and momentous occasion.
Well, I reported in to Admiral Grenfell. He had me in 
session and I told him how I perceived this and what I had
done, and he immediately started to pick up the phone and
issued orders to take care of all these things in spite of the
fact that we had no official status. He wanted the ball to
get going and he made contacts for me in Washington. He said, 
"You go on up there and see these folks now and tell them what
your needs are, tell them how you perceive it and take it from
there." Well, that proved to be a real bonanza, this absolute,
utter support.

I went up to Washington, I saw several people. I made
my first visit to Washington and first met Tom Morris who was
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense at that time for Installa-
tions and Logistics relative to housing. I told him the
problem, I spilled it out the best I could in that one short
visit. He said, "Well, when you get settled over there, come 
on back again and tell me in more specific terms what kind of
help you need." In the meantime, he started looking into all 
kinds of ways to provide emergency housing, like trailers and
leasing. Of course, Spanish leasing is very unusual as we
found out, but he explored a number of things. He started it
going right away, and I told him what the housing needs were
and he said, "You realize, of course, that military construction 
takes a long time and you can't wait for that, but in the
meantime we'll try to lease some housing. We'll try to get
some trailers and I assume that some housing might be available
for you on the base." Well, I didn't tell him of my military
problems that I perceived. I didn't know how bad it was at
that time either. It turned out to be even worse than I had
expected, but I did have that quick visit out there and it
turned out to be a very beneficial one.

Then I reported back to New London where my family was
and reported to Admiral Lowrance on the logistics side of the
problem that we were up against over there. Of course, I got
the immediate wholehearted support which I got all along from
stateside. I always look back on that as one of the highlights.
The whole experience was that there was no question about the
people back here in Washington, at Norfolk and up in New London.
They knew the priority of the effort; they knew the importance
of getting Polaris bedded down in Rota and getting it to be a
viable forward base, there's no question about it. Anything
that was needed they would provide, but there was always that
bugaboo of the unofficial status, and the funds could not be
allocated until Spain agreed to the treaty.

Q: Was it to be a treaty or was it a --

v. Adm. B.: It's an agreement, base agreement. Then I returned
back to Charleston where my staff was now located. We had,
moved out of New London and went to the USS Holland, which was
to become our tender eventually, but it was a brand-new tender,
and it had Captain Charley S. Styer as the first commanding
officer. He is the son of the former "Gin" Styer. Did you
ever know Admiral Styer? He was a ComSubLant. 

Q: Gin, did you say?

v. Adm. B.: Well, that's a nickname he had, Gin, I think.
He was also Charley Styer but nicknamed Gin, a very famous -
man in the Navy of yore. As I say, he was Commander of Sub-
marine Force Atlantic and he was of the vintage of Charley
Lockwood. 

Q: Oh, I see. 

V. Adm. B.: That era, very close, personal friend of Charley
Lockwood; but young Charley was going all out getting that
tender in just topnotch shape, all the latest equipments and
support features that this tender had, which was a new type
tender specifically built from the keel up as an FBM tender.
In January of 1964 I flew over with my staff to Holy Loch and
we boarded the Proteus, which was the World War II tender that
had been the first conversion for Polaris support and she was 
to be our interim tender. She was to take us to Rota from
Holy Loch when we got clearance, and there she would set up
shop and take on the first few upkeeps until we got the Holland
over there. Well, we waited and waited with expectations and
every day I kept waiting, when are we going to be able to go?
But in the meantime, we were able to watch the Hunley and
Squadron 14 in action. Later to be Admiral Bell, Dave Bell, 
was then the squadron commander, and I had a good chance to
break in my own staff, observing the refits going on up there
with the submarines, the George Washington and the Ethan Allen
class.

Q: How much close knowledge did you have of the development
of the negotiations in Madrid?

v. Adm. B.: At this time, it was pretty remote and I was
located in the Holy Loch, and all I got was the feedback of
message traffic that was sent to us from Admiral Grenfell.
So, it was only that kind of information and I was not in-
volved at this point in time.

Q: And you couldn't move in the Proteus until some progress --

v. Adm. B.: I could not do anything, that's right. Well, by
the end of January, we were getting pretty anxious because the
first submarine, the USS Lafayette, was to come into Rota for
her first refit and that submarine was at sea on patrol and
didn't know where it was going to go, whether it was going to
go to Rota or whether it was going to Holy Loch. Would we be
in Rota ready to receive her, or would we have to stay in
Holy Loch and take her up there which would really clog things
up?

Q: Now she was a part of your squadron?

v. Adm. B.: Yes, she was part of Squadron 16, and in those
days we had integral squadrons. Today, it's a different system
as we got more and more submarines. We rotate them through,
but at that time the squadrons were integral. So, about the
last week of January we got an inkling that we were going to
get a temporary permit to go into Rota, and we did, so we
immediately set sail and had a fairly uneventful but rough 
trip down to Rota because that's the rough time of the year
in that part of the world.

Q: Rough part of the ocean too. 

v. Adm. B.: So, he went into Rota and without any fanfare or
anything. Admiral Pardo, the Spanish commander, did meet us
and the base commander and the Commander, Naval Activities.
Well, they all met us down on the pier when we tied up and had
a very pleasant meeting, very brief, structured and then we got
about our business of setting up shop, because we really had a
big, tall order ahead of us getting ready for the first refit.
I also had to go through the routines, of course, of making the 
proper calls. I called back on Admiral Pardo immediately that
afternoon with my sword and the whole works; even though we
were not there officially, I was still calling on him. And,
of course, we both knew that it was eventually going to come
to pass, but that it would be officially recognized by the 
Spanish government.

Q: You had acquired a knowledge of Spanish etiquette?

v. Adm. B.: I was doing self-teaching. I was not Spanish
speaking, and I hadn't had any opportunity to take any instruc- 
tion. I had tried, but there was no way I could have in that
short time frame. I was thinking of Berlitz and a lot of
other things. So that was one of my first orders of the day,
to take up Spanish and I did set up school within a matter of
weeks; had an instructor come in every morning at 6:30 and all
of my staff people that were interested, on a voluntary basis,
I had good response, everybody came in. I guess the boss
being there might help. I had about 25 people who attended
regularly, every morning. I never became what you would call
proficient, but I was able to make myself known, my needs
known in Spanish, and carry on cocktail conversations to a
degree, and so on, but it's not all that easy to pick up a
language and bring in a squadron and go through all the for-
malities and try to conduct the social amenities that were
required at that time.

The tender really went about it very businesslike. Of
course, they were a very experienced tender, the Proteus, but
they were also the interim tender. They were really not a
very capable tender when you compare them to the Holland,
having lived on the Holland for about a month and then coming
over to the Proteus, it was really a step down.

Q: Well, now, what did Holy Loch do for a tender when you took
the Proteus away?

V. Adm. B.: They had the Hunley. The Proteus was going to
go back after she left us for a further conversion and a
considerably extensive overhaul to equip her to go out and
become the tender in Guam. She was then destined to become
the tender out in Guam and support the Pacific Submarine
Squadron 15. But anyhow, Captain McCarthy who was the skipper,
really schooling the staff to what it would mean to bring in
a FBM and put it through a very intensive refit period and then 
the training workup period at sea and sending her on patrol,
to be sure that everything fit in the sequence properly, you
know, down the line.

Q: What was the adequacy of the harbor at Rota? They had the
tetrahadrons?

v. Adm. B.: Well, that was a real serious problem. They had 
started making a harbor because the harbor that existed was
very poor and I became very actively engaged because there is
a phenomenon known as surge and seiche. 

Q: Surge and what? -

v. Adm. B.: Seiche. This is a tremendous energy surge under-
neath the waters which has a period of anything from seconds
and minutes to hours; literally, it's a heaving of the entire 
sea and it's a phenomenon particularly noted along the African
coast; the North African coast and Morocco area, for example,
has tremendous problems with this. So, the tetrahedron that
was employed in the initial breakwater was obviously going to
have to be more extensively used. There was no question in
my mind, and it became a very burning issue right away, because
when we tied up we used what we call the Mediterranean moor,
which is putting the stern to the pier. This tender, mind you,
is over 600 feet long and this big tender is over 20,000 tons,
big ship. The stern to the pier and you have ramps that go
down from the stern onto the pier for the handling of materials
and personnel, you know, egress and ingress. Then, the bow
has two anchors down to keep it steady. With the breakwater
that existed and the breakwater that was started (there was
another partial breakwater going in), I had looked at this and
I had talked to the civil engineers, and I felt that this would
be inadequate. It became a real heated battle with the engineers
who maintained that what was going in would more than handle it.
I was not satisfied with the answers, and I had discussions with
civilian engineers in the area; there was a French engineer
who was involved with the original introduction of tetrahedron.
He was a hydraulic engineer and he agreed. He gave me some
thoughts and ideas. We had some of our own and we went back
to the engineers, the civil engineers, the public works people,
who were supervising the new breakwater. They just adamantly
held that it was going to be sufficient.

