From November 1971 to January 1974 I was stationed on board the USS White Sands ARD 20. We were the support craft for Trieste II DSVI. I must say, looking back on those days it was an honor to serve on the White Sands and be a part of the integral operating unit which included USS White Sands ARD 20, Trieste II DSVI and the USS Apache AFT 67. Being the host vehicle or support craft for Trieste was no easy task. It was a very tough job. The sea was a beast to the White Sands crew. Because the ship was flat bottomed it rolled and in high rough seas or white caps. We were slammed around pretty good. The ship was old and living conditions were deplorable. The ship was past the point of decommission, even then. I believe ARDs, floating dry docks, were originally built during WWII.. They were used to repair submarines at sea, alleviating the need for a wounded sub to come all the way to port for repair. Our missions usually lasted between 30 and 90 days and sometime the sea would be rough for weeks at a time. This and other factors lead to serious morale problems. That is where I come in. I was CS3 and everybody knew me. Everybody called me "Dave." I did my best to make eating a pleasurable experience. Sometimes eating was the only bright spot the crew had. Eating in my galley was like eating at my home. Like I mentioned earlier, duty was tough on the White Sands. On several occasions while trying to launch and retrieve the Trieste we would have near mishaps. There was enough aviation gas on board to blow us all to pieces. In spite of equipment failure and near misses of colliding into each other, we got the job done. Perhaps that is why the Integral Operating Unit received a Presidential Citation. If memory serve me correctly, integral operating unit was a part of Commander Submarine Development Group I (COMSUBDEVGRU I) in Ballast Point, San Diego. Our CO was Lt. Cd. Charles W. Hudiburgh. The crew of Trieste consisted of Civilian Engineers, Scientist and of course the Aquanauts who did the dives. Most of the Trieste crew had berthing space aft. The White Sands had a full crew. Our deck force and UDT/Seal Teams worked long and hard hours. Divers were in the water during launching and retrieving no matter how cold or how dark. I can't remember how many missions Integral Operating Unit completed, but I can say that not all of them were training missions for new aquanauts. On one occasion Trieste II recovered an object that was brought aboard and locked in a topside freezer. With Armed Guards and full security! I think that I'll stop there because I don't know what is or is not still classified. It always amazed me that projects were classified, yet the crew of White Sands had no security clearance, that I knew. Yet we weren't allowed to speak to others about Trieste, except on a need to know basis. The White Sands crew could only get within a certain distance of the Trieste. When deploying, we couldn't tell our Loved Ones where we were going, nor when we would return. In most cases we didn't know we were going ourselves. For a flat bottomed ship with no propulsion system, White Sands was a steamer. -More to Follow-