1 00:00:00,640 --> 00:00:05,439 Speaker 1: AHOI everyone. For this week's select I've chosen our episode 2 00:00:05,559 --> 00:00:10,080 Speaker 1: on Project Azorean, one of the coolest, most bonkers cold 3 00:00:10,080 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: bar capers the CIA ever attempted. And I don't have 4 00:00:13,520 --> 00:00:16,360 Speaker 1: to tell you the CIA did some bonkers stuff during 5 00:00:16,360 --> 00:00:19,120 Speaker 1: the Cold War. So sit back, pull up your favorite 6 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,280 Speaker 1: volume on naval history, and use it to clench onto 7 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,160 Speaker 1: while you're driven to thrills by this episode of Stuffy 8 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:32,000 Speaker 1: Should Know. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production 9 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:42,440 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 10 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: There's Charles W Chuck Bryant. There's our ghosts podcaster producer. 11 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: Who's invisible Jerry's past? Yeah, actually the ghost of Jerry's present. 12 00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:59,680 Speaker 1: Jerry's not dead, everybody. No, that just sounded weird, it, 13 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,720 Speaker 1: did it. We're keeping Jerry around. Yes, she just out 14 00:01:03,880 --> 00:01:07,120 Speaker 1: this week. Yeah, there you go. So it's just us, Chuck, 15 00:01:07,360 --> 00:01:10,320 Speaker 1: just a couple of boys batching it, just some good 16 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:15,320 Speaker 1: old boys, never meaning no harm. No, something something been 17 00:01:15,360 --> 00:01:17,480 Speaker 1: in trouble with the loss. It's the day we were born. 18 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: I don't think there was something something before then? Is 19 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:26,120 Speaker 1: there something something, something been in trouble? Yeah, right now, 20 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:30,000 Speaker 1: I don't know, we'll go we'll look it up. You know. 21 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:31,759 Speaker 1: It's funny. There's a great and we might have talked 22 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:34,680 Speaker 1: about this years ago, but there's a great website called 23 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,399 Speaker 1: Atlanta time Machine where you can go back and look 24 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:39,280 Speaker 1: at old pictures of Atlanta and compare them to new 25 00:01:39,280 --> 00:01:41,640 Speaker 1: pictures and all that stuff. And they have some movie 26 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:46,560 Speaker 1: specific pictures now. And they have the Dukes of Hazard 27 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:51,960 Speaker 1: Pilot shoot photos, which was they eventually moved it out 28 00:01:51,960 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: in the country, but like most of the Dukes of 29 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:57,280 Speaker 1: Hazard Pilot, all those car chases were in like midtown Atlanta. 30 00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:59,920 Speaker 1: Really isn't that crazy. But it was the original Bow 31 00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,160 Speaker 1: and Luke. Wow, who was the Who's sang the theme song? 32 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:07,640 Speaker 1: Was it? Walk Toosh wayal And Jennings? Wasn't he the narrator? 33 00:02:07,960 --> 00:02:09,680 Speaker 1: It was whyal And Jennings? What was that first thing 34 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: he said? Walk toosh What does that mean? That's his nickname? Really, 35 00:02:13,600 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 1: walk Toosh Wayalen Jennings. I never heard that? Wow, it 36 00:02:17,400 --> 00:02:20,640 Speaker 1: is I love Wayale Jennings. Yeah, he's great. Apparently he 37 00:02:20,760 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: and Johnny Cash were roommates and highwaymen back well way 38 00:02:26,200 --> 00:02:28,079 Speaker 1: back in the day. Yeah, and both of them were 39 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:31,480 Speaker 1: on drugs. But they didn't. Other people didn't know that. 40 00:02:31,520 --> 00:02:34,600 Speaker 1: So they both used to like be on drugs but 41 00:02:34,720 --> 00:02:39,240 Speaker 1: not tell each other about it. Really, And I guess 42 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:41,760 Speaker 1: it came out later that they were like, you were 43 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:44,160 Speaker 1: on drugs, said so was I wods like I used 44 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:46,520 Speaker 