In the meantime, our tenders was dancing literally at the
pier. We were breaking the chains and tearing up the dock to
a degree you wouldn't believe. But, typical sailor ingenuity,
our sailors came up with a rig that was pretty clever. It
involved putting great big concrete counterweights suspended
from the chains that we had the ship moored to the dock with.
These kind of dampened the surging and the tremendous movements
of the ship, but every once in a while we'd get into a high
velocity power surge and it would flip these 11-ton weights
like they were little watchfobs! You'd have to see it. We had
pictures of it.

Meanwhile, the breakwater is filling full with great gusto
and this additional breakwater was nearing completion as far
as what it would do for us energy-wise and dissipation and it
was obvious it was totally inadequate. Now, this was when I
first arrived it was about three-quarters completed, so there
was another quarter to go but there was a lot of rock and 
tetrahedrons and so on below the surface, so most of the effect
of the breakwater should have been apparent. It was obvious 
that it couldn't do the job. When they put up the rest of it,
it didn't do the job and as a result we had one heavy storm at
sea that we felt the results of, and it ripped the stern of the
Proteus right out. It just literally, the whole stern section
was ripped out in this. They couldn't stop the surging. 

Q: That must have convinced the boys who said it was adequate.

v. Adm. B.: Oh, yes. So, I appealed to them to take our
drawings and to do what they wanted with them as far as
embellishing it or, you know, purifying it, up to London and
over to Washington and get immediate emergency funding to
protect the harbor and to protect us, and we had all kinds of
special fenders over the side to prevent damage to the hulls
of the submarine.

Q: How many submarines did you have at that point?

v. Adm. B.: Well, we only had two at this particular juncture
that were in, and most of the time that we had the problem we
had just one. It was there, it was a very real problem and a
very serious one, and the tender people were doing all they
could. It was obvious that more had to be done.

In the meantime, we had communicated all this back to the
Holland and they had the whole stern section beefed up,
strengthened. They put in special bracing and we sent over
the pictures of what had happened, the damage to the tender.
We had to stay moored out with no connection to the beach, you
know, so that everything had to go by lighter and boat which
became a very slow and ponderous operation and one that would
be very difficult considering the loading factor that they had
planned for Rota. They were going to eventually build us up
to 12 submarines.

Q: How did the Spanish cope with this tidal situation?

v. Adm. B.: Well, you see, all they had there were small craft
and they bounced around. They were further in too, mind too,
so they got a little more protection. They were in another,
I would say, 250-300 yards further in, because it's a rather
big harbor, manmade.

Q: Isn't it a part of Cadiz?

v. Adm. B.: No, it's across from Cadiz. It's across the Bay
of Cadiz, and it's a manmade harbor, Rota is. We had a lot of
experience in prior years. I.d been in Rota before with an 
oiler, trying to go alongside the fuel docks, and it took me a
day to get alongside because of this sea activity of the
surging and the seiching. They didn't even have a full break-
water then when I was in there before, so it was not unknown
that Rota was a real difficult place. 

The upshot of the effort was that we got emergency funds
and indeed they did put on a tail over the next six months.
They were able to keep the constructors right on the job and
they started dumping rocks and tetrahedrons and they put on a
baffle arrangement out to sea on an angle which took a lot of
the activity away and eventually proved to be a fairly decent
place to have a tender. By the time I'd left we didn't ex- 
perience these terrible surges. We had periods where there was
rough water in there and activity, but nothing like before.

Amidst the technical problems and the physical problems 
we had in Rota, of course, we still had the nagging unofficial
status and there by tolerance rather than by anything else.
General Donovan came down a couple of times and discussed the
matter with me and with the Spanish in the area which was very
helpful. When I told him of our problems and how serious this 
unofficial status was to us--that anything that we wanted par-
ticularly earmarked for us, that is Squadron 16, could not be 
done legally. There was just no way you could do it. They
could make best improvements and put it under the heading of
the base but not attach the significance to Squadron 16 or the
submarines of Squadron 16.

Q: Was the Spanish ante so high that we couldn't agree to it
at that time'?

v. Adm. B.: It was pretty high, yes. It was up in the billions
at that time, the fee. Of course, it ended up much less. We
got a negotiated position a couple of months later, but in the
meantime, I was really up against it. As I say, we had these
political problems now. I meantime have met, called on all of
the flag officers in the area and there were some pretty in-
fluential ones. Probably the most influential was a very elderly
gentleman who was the Captain General of the province of Cadiz
and that whole area there, and that was Cervera y Cervera --
the very famous Spanish naval family. I should say, because
the Cerveras go back all the way into the 1700s admirals. But
Admiral Cervera was very, very pro our coming in, and I explained
to him how much we needed this support and how important it was
to the -- I gave him all the good words of how important it was
to the Western world; and he was well ahead of that, believe
me. He understood completely and was in total agreement that
our presence was very necessary for the well-being, not only
of the United States and NATO (and of course there was a
little feeling about NATO) but also Spain. They included
themselves in, as a beneficiary, and he made no bones about
it and he intimated that he would do what he could.

Q: Was there some feeling among the Spaniards as there seems
to have been among the Scots that there was a danger in having
nuclear submarines based there? 

v. Adm. B.: Yes, there was, and some of it was unbelievable
on the part of the educated people that I met, unbelievable
superstitions and fears that were totally unfounded. In fact, 
there was one lady with whom we became very good friend
(she was an older person), a college graduate, well educated,
a brilliant woman, who would turn her back -- she would never
look over towards the submarines. There was the home of the
commander -

Q: She was afraid of radiation or something?

v. Adm. B.: Yes, she literally believed that there was evil
and bad things there. Now this in the mind of an educated
person is a little hard to believe, and I thought at first 
she was pulling my leg. She used to call me Mr. Polari and
kid me, but she said, "you know, I can never look over there
at you. I dare not look over there," and I said, "Why?" She
said, "Oh, my gosh, it's black evil, that radiation; it will
kill us. I don't dare look over there, so I always turn my
back on you, please understand."

Q: Wasn't it also the feeling that in case of hostility it
would be an immediate target? 

v. Adm. B.: I don't think that there was that much concern
really among them. I think it was more of the introduction
of nuclear weapons and nuclear ships and all; and they didn't
understand it and it had not been explained to the public in
this kind of a society, you know, here it is, this is where
it's being done and you accept it! You don't give them a
great explanation. Let's face it, it was a dictatorship,
very strong, powerfully, well led dictatorship and there was
no need for a lot of explanation to the public. And, so they
really were not exposed to that and we had to go very, very
carefully when we dealt with civilians. I had very strict
guidelines on how to conduct myself.

Q: The State Department guidelines?

v. Adm. B.: Yes, the State Department and plus, you know,
you hope your own good judgment. You know that you'd better
be careful while negotiations are going on.

In any eventuality, we were accepted by the military
unquestionably, fully supported, and they did all they could.
The governor of the province, whom I got to know, Governor
Munoz, whom I met through a very interesting naval officer
named Mayer, Jim Mayer. Jim spoke Spanish as well as any
Spaniard, and he has a very gregarious approach to life, very
expansive individual, a brilliant historian. He wrote books
in Spanish, of Spanish history and he was that kind of a
person.

Q: Was he in our Navy?

v. Adm. B.: Yes, and he was a commanding officer of the naval
communications station there in Rota. Well, Jim and I struck
up a good friendship, and he took me everywhere and I insisted
after that that he be my aide de camp on all of these visits
and calls, which he enjoyed doing. He was the interpreter, and
he later served as the interpreter for the VIPs when they came
over there as a result of my experience with him. He was so 
helpful. He later assisted me with Secretary Nitze when he
came over shortly after this.

So, Jim introduced me to the governor, who was a very close 
friend of his, and the governor professed support and said that
he was doing what he could do in Madrid (which I don't know 
what that was) to influence the powers that be, and let's get
on with it and let these people come in. He understood the
housing problem. I explained that to him, tried to enlist his
aid to get some houses in the local community set aside for my
people. I was meeting terrible opposition within our own Navy 
community for us to get any housing at all. Again, they used
the crutch of my unofficial status and it went all the way
through the, I hate to say it, the naval aviation community,
back to the senior naval aviator boss in Naples, who also took
a very hard line position, no housing whatsoever. They can't 
even put their name on the housing list, because they are not
there officially, totally ignoring the facts of life that it
was a political machination that was holding us up and there
was no U.S. position that we weren't going to be there, no way!

