There is another story Bob used to tell about himself that I think portrays his ability to work under intense pressure and it also shows the human side of him in that he managed to poke fun at himself rather than portraying himself as being heroic. There was more than one occasion in which Bob used the events described below as an example for his subordinates. Shortly before joining the recommissioning crew of SEALION as prospective XO, the New London submarine in which Bob served was conducting what was called "daily ops" in Long Island. These operations were commonly used for the underway training of students in Enlisted Submarine School program. The boat would get underway around 0800, rig for dive, proceed to their assigned operating area in the Sound, and conduct as many as 16 dives and surfaces before returning to the Submarine Base around 1700. Bob's boat was conducting just such an operation except that, rather than having a bunch of enlisted students, they were carrying roughly 20 fairly senior officer-students of the Armed Forces Staff College for an indoctrination "cruise" in the Sound. In those days when a diesel submarine submerged, normally the Officer of the Deck (OOD) would become the Diving Officer of the Watch and the responsibility for safe navigation of the submarine would transfer to a "Conning Officer" who was stationed in the conning tower above the Control Room where the Diving Officer carried out his duty of "reach and maintain ordered depth". Well, Bob's boat submerged with another officer having been OOD. Unfortunately, this officer and/or the officer who became the Conning Officer failed to pay adequate attention as they dove to a tanker that was transiting Long Island Sound. After the boat had submerged, Bob relieved the watch as Diving Officer while a number of the Staff College students observed the evolution of diving and operating a submerged submarine. Because Bob had relieved the watch as Diving Officer and had not been the OOD, he had absolutely NO responsibility for the normal safe navigation of the boat. Shortly after Bob took over the dive, major turmoil erupted when a collision occurred between the tanker and the submerged submarine with the tanker luckily hitting the sub in the stern aft of the aftermost watertight bulkhead. Obviously all kinds of hell broke loose during the next few moments. Bob's comments about the events consisted of words to the effect of, "I was impressed how calm I stayed. I really did not get scared at all. It was just like all of the hundreds of drills all of us had run. After it was all over and we had safely surfaced with no physical injuries to anyone, I took a look at our riders. Their trousers were absolutely soaked down the front legs. This caused me to laugh until I put my hand in my pocket and found that not only was my pocket was wet but MY trousers were as wet as those of our passengers." On more than one occasion Bob used his description of this event to point out that, with proper training and practice, an individual can perform extremely demanding tasks no matter how scared he may become. Ted Vaughan