1: to keep on drugs in the air conditioner and Johnny 45 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:48,440 Speaker 1: Cash is like, that's why the air condisher never worked 46 00:02:48,480 --> 00:02:50,000 Speaker 1: and Whyalen and Jones was like, I used to keep 47 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:54,239 Speaker 1: mining in the TV and Johnny Cash is or whoever was, Yeah, 48 00:02:54,280 --> 00:02:56,280 Speaker 1: their TV never worked, in their AC never worked because 49 00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:58,320 Speaker 1: that's where they stashed their drugs without the other one 50 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:00,400 Speaker 1: knowing it. Why what are the drugs due to the 51 00:03:00,400 --> 00:03:04,080 Speaker 1: TV and the air conditioner? I got them pretty wasted? 52 00:03:05,840 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: What a weird start. Yeah, it is a little weird start, 53 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:11,120 Speaker 1: especially because while we're talking about has nothing to do 54 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:15,200 Speaker 1: with drugs, Johnny Cash or Waylon Jennings or air conditioners, 55 00:03:15,760 --> 00:03:19,040 Speaker 1: no TV really, No, it has to do with the 56 00:03:19,080 --> 00:03:25,600 Speaker 1: CIA yep, submarines yep, the USSR YEA cold war yep, 57 00:03:25,720 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: and Howard Hughes, Yeah, among other things been hidden with Kissinger. 58 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:38,360 Speaker 1: Are you kissing him to his interesting? He's still alive too. 59 00:03:38,640 --> 00:03:41,840 Speaker 1: Maybe you'll hear this. I've never seen you hiss before. 60 00:03:42,040 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: I know. It's kind of threatening, is it, Yeah, because 61 00:03:45,040 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 1: I do have like a really sharp canine thing. Yeah, 62 00:03:47,440 --> 00:03:49,640 Speaker 1: you should. You should totally hiss more often. I should, 63 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:51,520 Speaker 1: and I should shark in these things. I should file 64 00:03:51,560 --> 00:03:55,600 Speaker 1: them down. Oh people do that, I know, but surely 65 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:58,840 Speaker 1: that has to hurt, right to file them down? Yeah? No, 66 00:03:59,400 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 1: how does it? Don't you have nerved No, they don't 67 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:04,560 Speaker 1: hit the nerves, They just Oh, I guess you're right. Yeah, yeah, 68 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: I might do that. In the meantime, let's talk about something. Well, 69 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:12,160 Speaker 1: let's let's go back to the beginning. Okay, okay, it's 70 00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:15,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty eight. I'm not exactly sure when, because look 71 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:19,719 Speaker 1: the first part of my page ripped. Does it say 72 00:04:19,760 --> 00:04:22,440 Speaker 1: win in nineteen sixty eight? It does? You want to guess? 73 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 1: I feel like I'm holding the keys. May of nineteen 74 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:29,000 Speaker 1: sixty eight, close March. It was pre summer of barely 75 00:04:29,400 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, everybody's just getting started. It was the summer 76 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: of four play. Yeah, everyone's getting looped up, right, So 77 00:04:36,279 --> 00:04:40,120 Speaker 1: it is gross. So March of nineteen sixty eight in 78 00:04:40,240 --> 00:04:45,440 Speaker 1: the northwestern Pacific, as far as the United States is concerned, 79 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: which should be between say Hawaii and some far out 80 00:04:50,680 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: islands in Alaska and whatever else is out there. There's 81 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,159 Speaker 1: not a lot out there. Yeah, apparently Hawaii is the 82 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: most remote island chain in the war world. Did you 83 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:04,000 Speaker 1: know that. No, there's no island chain that's further away 84 00:05:04,040 --> 00:05:06,880 Speaker 1: from other land than Hawaii, even like when you look 85 00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,560 Speaker 1: at the globe those teeny tiny islands, uh huh from 86 00:05:10,600 --> 00:05:14,839 Speaker 1: what I understand. All right, so say Hawaiians at least. Yeah. Anyway, 87 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: basically out in the middle of nowhere in the northwest Pacific, 88 00:05:18,560 