It got so bad, and it was so vicious that I finally said,
"The devil with it, I'm going to go over this guy's head.
I'm going straight to the big boss, CinCUSNavEur in London."
I set up an appointment and I told them the purpose of my
visit, and was told, "Come right ahead, look forward to seeing
you." I went up to London to see Admiral Don Griffin whom I
had only met very briefly some years before. I couldn't have
been better received by my own father. I have never been wel-
comed more and treated more understandingly, and here he was
a senior naval aviator in the community. I told him quite
honestly what my problem was, and I said, "I've got to be
frank; it's a community parochialism approach to the whole
problem." He took it aboard and he said, I've understand your
problem completely. You can be sure. Tommorrow morning
we'll work out a formula of how you people will be introduced
and phased into the government housing. Go out tonight and
be assured that your people are going to be taken care of."

So, boy, God, I thought I'd been handed pure gold and
came in the next morning. In the meantime, I'd seen his staff
people, got the same kind of wonderful treatment and obviously
he had told them to give Squadron 16 the support they need.
Next morning, sure enough, we met again and he had a formula
there, a piece of paper, all worked out, the phasing in of us
into the housing list and by seniority, petty officers and so
on, right on down the line, and for the officers. Then,
furthermore, he said, "We're going to try to get you some, leas-
ing." He was on the same line that Mr. Morris was of getting
leased housing for the balance of our troops so that within
a period of eight to nine months, all of our people could be
located, which was a long enough wait. You know, a lot of the
more senior enlisted men really were unhappy. They just took
it very hard. They were looking at schooling, you know, all
these things. The prospects were grim.

Q: What was naval aviation doing there? What was its mission?

v. Adm. B.: Well, it was a trans-shipment point; it was a
receiving point for air wings. They could train out of there, 
which was an important function, but it was a staging point.
It also was a reception area for personnel and materials 
destined for the Mediterranean which were put into COD aircraft,
you know, carrier-on-board delivery. It was a fairly low level
activity, it was not a high level activity, and they were also
getting, don't forget, the Morocco dispossessed activities, the
communications and the intelligence effort and the classified 
efforts that had formerly been in Morocco when we had been
eased out were now being introduced into Rota at the same time.
So, there was a squeeze on the base, no question about it.
The Seabees came in, and they brought in a battalion of them,
and they really turned to. Things sprung up overnight. I've
never seen mushrooms pop any faster. To see the Seabees in
action you wonder how a Seabee officer ever becomes one day a
public works officer. He has quite the other attitude, you
know, these gung-ho, can-do, Seabees one day would become the
stodgy old public works officer on the base that thwarts
your every effort. I say that with a little tongue in cheek,
but I've said this to my public works friends.

Anyhow, I went back to Rota very, very pleased with my
meeting with Admiral Griffin and felt that things had really
fallen into place and that housing at least temporarily was
something I could set aside and get on with the other things
that were so pressing too, such as the harbor and the shore
facilities and the host of other things that were needed. We
had a transit shed on the dock where we received materials and
we received our weapons and missile turnovers and we had to
worry about the WSEG (Weapon System Evaluation Group} coming
out from Washington to test our capabilities and to verify
our all-up status, which Polaris was advertised to have and
actually did have.

Q: This is for the Joint Chiefs?

v. Adm. B.: Yes, and for the assessment of, you know, the
honest assessment of what you can and can't do with Polaris.
So, we had all of these things to deal with, plus the building
squadron size and the building requirements and the building
priorities that necessarily are attendant along with this.
When I say priorities, when a submarine comes in, you don't
know her needs until she docks because that's the requirement,
that Polaris and Poseidon patrols, those submarines remain
quiet; they just don't break radio silence unless it's an
absolute extremis, but for logistic support the first time you
know their needs when they're within 12 hours of your
area.

Q: You're in for some surprises.

v. Adm. B.: You're in for some surprises and they have some
things down, that you may not have because of their scarcity 
of spares and supplies in some areas, you may not have in stock.
Then you go through that crash program of getting them over on
priority one basis, which is kind of a "hair-breadth Harry"
experience of flying people up from Madrid to meet a chartered
airplane coming over with one little spare part to fly right 
back to Rota and install it so the ship can meet its sailing
date. This is literal. We had to do this a number of times
until we developed our own priority or handling system with
an agent up in Madrid, a trusted agent up in Madrid who could
handle it for us and put it on aircraft to come down to Rota
where we would meet it on a hand-to-hand basis. We had to
do this for a period of over a year until we got it well
established in a more business-like way. But the polaris
material command setup, PMO Lant, was a very superb organiza-
tion of people providing things for our ships, and they got
them there somehow.

Anybody, through the PMO system, why, we were getting our 
spares and necessary materials, but it did take up a system
to put it in operation in Rota with the peculiarities of the
area and the distance from the main airstream, namely, out of
Madrid.

Q: Because of the nature of the patrol duties of the Polaris,
the length of time, you as the commanding officer of the
squadron - did you go out on them very much?

v. Adm. B.: I did. I went on a partial patrol just to -

Q: Just a partial patrol.

v. Adm. B.: Just a partial patrol, which just happened that
this was worked in for an at-sea test, so I was able to go
out for a short period. I wanted to go out for a full patrol
before I ever had this squadron, but I -

Q: But you couldn't leave your command, could you?

v. Adm. B.: Before I got the command, when I was on the staff
of SubLant, I had asked if I could go out on a patrol, but they
said two months is too long, you can't go -it just wouldn't
work out.

Q: How did you manage a partial patrol? How did you get back?

v. Adm. B.: Well, they came back in. They had to come back
in for tests. It was an at-sea test. They came back in and
exchanged missiles, picked up another missile. It was an
at-sea firing and that's when they dropped me, so they had to
come all the way back in anyhow. It just turned out that this
was the only period I could ever have and I only had one sub-
marine operating so I was able to do it, sandwiched a lot
into a very short power-packed period of my life.

Q: Yes.

v. Adm. B.: I didn't mention the first refit that we had,
which was with the Lafayette. The Lafayette refit went
amazingly smooth. I really expected a lot of problems and
we had some with regard, as I mentioned, to the spare parts
where we had to literally send people to meet our chartered
or regular commercial air flights that had our spare parts on
board, and it was a hand-to-hand delivery by the pilot of the
aircraft, mind you--delivered it to our agent up there and
picked it up and flew it back. But, all in all, we got
Lafayette off on time. The Spanish were intensively inter-
ested in Lafayette.

Q: How close were they able to -

v. Adm. B.: I got them on board and that was not easy to do.
I had to, of course, go to Washington. I went back to my boss
and said, "I think it's a terribly important public relations
effort to get these people on board," and I mentioned Admiral
Cervera and Admiral Pardo and a few of the other key people
and the governor of the province. They all wanted to go
aboard a nuclear ship, you know --and all those ramifications.
Well, I never heard of the repercussions back in Washington
and I didn't care, you know. As long as I could get them 
aboard and I got permission. It took a little while. It
took about a week to get permission and I was told later on,
"Boy, you just don't know the fuss you've stirred with your
request," but that was their problem.

Q: I suppose that got involved with the special committee of
Congress?

v. Adm. B.: It got a lot of people into the act, a lot of
people. Anyhow, the visit went off very well and Admiral
Cervera deeply appreciated it and it was kind of a confidence
factor, you know, that you are a partner in our efforts. We
were embracing them to tell them -

Q: For the public relations.

v. Adm. B.: There was no question in their mind and they
wanted to go and this got to me. They got the word to me
pretty quickly and we could not be cavalier with these people
at that particular juncture -- no way. So, they got a real
full trip through the ship and, oh boy, I know there were
hackles up all over. Well that period went by, as I say, and
the Lafayette sailed. We then had a period of time, six weeks
about before the next ship was coming in, the Hamilton. So,
I went back to the States about this point to see the people
again in Washington and down in Norfolk, again pleading my
case for all the things I knew we needed and, got again, just
an all-out support. By this time, Mr. Morris had some very
concrete proposals for leasing and that started the ball rolling
and had Madrid, the embassy up in Madrid working for us so
that we did eventually get some more housing. Whether it was
five or ten houses, everyone of those was just five or ten
more satisfied people which we were trying to maximize the
numbers.

Q: Do you think that the official visit of Admiral Pardo and
the others had some impact on the furthering of the agreement
between the governments?

v. Adm. B.: I do; of course, I can't prove that, but I don't
think there's any question in my mind that Admiral Cervera
still held a very important position in military matters of
Spain. He was a close personal friend of the Minister of the
Navy, and I know he was very favorably impressed and he told
it to me in so many different ways. From then on, I was in-
cluded in many of his official functions down there, at dinner 
parties and so on and which I never missed them, no matter
what. I made darn sure I got down there.

