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10 THI LAWTON CONSTITl/TiON-MORNING PRESS, Sunday, Sept. 25, TWOAdventure, Yes! But Its1 Good To Be Home,'■*Lawton Youth Says After Polar Sub JourneyBy BILL CRAWFORD Si±tl Writer'IT'S good to be home, but i I really miss that sub . . !Speaking was Seaman Wayne j Smith, who returned to Hawaii in 1 March on the travel-worn U.S. nuclear submarine Sargo following a 6. MO-mile round trip to the North Pole.An electrician's mate. Smith is on a 30-day leave to visit his mother, Mrs. Lydia Phelps. 3306 Jefferson, and lriends.He reports Oct 5 to New London. Conn., to attend a year-long ■course at the nuclear power school. - After that. I’ll be going back Jo a submarine and will I be glad. explained the 20-year-old Navyman.Seaman Smith was one of 98 men aboard che atomic sub Sargo that left Pearl Harbor last Jan. 28 for the North Pole trip. In early February, the Saigo's SINS (Ship's Inertial Navigation System) picked out the pole and when the sub's £aj] poked up it lifted with it a three-foot layer of ice,' When we surfaced through the ice/it was good for a change, but going up we never knew how-thick the ice was. or whether you’d go through it or sink,” Smith said.THERE WAS adventure aplenty during the trip under ice. One time, Smith explained, the Sargo’s sail was pushed in by a close scrape against the Ice. which punched holes in the sub's afterfStAft rtKt*-SEAMAN-WAYNE SMITH •r . . . “good to be back”starred giving out, so we seldom knew where we were and what was in front of us, Smith r^arfed, lor the water we had to run through was somewhere around .20 to 25 fathoms or less and icebergs up to SO feet long.Smith related at times the ice we had to surface through was 45 inches thick.The historic trip proved that the subs’ guidance systems can be rated at excellent accuracy and. that subs can travel completely submerged through the ice-locked Bering Straits in midwinter.Also discovered were that there : are more surfacing areas than was previously known and a sub can ( reach the “top of the world | from east or west at any time of the year.deck and ripped out a plastic dome in its. bow.The Sargo also scraped one time, within five feet of the ocean's bottom.Everything going up was tine, but coming back the special gearsHOW DOES it feel to be near the bottom of the ocean?There's no special feeling, said Smith. Just natural, I guess.With hardly anything to do most of the time except stand watch,” rr.ost of the men aboard the Saigo read books.During the 72-day trip* Smith said he read about 20 books and learned to play chess to pass the time.We just read books, played cards and checkers, ate chow and slept.A 1957 Lawton high school graduate, Smith entered the Navy onApril 27, 1958 and received his boot camp training at San Diego, Calif.
Newspaper Details
Lawton Constitution and Morning Press
Lawton, Oklahoma, US
Sun, Sep 25, 1960
Page 10
Full Page
Clipped by
Jencie C.
DE, USA 21 Dec 2019
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