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: there was a Soviet sub It was a Golf two. 89 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: Golf two Soviet submarine. Yeah, they called it the cabri 90 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,800 Speaker 1: Lay for a little while, but but that's Those were 91 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,000 Speaker 1: the subs with the rag top. Yeah, those didn't work out. 92 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:35,840 Speaker 1: The this Golf two sub was called the K one 93 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:40,080 Speaker 1: twenty nine. Surely it had an actual name, right, No, 94 00:05:40,160 --> 00:05:42,839 Speaker 1: I think they called him the K whatever. All right, Well, 95 00:05:42,880 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: the K one twenty nine was on a routine patrol mission. 96 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:48,800 Speaker 1: These are the Soviets they were glib about. You know, 97 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:52,880 Speaker 1: let's call this one the Hannah Montana. Yeah, exactly right. 98 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,919 Speaker 1: So it was just the K one twenty nine all business, 99 00:05:57,400 --> 00:05:59,800 Speaker 1: which actually is kind of reassuring because it was a 100 00:06:00,040 --> 00:06:04,560 Speaker 1: nuclear submarine. Sure, it had not only a nuclear missile, 101 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:07,520 Speaker 1: like a nuclear missile you could come up to the 102 00:06:07,600 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 1: surface and shoot on to say, the United States. It 103 00:06:12,200 --> 00:06:16,000 Speaker 1: also had nuclear torpedoes, which I had no idea where 104 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: a thing, oh, really a nuclear torpedo. It's kind of 105 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: overkilled them to think. No, not if you're underwater and 106 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:24,320 Speaker 1: you want to shoot a nuclear bombit somebody, Well, okay, 107 00:06:24,360 --> 00:06:27,120 Speaker 1: then that really fits the bill. Well, it turns out 108 00:06:27,160 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: that some of these nuclear tip torpedoes detonated, and there 109 00:06:33,839 --> 00:06:37,720 Speaker 1: wasn't a full nuclear detonation obviously, but it's obvious, but 110 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:40,039 Speaker 1: it was enough to blow a hole in the submarine, 111 00:06:40,040 --> 00:06:42,760 Speaker 1: and I think kickoffs some other detonations in some of 112 00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:47,000 Speaker 1: the other nuclear torpedoes. And the upshot all this was 113 00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:50,880 Speaker 1: that the entire ninety eight person crew and the Soviet 114 00:06:50,920 --> 00:06:53,799 Speaker 1: submarine in the middle of the Cold War in nineteen 115 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:57,880 Speaker 1: sixty eight, sunk about sixteen hundred miles or fifteen hundred 116 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:03,320 Speaker 1: miles north west of and hit the bottom at sixteen 117 00:07:03,400 --> 00:07:07,719 Speaker 1: thousand feet more than three miles down. Yes, and so 118 00:07:07,960 --> 00:07:12,560 Speaker 1: kicks off the story of Project as Orean and the 119 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:16,320 Speaker 1: Glomar Explorer. Yeah, so what happens, of course, is the 120 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:19,800 Speaker 1: Soviets go looking for this thing. They spend a couple 121 00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:24,440 Speaker 1: of months, pretty massive search, couldn't find it. The US 122 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:27,640 Speaker 1: is kind of laughing and saying, they haven't found their 123 00:07:27,680 --> 00:07:30,320 Speaker 1: own sub yet. Maybe we should go out there and 124 00:07:30,360 --> 00:07:33,240 Speaker 1: take a look, because we could probably get some intel, 125 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:38,120 Speaker 1: maybe salvage a nuclear warhead for ourselves, spray paint a 126 00:07:38,200 --> 00:07:42,720 Speaker 1: smiley face that says something like right back at you, 127 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:45,520 Speaker 1: it's a good one, and then throw it their way. 128 00:07:46,720 --> 00:07:49,480 Speaker 1: And in nineteen sixty eight, August of nineteen sixty eight, 129 00:07:49,480 --> 00:07:51,720 Speaker 1: just you know, quite a few months later, they actually 130 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:54,640 Speaker 1: found it. The United States of America located this thing. Yeah, 131 00:07:54,720 --> 00:07:58,240 Speaker 1: so they they this is the official story. Here's the 132 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,080 