Well, after my visit back to the states and getting things
lined up, it was approaching holy week which was the first week
in April as I recall, and it's Semana Santa in Spain, a very,
very important period in their life.

Q: I am envious of you. I've always wanted to be in Seville
for that.

v. Adm. B.: Oh, and I went to Seville for Semana Santa, so I
took my wife back with me. We flew space available out of
McGuire Air Force Base and, lo and behold, I wasn't there one
day when I got word that the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Paul
Nitze, was going to come over. It was very quick notice, and 
I suspect he was involved in the negotiations. I know he did
go to Madrid and I don't know, I never got any feedback. It
was never told, but I am certain that he played an important
part in the final evolution of the agreement. He had a fellow
with him who you may have heard of, Elmo Zumwalt, who was his
executive assistant.

Q: Yes.

v. Adm. B.: A brand-new captain, and about this same time,
just prior to it and from then on out, we had a stream of VIPs
go through Rota. I had more visitors to the squadron than I
could ever name and we kept a visitors' book and I never knew
what happened to it but we filled it up very quickly. They
always signed the book, and it read like Who's Who, Mendel
Rivers and Senator Russell and more congressmen than you could
imagine.

I'd like to get back to Secretary Nitze's visit. It was
a very key visit. He was fairly new as a Secretary of the
Navy, as you know, this time frame. He went up to be honored
in San Fernando, which was the headquarters of Admiral
Cervera. Admiral Cervera had a full-fledged review and dinner
that went on for hours and hours, a real testimonial dinner.
There again, Secretary Nitze really paved the way, a rather
almost tragic, also humorous, event occurred on the way back
to Rota from San Fernando. I was in the lead car with Secretary
Nitze and Mrs. Nitze and my wife, and my driver was driving
this great big limousine which we had for the occasion. He
was a very proud Spaniard and he was busting his buttons that
he was driving the Secretary of the Navy, that he almost
couldn't stand it, but he was the lead car and the Spaniards
drive cars at rather high speeds, I might add, on these two-lane
roads, you know.

Q: I am aware of it.

v. Adm. B.: So, Tomas had the Secretary of the Navy's flag 
flying on the little post on the fender and the flag was
flying proudly and streaming beautifully in the high speed
velocity that we were driving, and out behind us were all the 
Spanish officials and dignitaries equally proceeding right on
our tail, literally, generals and admirals and government 
officials, the governor and so on. We're going down the road
in excess of 60 miles an hour and all of a sudden, Tomas slams
on the brakes. Well, this was like a Mac Sennett comedy; if
you looked behind, cars were peeling off, driving across the
fields, you can't imagine the bedlam that was created by this
thing. When I could recover my breath, I said, "Tomas, what's
the matter?" By this time he's shaking allover. 'La bandera,
la bandera, the flag, the flag!" Well, what had happened was 
that the flag had blown off the halyard there and he wanted to
stop and pick it up. Well, by this time, all the senior aides
and generals, they were all around the car, wanting to know
what the devil had happened, you know. They bawled him out,
and poor Secretary Nitze was bewildered by all this chatter
of Spanish and whatnot, but he savored the situation and took
it in good humor and laughed at it and we went on our way from 
there.

Q: Could have been a chain accident.

v. Adm. B.: With a very chastened Tomas, but why somebody
wasn't killed or driven into a tree, I'll never know. We were
just lucky. Some of the cars sustained some damage but nobody
was hurt. Our car, we were all kind of shaken, but no one was
hurt. I was sitting at the time in the front seat facing
towards Mr. Nitze and the two ladies, my wife and Mrs. Nitze,
so I didn't even see what was going on on the road ahead of
me. I knew we were traveling pretty fast and I told Tomas a
couple of times to go a little slower, just a little slower,
not quite so fast, but it had very little effect. Anyhow, I
thought that that was a kind of a --afterwards I thought it
was humorous. At the time, I didn't think it was so darn
funny. The peeling off of the cars I saw because I was looking
aft. I was looking right out of the rear window. I could see
all these cars dispersing -- couldn't believe it.

Q: Did the Guardia Civil rise up out of the fields?

V. Adm. B.: Oh, they did indeed, they were all over. The
Guardia Civil was always in sight, especially on something
like this. It's amazing how they suddenly appeared like --

Q: Just rise out of the cornfields!

v. Adm. B.: They just appeared right out of the cornfield,
like stalks of --out of the field. Secretary Nitze made a
rather thorough trip through the site of the squadron, and he
wanted to know all about it, and I gave him a full briefing of
the major problem areas that I felt that he could help us with,
since he particularly asked for it. Then, of course, I
hurriedly made a message report back to Norfolk and also up
to Admiral Griffin. I kept Admiral Griffin cut in on every-
thing, because it affected his base, one of his bases. I made
sure he got all the word.

Q: Did McDonald come over?

V. Adm. B.: No, not at that time, he did not. In fact,
McDonald never did come over. Rivero came over, he was then 
the VCNO, Admiral Rivero, but McDonald never did come over.

The Secretary took all his notes and, of course, Bud Zumwalt
took the most copious notes, and they all were cranked in back
in Washington, into the fleet. I was careful to stay in
matters that I felt that the Secretary could address himself
to and not into the areas that the fleet should be addressing.
The visit was a complete success as far as we were concerned,
except for the scare, and we got good results out of it. Again,
we got fast results for everything that was pointed out. We
did, I might add, get emergency action on the military construc-
tion bill. They diverted housing from other areas into the
Rota area that next year. But, of course, I didn't see the
fruits of that, as it turned out.

I mentioned that there were numerous congressional groups
and I mentioned that Mr. Rivers came over there, Chairman
Mendel Rivers. Mendel Rivers was really a champion of us, and
he absolutely gave us devoted support. Of course, our squadron
was home-ported back in Charleston, so that was a particularly
important feature. Squadron 16 (the rear echelon, as we used
to refer to it) was in Charleston. That's where the families
were, and that's where they went back for their training period,
and recreation period between patrols. Now some of the con-
gressional people that came over were eager to see the squadron
they wanted to see everything, and others were obviously there
just checking it off as justification for their trip to Europe.
Strangely enough, I, at the time, noted it was usually the
young and new congressmen that took that attitude, whereas the
older congressmen, the more experienced congressmen, were the
ones that took it very seriously and dug into it in quite a
bit of detail and wanted to know the problems.

Q: They were more seasoned travelers than the youngsters who
got elected to Congress and then would begin to travel.

V. Adm. B.: Yes, they said, boy, this is a great bonanza now
and they literally used it as a checkoff. We had one group
of three young congressmen, first termers, and they were young
men. They walked aboard the tender on one side, cut across
the middle of the tender and walked off the other side, and
that was their visit to the squadron. It took a period of no
more than 2 to 3 minutes and then they went on their merry
way. Now, Senator Russell who as you know suffered from
emphysema -- he looked up at the big ramp going up there, and he
said, "I don't know whether I can make it. I would like to
go aboard, I would like to see a tender, but I'm afraid I can't
make it." And I couldn't offer to carry him aboard, because I
know that would be unseemly, but he finally said, "Maybe if I
go up slowly and rest along the way," which is what the gentle-
man did. He got up and he walked all around the main deck of
the tender where we could point out the missile handling, where 
the missiles were stored, how the submarines were refitted and
repaired and prepared for the next patrol, how we rotated our 
missiles, how we tested them to be sure that they were in fact
all-up, and had been all-up on the last patrol so that you
would have a credible system. He was intensely interested,
spent quite a bit of time and he obviously was tiring and then
he left and he went down the ramp also very slowly. Afterwards 
his aide said, "I've never seen Mr. Russell exert himself that
much at this point, you know; he's not really a healthy man
and this emphysema had slowed him down terribly." I thought
it was a very courageous act on his part to go through all of
that, but he wanted to see it, he was supporting it, he was
appropriating funds, he wanted to be darn sure they were well
spent.

We then had an upcoming big, the first really big
amphibious exercise with the Spanish. It was called Steel Pike
in 1964 that was run by a gentleman named John Sidney McCain, 
vice admiral then, who was Commander Amphibious Force Atlantic.
Admiral McCain and I were old friends from World War II. He 
was a submariner, as you know. He had one of the greatest show
of amphibious power you've ever seen, assisted by a number of
carriers, and the Spanish Navy was extremely impressed with
this whole effort. He went all out and they had a really
great landing exercise and --

Q: Where, off the southern coast?

v. Adm. B.: Just north of Rota is a wild preserve, beach
area, which is a very extensive area. I don't know how many
square --

Q: La miasma.

v. Adm. B.: General Berkley was then the Commander FMFLant
(Fleet Marine Force), and he's the son of the former commandant,
his father was R. C. Berkley, but anyhow, they had a really
great exercise and again this attracted a lot of very, very
senior Spanish officials and military, which was a very help-
ful thing for me because they all again were looking to the
United States, the United States Support and the United States
interest in Spain and so on. The atmosphere was very happy,
one which engendered a more accommodating environment for
settlement, which we got very shortly thereafter. That was a
big day in our life. The Steel Pike went off and with Steel
Pike we had an influx of more VIPs than we could handle or the
base could handle. But it all again gave us visibility that
we needed to get support, and people did come down there in
droves to see the squadron setup and see the ships that were
there, usually only one or two, at the most, of our submarines,
but by this time we had our dry dock in place and our special
tugs and support craft. So, we had a going operation by this
time. The people showed good interest and then, of course, the
Spanish interest also increased and we started getting requests
for visits to the submarines which we, of course, had to refer 
back to Washington. General Donovan up in Madrid submitted
several requests, I'll mention a couple of them, particularly
interesting. 

Whenever I got one of his requests, I'd try every way I
could to get permission.

Q: Did permission come through?

V. Adm. B.: I got permission in all but one case, and that was 
later handled a different way. But I should mention one visit
that occurred that I think was of particular significance, and
you will recognize the name. I got a frantic call one day, it
was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon, from an officer on the
base and he said, "Commodore, there is a man here who is very,
very angry at the way he has been treated on the base. He said
he knows you and he just wants you to know that he's here." 
He said, "Frankly, he has demanded transportation from Cadiz
over here and we were unable to give it to him; we wouldn't
give it to him. The commander told me not to, so he made his
way over in a taxi cab," and I said, "Who is this man?" He
said, "He's a marine colonel reserve named Russ Blandford." 
And I said, "Oh my God. Tell him I'll be there in two minutes.
I'll get in my car and I'll be right down there and don't let 
him out of your sight and don't let him get away from you."

So, I jumped in my sedan literally, ran all the way down
with my coattails flying, dashed over there, and there he was
at the administration building being given a real second-class
citizen treatment, more like a tourist than anything else, and
I apologized. Russ, being Russ, accepted it. OK, his feathers
were really ruffled at the treatment he had gotten. He thought
he had identified himself sufficiently, that they should know
who he was. Well, of course, they really didn't know that he
was the general counsel and principal staff member of the House
Armed Services Committee and had been for some time and as
such --

Q: Well, why didn't he tell them that?

v. Adm. B.: Well, they should know him.

Q: Well, yes, I guess.

v. Adm. B.: He said he was a Marine colonel in the reserve
and that should be enough. I said, "Well, Russ, these guys
really don't know. We have lots of trouble with them. They're
backwater people." So, I took him to the tender and I calmed
him down and assured him that he would get a full tour of all
facilities and we would show him everything, which we did.
We gave him a full tour and took him out that evening and
things were quieting down. In the meantime, I called the two
commanders over there and said, "Hey, look, this is your bread
and butter, fellows; you'd better make some amends and do it
as carefully as you can.

Q: Reimburse him for his taxi fare.

v. Adm. B.: I don't have to worry about Russ paying for that
cab as much as the fact that they had simply turned him down,
unceremoniously, and he was coming to visit their base. Well,
I told him that he would get a good base visit and I didn't
know, I hadn't really checked this out, but I knew damn well
that if they wouldn't do it, I would, whether they liked it
or not. I would take him all around the base and show him all
the facilities. Well, they finally recognized what I was
saying. They got the message and they gave him a decent tour
the next day. He still wasn't very happy with them. The
commander of naval activities was a gent who had an aversion
to politicians. He had Washington duty but never where he was
confronted for sure with having to get congressional support,
because he couldn't have behaved the way he did. He was really,
I think, quite stupid about the whole thing, but that's water
over the dam. 

Russ was to go up to Madrid and then go a couple of other
places and them come back to see Admiral McCain and Steel Pike.
This was just prior to Steel Pike. Of course, he and Admiral
McCain were very close friends. As you know, Admiral McCain
at one time had been the congressional liaison officer, and 
that's where he and Russ became very fast friend. Russ wanted
to make sure that everybody understood that, which we all did.

Well, the visit, as I say, of Russ Blandford ended happily
and on a good note. He was satisfied that he had seen the Rota
setup, and then he could go back and talk to the chairman and
the members of the committee, he could speak with firsthand
knowledge about the setup there and that was very helpful to
us and to the base complex. So, all's well that ends well.

Q: Did you have anything to do with the Spanish naval base up
near La Coruna?

V. Adm. B.: El Ferrol?

Q: Yes.

v. Adm. B.: I had very little interface with El Ferrol,
although some of their commanders came down to see our facility
and then there's another base, I can't think of it right now,
over near Cadiz, those people came over also. It was a matter
of professional curiosity.

Now one of the most interesting visitors we had, General
Donovan gave me very short notice and said, "Phil, you've got
to accommodate this man and get permission anywhere you can,
but get it. He is the principal man in the kitchen cabinet
of Franco and his name is Carrero Blanco, Admiral Carrero
Blanco." I didn't know him from Adam at that time, but I was
told he was a very influential member and a very close confi-
dante of Franco's and so I went back on the telephone immediate-
ly to Norfolk, paralleling a message I had sent and the urgency
of it that he had expressed a desire to get down there, that
the ambassador was sending a separate message urging the
approval of this and quick handling of it and could they
speed it through the Navy channels?  Well, fortunately, at
H-hour minus ten seconds, I got approval for the visit and with
very strong terms about where he could go and couldn't go and
so on. I carried it out as closely as I could and we had a 
very, very successful visit.

Q: Why were there restrictions in his case?

v. Adm. B.: Well, there were restrictions in anyone's case,
Spanish. By this time, there'd been enough people there that
the technical side of the house was making real strong objec-
tions to any more visits. So, Blanco came down. He was an
unusual man, absolute deadpan, never an expression in his
face. I.ve never seen anybody as expressionless as this man.
I'd hate to play poker with him. Obviously interested in
everything that was being explained to him and again, Jim
Mayer was the interpreter. Jim was by this time very well
checked out on Polaris submarines and the system and the
squadron and so on. Blanco was a very attentive listener,
but again, no expression. Then I finally thought of, let's
take a picture of this man, at the bow planes operating the
submarine. Would he like to do that? Oh, yes, he'd like to
sit down, but, no expression. He sat down in the bow planes-
man's seat on the submarine and we took a picture of him,
really propped up there, very firm, no expression. The picture
luckily came out superbly and we sent it up there and I was
told later on that that always hung in his office. It was one
of his prize possessions. Again, another notch in our efforts
to get the base negotiations on favorable terms. Carrero
Blanco apparently was very pleased, and in fact, he sent a
letter of appreciation and thanks, not only to me, but to the
commanding officer of the submarine, Jim Strong.

Q: If he had been refused --

V. Adm. B.: It would have been a disaster; it would have
been a disaster. General Donovan sent me a private note
telling me how key the visit was and that he thanks me per-
sonally for the help in getting this thing through and not
having an embarrassing situation.

Well, we finally got the happy word. The negotiations
were going through satisfactorily. We were now in an official
status. We could get our funding. We could now go officially
on all the various lists and supportive budgets for the future
and for the present too, of course, which was no end of help
to me. I could really heave a great big sigh of relief when
I got that word and we were able to get on with our job,
namely, of refitting submarines and getting them ready for sea.

I also, while all this was going on, made a number of
civilian friends who I still have and still correspond with,
absolutely superb people, because I love the Spanish anyhow.
Never really knew them before, but we met so many people there
and when my family eventually came, they fell right in line
with it. But, probably the most fascinating man I've probably
ever met in my entire life was the Infante of Spain, Alfonso
Orleans de Bourbon, whom I hope somebody writes a book about
someday. He was then in his 80s, he was an aviator, and he
flew with his three sons in the Civil War. He was then about
81, I think, and he was still flying and he had a special
configured aircraft that he could fly upside down.

Q: Upside down!

V. Adm. B.: He just was proving his vigor -- handsome figure
of a man who had a command of the English language that would
make anybody envious. He spoke many languages. He was a 
nephew of Alfonso XIII and was in the royal family and that's
why he was the Infante. His wife was a striking, handsome
woman, the Infanta and she was the granddaughter of Queen
Victoria and the Czarina of Russia, on opposite sides of the
family, and a lady who treated us like her own children. We
were adopted and when Gigi got over there, my gosh, she couldn't
do enough for her. This was for us a very interesting ex-
perience just on the face of that alone, but every period I
spent with the Infante I felt like I had had another chapter
of history related to me. His viewpoints on our country and
worldwide were extremely fascinating --just an education.
Then he told me about his experience when he and all of
royalty had to leave Spain. He came to the United States and
his wife went to England. He went to work for the Ford Motor
people, first as a stock clerk up in Detroit. His name was
Mr. Orleans and he used to chuckle about it, you know. He
said, "Pretty soon I got to be the manager of the stockroom."
He's very proud of that, you know, that he had risen in very
short order to be the manager of the stockroom at the Ford
Motor Company.

Then, of course, when the royal family was permitted to
come back in, it was done very carefully and structured that
the Infante was back in the good graces, although he was a
bit of a renegade apparently. Franco was very fond of him,
gave him back the property and the palace, although he never
lived in the palace. He lived in a villa quite remote from
the palace and gave the Botanica Palazio to the people of
Spain. He donated the whole property and it became a museum
and he lived in this lovely villa, very happy there. He had
his own private beach and swam every morning I might say, all
year round.

Q: He flew upside down.

v. Adm. B.: He flew upside down at his age. I had discussed
China, Communist China with him, and told him about the paper
I had written at the Industrial College and he wanted a copy
of it, which I furnished him. From then on, I was a kindred
soul and he would call me over for consultations as the Chinese
Communist expert, believe it or not, which I cringed at. I
kept protesting and he liked to be called. General, rather than
Your Highness or any other terms, Infante, he wanted to be
called General. I always had to write to him as General too,
when I wrote to him in later years. He wanted to discuss
China, Chinese Communists, and then I went out to Taiwan in
later years, why, oh my word, he became a prolific correspondent,
wanted to know all about it. He was, as you can imagine, an
absolute fierce anti-communist, and he didn't ever trust any-
thing they ever did or ever would do to the day he died, which
was fairly recently, about two years ago. He was a fierce
anti-communist gentleman.

Well, the next key thing that happened to me was a real
shock. At the end of a very long day, I had had dinner up in
my cabin and was reading dispatches and fell fast asleep on the
couch. The next thing I know, there's a messenger standing in
front of me with a message board, and I said, "Yes, what is it?"
He said, "Congratulations, Admiral, congratulations, Admiral,"
and I said, "What are you talking about? What's the matter with
you, son?" He said, "You're an admiral; you're an admiral!"
And I said, "What's this? What's this all about?" You know, I
was still coming out of it really, and he handed me the message
board. There was a message obviously from somebody in Norfolk.
It was hard to make out. It was a very garbled message and it
went for about three pages. The text had been repeated and
repeated but it was very badly, as we said, garbled, words
missing and letters wrong, and so on. You couldn't make out
what the words were, but somewhere in there were the words,
congratulations, you could make it out after you really de-
ciphered it to Captain Bell, ComSubLant 14 up in the Holy Loch
and it looked like Captain Beshany but it was hard to --- I
couldn't figure that out. Then later on it was something about
admiral, the new admirals. I said, "Son, I don't know who
told you this and I think there's a mistake here somewhere,
because I'm not up for admiral yet. It's going to be another
year or two anyhow before I'll even be considered." He said,
"No, Sir, the communications officer said you're an admiral,
Sir." So with that, in comes the communications officer and
he insists that he had, he then held in his hand a pencil copy
that he had worked up. He said, "I'm getting a phone call
from the Holy Loch to you, but the line is not clear. I can't
make out what they're saying." We had a lot of trouble with
the trunk lines, the Spanish trunk lines. So, he said maybe
if you went over to the radio station you could speak to
Admiral Bell up in the Holy Loch. And, I said, "Well, I
believe Admiral Bell, he's class of '37, he's a year ahead
of me and he probably did make admiral, and yes, I'd like to
go speak to him."

So, I got down in my sedan. I went over there and by this
time Admiral Bell had left the Hunley and had gone ashore. He
was going to celebrate, so I didn't get to speak to anybody up
in the Holy Loch. He'd given up on me. He'd been on the
phone for apparently an hour or so, as I later learned, trying
to tell me that indeed I had been selected and he had gotten
the word. He was calling to congratulate me and I would, of
course, reciprocally congratulate him, but I didn't get that
opportunity until the next day. So, I finally went back to
the ship -- still not knowing for sure -- I was wondering maybe
my name was on this list after all. But I wasn't about to get
elated. When I got back to the tender and there up in my cabin
is a reception committee headed by the commanding officer of
the Lafayette, at this time Pat Hannifin, who later became a
vice admiral. Pat was the commanding officer; he was the Blue
Crew commander. Pat said, "Congratulations, Admiral." And I
said, "Oh, no, not you too." He said, "No, I've got the real
good, hard copy, here it is. Here's the message with all the
names and your name is on there. We want to take you up to the
club, with our wardroom; we insist on it."

Q: Splice the main brace.

v. Adm. B.: That's right. So, I said, "OK, but let me get on
a clean shirt and something here." I couldn't believe it. It
was very exciting, of course, and I couldn't have thought of a
nicer way to get it than from the only commanding officer along-
side of Squadron 16. So, I went up to the club with this gang
and we spliced more than the main brace. We spliced everything
in sight and as luck would have it, the aviators were having a
great, big party up there, full dress, and it was a Bunny Club,
you know, playgirls and playboys version, the theme of it, and
nothing but what the aviators dragged me into this party and
Pat Hannifin and his people. Of course, we were in just plain,
almost fatigues, and they were all in evening clothes, but that
didn't make a particle of difference, and they had me up before
the mike. By this time, I could have talked to any group, not
too coherent, perhaps, but nevertheless it was a great evening 
and I finally wended my way back to the tender to be greeted
almost immediately by a phone call that did come through from
the States. I take that back. The phone call from the States
was later. There was a call before I went back. There was a
call at the club in the phone booth at the club, and it was
my wife. She was at a local party there in the area in New
London, that was being given for her as a farewell party,
knowing that she was coming over to Rota, and Admiral Lowrance
was there.

I talked to 25 people at that party, and their party was
going full bore at this point too, and I tell you that was an
experience. All I could see was that dollar bill registering
on the till by this time --long distance. My wife had put
the call in, charged it to our phone. She later told me that
it went into three figures and I said, "I figured so, but it
was well worth it." It was a great experience to get that
call. You know, you're only selected one time and that was
an exciting period and it was one that you never forget, but
you're a little bit in a daze.

Well, I got back after that call, which lasted quite a
while, to the tender and I got another call. This was the
call that I had to act surprised at, because this was the
official news from my boss, Admiral Grenfell in Norfolk and
he said, "I wanted to be the first one to tell you. You haven't
heard anything, have you'?" I said, "About what, Sir'? I don't
know what you're talking about." He said, "I want to tell
you you've been selected for admiral." Well, I had to go
through --I told him in later years, I said, 'I Gee, you really
weren't the first, but I didn't have the heart to tell you
that I'd talked to several people by this time." He said at
the time, "I've been trying for hours to get through to you."
I said, "Well, you know, the telephone service here is pretty
bad and the telephone lines are very bad. It depends on what
trunk you come in on." So, he understood but he had been
trying for about four or five hours to get me and never had
gotten through until when I got back to the tender, which it
was now in the wee hours in the morning. I thanked him pro- 
fusely, because he was very influential in my selection.

Then I found out that the senior member of the board was
a gentleman named Admiral Don Griffin, of all things. I told
him very shortly afterwards, "You know, you brought me to your
staff. I hope you don't regret it," because he was later to be
my boss. The rest of the night passed without any more involve-
ments, and I got back to earth a couple of days later. The very
happy part of this was that my mother-in-law who was dying
back in the States was conscious enough to know and she said,
"Well, I always knew it." She told my wife which, of course, 
to us, to me, in particular was a very important factor. Then
she died a couple of days later, and I flew back at that time
knowing that she wasn't going to be around very much longer
and got to see her about 24 hours before she died. I think
she recognized me --I never did know for sure, but there was a
flicker of recognition and then she went back into a coma but
she had those very short, brief periods but then she died the
next morning.

Of course, after the funeral I went back to Rota and then
Gigi and the children, our two children, followed very shortly
thereafter. By this time, I indeed had a house which was one
of the last ones that were allocated. It was a very nice house
and certainly not up to the standards of the other senior
officers, but it didn't make any difference. I had my family
there now. I'd been away from them about eight months except
for occasional brief visits like the one when she came over.

General Donovan called me too, amongst all this, and
"Really," he said, "you'd be surprised, your promotion has
helped our cause too." He said, "It's just one more thing
that the Spaniards have that there is full embracing on all
parts of the Polaris program. This is another little goody
that helps us.

Q: Your selection didn't mean then automatically that you
had to leave.

v. Adm. B.: No, it did not. As a matter of fact, I had
requested that I not be detached until I felt everything was
settled, that all the things that I had done and -- I said I'd
like to see the squadron fully established before I am relieved.
Admiral Grenfell and then his relief upcoming both agreed that
they would like to see that, and BuPers agreed. So, I didn't get
detached until November, even though I was selected in May.
First my family arrived, got them settled and then I got a
message saying, "Would like to have you return for charm school."
They call it charm school --a special indoctrination here in
Washington, which I did in August, but Gigi did not come back
with me. She stayed over in Spain. I just came back for three
or four days, then went right back after the indoctrination 
was finished for flag officers, but long enough to go over to
the Bureau of Personnel and at least touch base there and tell
them where I'd like to go and what I'd like to do. Of course,
that's usually what you don't get. In my case, it proved to
be the point. They said, "We really don't have anything in 
mind for you right now and you've got a hold on you anyhow. I
understand you're just as happy about it." I said, "Oh,
definitely. I'd like to stay there to at least October." So,
they said they'd let me know about where my next assignment
would be. Well, those scoundrels back there never did tell me. 
The only way I found out was through the cocktail circuit. I
got a letter from a friend congratulating me on my new assign-
ment to Naples, Italy, on the staff of CinCSouth. So, I picked
up the phone, called back and said, "What's this all about?"
Oh, we were at a party the other night and not the chief of 
BuPers, one of the detail officers there and flag officer and
said, "Yeah, Phil is going to Naples and told him all about it."
I said thank you, and I called the detail officer. He said,
"Yeah, we were going to let you know." I said, "Thanks, thanks
a lot for telling me about it. You know, we do have personal,
plans and desires. Of course, I am not very happy about going
over there, but I'll go, but I wish I had heard it from you
first." Then I got real brusque treatment and I never forgot
I that. I thought that was a cavalier way of doing business. 

The final months were very intense social months with the
Spanish picking up the sticks now that we were an official
part of the family, and playing Spanish hours and working
American hours was a terrible combination. You can imagine,
because you know they don't start anything until about 10 or
11 o'clock at night. Many is the midnight dinner party you'd
go to, and you know how long their dinner parties last. So,
I'd get back, just about staggering back, to the ship in the
morning after getting about two or three hours sleep to get
aboard and do the day's work and go through the same routine
the next night, but I survived somehow!

One of the nicest things that happened there was our
daughter was selected as a princess for the wine festival,
the squeezing of the grapes in September which is held up in
the City of (Sherry) Jerez. She was a princess on the court
of the queen, and she was the first American girl that had been
a princess, so it was kind of a dual glory for her and she was
just in heaven. She was 18 years of age, she spoke Spanish
quite well, studied it in school and she, by this time, had
learned to do the flamenco, so she was in her element. But
you talk about a week's routine for those kids. They had
parties every single night, they were wined and dined, went
to all the bullfights because that week they had a bullfight
every day. Of course, they paraded around in the big Spanish
wagons, a very festive affair, the squeezing of the grapes.
So, for our youngsters, this was a great event and we were
invited to all the ceremonies, made a whole new circle of
friends among the Bodega owners, all the principal names of
the Bodegas, Domecque, Gonzales Bias, Osborne and Williams.
Many of the names, of course, are English names, but of course,
as you know, the English went down there to develop the sherry
business. 

Q: That's true in Portugal also, down in Porto are all English
names.

v. Adm. B.: Yes. You know, Osborne and Humbert Williams, of
course, maintained their name and Sandeman is a big name over
there, the Sandeman people. They're all inter-married.

These were the closing months and as soon as the Spaniards
knew I was leaving, they started a round of parties and events, 
pigeon shoots and you name it, beach parties, all for us to say
goodbye and farewell to us. You see, my family had only been
there a short time. Still sandwiched in were the responsibil-
ities of the squadron which were getting bigger and bigger and
bigger every day as we increased in size.

Q: How many ships did you have there then?

v. Adm. B.: We ended up with a total of ten by the time I
left, operating out of there. Mind you, never more than three
in at a time, because the others were at sea in various stages
and that's about all we could handle. I think one time we had
four while I was there, and that really was a very heavy work-
load. So, I had to be attending to that which was my prime
responsibility and the social events which you wanted to keep 
up the good relationships, friendships, and so on, that it was 
a full bag. When I left, I can tell you, I left a tired man!

I came back to the States for a little leave to see my
Mother and make preparations to then go over to Naples.

Q: One question, what about the double crews? Did the replace-
ment crew board from Rota?

V. Adm. B.: Yes, we'd fly the crew --and the oncoming crew
would arrive usually two days before the ship would arrive in
port and they'd be briefed on everything that we felt would be
needed, how we'd conducted our business and it was a regular
routine that we went through each time, that we had worked up.
Then when we got their logistic message which was about when
the submarine surfaced and started in, they immediately knew
all the areas that had to be addressed, all the problem areas,
so then they were working with the tender people making out
job orders and routines that had to occur. It was a very
businesslike affair, and then key members of the staff and key
members of the ship, commanding officer and the engineer and
people like that, all went out. I'd go along with them, out
to meet the submarine about three hours out, two or three
hours out, as far out as we could go out on the tugboat,
come alongside, transfer and by the time we got tied up at the
tender, all of the spadework had been laid for all the job
orders, things that had to be done, the basic, the major items.

From then on out, it was a very intensive four-day period
for the relief crew taking over from the returning crew from
patrol. They'd get a full, very heavily documented turnover,
and as you can imagine, particularly as applies to the power
plant and to the missiles.

Q: Yes. The crew being relieved would be flown back to the
States?

v. Adm. B.: They are flown back after about four or five days
after the turnover is completed which runs about 4.5 days -- used
to run 4.5 days. We cut it back a little, made it a little
shorter time by improving certain techniques in turnover. The
offcoming crew, as I say, they are anxious to get back home and
we always had the chartered aircraft ready and it was done very
well -- very well organized effort. Of course, this is all part
of the preliminary stuff that we had to do in establishing a
base in the first place. That's why I say it was a great
amount of detail that had to be worked out, getting all their
baggage and belongings. You know, when you've got 125 people
to get back with all their belongings and special equipment and
records, all of their full crew records, you see, had to go
back with them, and everything that they were going to need
for the training period back in Charleston. So, this in it-
self is trunks after trunks, footlocker after footlocker, or
I should say, of material that had to go back with the crew
and be accounted for, and be sure it got on the aircraft and
that everything was well received for them.

I had made it a practice to have a welcoming party for
the incoming and the offgoing officers up at my house, just
to get together and stand around and talk. We get a lot of
relaxed business done that way in a very pleasant atmosphere.
You know, that a lot of those youngsters, there were so many
of them that paraded through our house, junior officers and
senior gents, a lot of the junior ones, I couldn't remember
all of them, there was such a large number of them, they have
accosted me in recent years and said, "Well, I remember the
night I was at your house after our first patrol." You know,
some of them I remember, some of them I don't. I know their
faces, but I don't know their names. That was one of the very
great and delightful parts I always enjoyed having those young
officers and the commanding officers there to just relax after
they'd been out for 60 days. They had to let out the steam
somehow.

Q: Surely.

v. Adm. B.: I did it before Gigi got there. I had a place
that I used which later became --it turned out to be the quarters
I got --just for that purpose, for entertaining the crews, the
officers. The enlisted men we made sure that they had a little
affair up on the base where they turned over the enlisted club
to them, gave them an evening that they could just relax. I
discouraged them from going out in town. I didn't want them
to go ashore, because after being young sailors tied up for
60 days, you know, there was all kinds of trouble out there.
We tried to avoid this. The crew that was incoming, of course,
they came from the States and they were back in balance again
and I didn't mind them going ashore there and they did. And
we had some problems, as you always will have; there's always
a couple that can't control themselves. The Spanish were very
helpful, and we got good cooperation from the mayor of Rota who
also turned out to be a good friend in need, and was happy to
see our people coming ashore, but was not too happy with some
of their behavior. That was worked out.

The crew period, having the crew there was again a very 
intense period because the crew worked very, very hard getting
the ship ready for sea. They worked every bit as hard as the 
tender people, and of course, it's their baby. They're taking
it out to sea, so they want to be sure everything is letter
perfect and it is. They leave in good shape, and well stocked
and with all the proper material and stores and instructions
and publications and patrol orders. The squadron was always 
briefed, the commanding officer was always briefed by a special
team from Sixth Fleet. They'd fly them in and give them the
patrol orders and exactly what they expected and what they could
expect and intelligence. It was a very thorough, professional
job done by the submarine commander in the Mediterranean who
was a flotilla commander located in Naples.

The final weeks of being in Rota I did fly over to Naples
and called on Admiral Jim Russell who was then CinCSouth. He
was going to be relieved we knew the next year, but didn't
know at that time who the relief was going to be, and the
date had not been announced, but I went over and paid my
respects and I had known Admiral Russell when he was the Vice
Chief of Naval Operations.

Q: Gentleman Jim.

v. Adm. B.: Gentleman Jim who certainly proved that in every
detail. He turned out to be an absolutely superb boss to work
for. I just thoroughly enjoyed that period with him, which
was to come. But, I relieved a fellow named Wulzen, Don
Wulzen. I took his apartment. It looked to me like it was
a favorable apartment. I hoped my wife wouldn't kill me for
renting it, since they didn't have government quarters in those
days. It was a beautiful villa, shared by Lieutenant General
Webster who was the Commander Air Force South. He was an
aviator, U.S. Air Force, very fine gent and we were very com-
patible neighbors. He had the bottom villa and I had the upper
villa, so we were very careful not to make any noise upstairs
on the marble floors of our villa. I just was there for over-
night and then flew back to Rota in one of our special aircraft
that they had -- classified aircraft. It made a daily trip
across the Mediterranean. I flew over in one and flew back in
one and of course, they togged me out with the parachute and
the jump chute and she couldn't believe this orange man was
her husband.

The relief ceremony was a very special one, because the
Infante wanted to be present and, of course, he was invited
and all the senior Spanish admirals were present. They all
asked to attend, and mind you, they asked to attend even be-
fore I even thought about having a ceremony -- change of command.
They had asked so, my gosh, we had a beautiful ceremony set
up, all done I might add by my chief of staff officer and the
tender skipper. They did a superb job of it. By this time,
I had Holland there. I should have mentioned that because 
when the Holland came in May from then on out we were really
going first class because that tender was just the greatest,
had such marvelous capabilities.

Q: It was built to specifications.

v. Adm. B.: It was to the special specifications from the
keel up as a Polaris submarine tender and it had so much more 
capability than Proteus even after Proteus again went through
that conversion period. It never had that capability, nor
could you expect it to, but our shops and facilities were 
marvelous. The tender, and then it was Captain Bill Pugh
who became a flag officer later on. Bill staged really the
whole affair and did a great job. I had been frocked that
morning as a rear admiral, and the ceremony was conducted that
way at the request of the man I was relieving, but also Admiral
Pardo, the Spanish admiral said, "Of course, you'll be an
admiral when you leave Spain, won't you?" I said, "Well, 
I've received my orders," and he said, "Oh, I hope you will,"
so I did indeed. By this time I did have my uniform and my
cap and so on, shoulder boards and what have you and I departed
as an admiral. The Spanish really gave me a send-off and it
was a very warming experience. 

As I say, I flew back to the states and then came back to
Rota just long enough to pick up the children and go down to
Gibraltar and depart from that area by the Constitution and
sailed over to Naples. By this time our daughter was back in
school but our son was with us. We had a very pleasant cruise,
only to find two of my closest civilian friends on board this
Constitution, totally unbeknownst to us. They were just taking
a pleasure cruise so we had a marvelous trip over. One of them
was just recovering from a heart attack and I hadn't even known
about it. He had just had it about a month or two before and
they hadn't let anybody know, so he was on a recuperation trip,
but we visited together on the way to Naples which took about
four or five days. It was about five days. We stopped in
Barcelona and we stopped in --

Q: The Balearics --

v. Adm. B.: Yes, we did and we stopped in San Remo, went
ashore there. No, it was Cannes. We stopped at San Remo when
we came back. We stopped in Cannes and we hired a car and we
drove all through the Corniches and had a very pleasant trip
back to Naples. Then I reported into CinCSouth, Admiral Jim
Russell.
                      --- end page 620 ---

VICE ADMIRAL PHILIP A. BESHANY, UNITED STATES NAVY (RETIRED)

Vice Admiral Philip Arthur Beshany, son of Arthur and
Tecla Ebert Beshany, was born in Jamaica, Long Island, New
York, on July 3, 1914. He attended the Dwight School and
Brooklyn College, and was graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy,
Annapolis, Maryland, with the class of 1938. President of
the Foreign Language Club, and Battalion Sub Commander, Admi-
ral Beshany was also active in athletics, participating in
boxing, soccer, track and lacrosse.

Admiral Beshany joined the cruiser USS PHILADELPHIA,
for his first assignment in which he served for two years.
He then reported to the Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut,
for instruction in submarines, and in December 1940 was assigned
duty on board the USS S-14, in which he made several patrols
during World War II. From November 1942 until July 1944,
he served in the USS SCAMP as Executive and Engineer Officer
and participated in seven war patrols.

He was awarded the Silver Star Medal for conspicuous
gallantry during the SCAMP's first three war patrols and a
Gold Star in lieu of a Second Silver Star Medal for action
during the Fourth War Patrol, which resulted in the sinking
of approximately 14,000 tons of enemy shipping and the damaging
of 500 tons. In addition, he was awarded the Bronze Star
Medal with Combat "V", for heroic achievement during the SEVENTH
War Patrol during which he succeeded in stopping the dive
of the SCAMP at 330 feet, thus preventing her from broaching
at 52 feet, after an enemy plane bombed and damaged her.

Upon return to the United States in July 1944 he proceeded
to the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to assist in
fitting out the USS QUILLBACK (SS424) .From her commissioning
in January 1945 throughout the remaining war period he served
as Executive Officer of that submarine which participated
in the assault and occupation of Okinawa Gunto, the initial
landings and occupation of Japan and the surrender ceremonies
in Tokyo Bay. He was also a prize crew commander of the Jap-
anese submarine I-365.

In October 1945 he assumed command of the USS BILLFISH
(SS286) , commanding her until June 1946. Subsequently, in-
struction at the Naval Postgraduate School, Annapolis, pre-
ceded his command of USS BURRFISH (SSR312), followed by com-
mand of USS AMBERJACK (SS522). Then, in August 1951, he re-
turned to the Submarine Base, New London, Connecticut, to
serve as Engineer and Repair Officer, and as Head of the Pro-
spective Submarine Commanding Officers School for one year.

Following graduation from the Industrial College of the
Armed Forces, Admiral Beshany became Commanding Officer of
USS SALAMONIE (A026) in July 1960. This assignment was high-
lighted by the U.N. action in the Congo and operations with
the SIXTH Fleet. In September 1961 he assumed command of
Submarine Squadron FOUR in Charleston, South Carolina. From
August 1962 until September 1963 he was the Chief of Staff
to the Deputy Commander Submarine Force, U. S. Atlantic Fleet,
and on October 28, 1963 he assumed command of the Second Polaris
Squadron, Submarine Squadron SIXTEEN deployed in Rota, Spain.

Assigned to the Staff of the Commander in Chief Allied 
Forces, Southern Europe, he served as Assistant Chief of Staff
for Logistics from December 1964 to July 1966, when he became
Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics and Administration. He
was awarded the Legion of Merit for "...the establishment
of an extraodinarily high degree of rapport which contributed
materially to the timely resolution of innumerable difficult
and delicate issues of extreme importance to the accomplish-
ment of the Command mission..."

In December 1966 he became Director of the Submarine
Warfare Division, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations
and in March 1968 was assigned additional duty as Nuclear
Powered Submarine Program Coordinator in the Office of the
Chief of Naval Operations. He was awarded a Gold Star in
lieu of the Second Legion of Merit and cited in part as follows:
"...During a period when the resources of the Navy have been
severely taxed (he) was responsible for maintaining the high
state of readiness of the operational submarine forces and
at the same time provided plans and management for establish-
ment of a new nuclear submarine construction program..."

In May 1969 he assumed command of Amphibious Group FOUR
and in July 1970 became Assistant Deputy Chief of Naval Op-
erations for Fleet Operations and Readiness, Navy Department.

Reorganization of the Office of the Chief of Naval Op-
erations in March 1971 resulted in the establishment of a
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Submarines, an event
of singular significance in naval history. On April 8, 1971
Admiral Beshany became the first officer to hold this position
of distinction and was appointed to the grade of Vice Admi-
ral in June 1971. Later that year his title was changed to
Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Submarine Warfare). In
July 1972 he was ordered detached for duty as Commander United
States Taiwan Defense Command. He remained in that billet
for two years until his retirement from active duty in August
1974.

In addition to the Distinguished Service Medal, the Silver
Star Medal with Gold Star, the Legion of Merit with Two stars,
the Legion of Merit with Gold Star, and the Bronze Star Medal
with Combat "V", Vice Admiral Beshany has the Submarine Combat
Insignia with Seven stars, American Defense Service Medal,
American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with
stars, World War II Victory Medal, Navy Occupation Service
Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with bronze star,
and the Expert Pistol Shot Medal.

Married to the former Natalie R. Bliss of Scranton, Penn-
sylvania, Vice Admiral Beshany has two children, Natalie Ann
and Philip Bliss Beshany. His official residence is Scranton,
Pennsylvania.