Speaker 1: thing that I figured up from researching this story. You 133 00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: can also go ahead and assume that all of this 134 00:08:03,560 --> 00:08:07,040 Speaker 1: is fabricated and that there's actually other stuff that was 135 00:08:07,080 --> 00:08:09,160 Speaker 1: actually going on. Yeah, this is the story that's been 136 00:08:09,200 --> 00:08:13,960 Speaker 1: handed like this. Actually maybe the story that covers up 137 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:18,440 Speaker 1: an assassination in Brazil or something like that. That could 138 00:08:18,440 --> 00:08:21,040 Speaker 1: be the whole reason this story exists. Because we're talking 139 00:08:21,080 --> 00:08:24,960 Speaker 1: about a covert operation in the sixties and seventies by 140 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:28,240 Speaker 1: the CIA. Okay, so just take everything with the grain 141 00:08:28,280 --> 00:08:31,200 Speaker 1: of salt. But the story as it was reported and 142 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:33,760 Speaker 1: as far as the CIA has ever admitted, was that 143 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:37,080 Speaker 1: the Air Force and the Navy both had listening devices 144 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:40,600 Speaker 1: throughout the Pacific, and somebody at some point said, well, 145 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:42,440 Speaker 1: wait a minute, why don't we get these two together 146 00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:45,920 Speaker 1: and see if there's any data, any sounds that were 147 00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:49,160 Speaker 1: picked up from the sub exploding, and see if we 148 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:53,360 Speaker 1: can pinpoint it basically triangulate with only two data points, 149 00:08:53,880 --> 00:08:57,320 Speaker 1: which is I guess straight line gulate, right, Yeah, yeah, 150 00:08:57,400 --> 00:09:00,240 Speaker 1: that is what it would be called. But suppose they 151 00:09:00,240 --> 00:09:02,600 Speaker 1: did it and they found where the sub was, and 152 00:09:02,640 --> 00:09:05,040 Speaker 1: like you said, the US was laughing because they were 153 00:09:05,080 --> 00:09:08,600 Speaker 1: watching the Soviets look in all the wrong places. We're 154 00:09:08,600 --> 00:09:10,600 Speaker 1: near it. And then after a couple of months, the 155 00:09:10,640 --> 00:09:14,400 Speaker 1: Soviets called off the search. And it was quite obvious 156 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:18,680 Speaker 1: to the Americans that the Soviets had no idea where 157 00:09:18,679 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: the sub was, which made us think, maybe we should 158 00:09:22,840 --> 00:09:24,600 Speaker 1: check this thing out. Maybe we can go get it. 159 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:26,679 Speaker 1: Yeah they so we have two choices. We can call 160 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:28,680 Speaker 1: them and let them know where it is, or we 161 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:30,560 Speaker 1: can go get it ourselves, and this is the height 162 00:09:30,600 --> 00:09:32,880 Speaker 1: of the Cold War. Yeah, So they weren't about to 163 00:09:32,880 --> 00:09:35,840 Speaker 1: go with choice one. No, so option two came upon 164 00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:38,640 Speaker 1: the table and we got our own sub called the Halibits. 165 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:43,559 Speaker 1: We had fun names. The Halibit dropped a camera down 166 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,280 Speaker 1: there on a sled and took a bunch of pictures 167 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: of this thing. Verified it's down there, it's intact. We 168 00:09:50,960 --> 00:09:52,280 Speaker 1: don't know for sure if we can go get it, 169 00:09:52,320 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 1: but we should try because if we can get this thing, 170 00:09:55,800 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: not only do we have potentially information on how these 171 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:04,440 Speaker 1: warheads are being built by them, but we might also 172 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,680 Speaker 1: be able to bust their codes with this cryptographic equipment 173 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:10,400 Speaker 1: they have down there. And so let's launch a project. 174 00:10:10,480 --> 00:10:14,240 Speaker 1: And we love naming things, so let's name it Project Azorian. Yeah. 175 00:10:14,320 --> 00:10:17,640 Speaker 1: I guess that's the name of a person from the Azores. 176 00:10:18,080 --> 00:10:21,439 Speaker 1: Maybe maybe no idea where they'd come up with these names, 177 00:10:21,440 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: God love them, who knows, But Project as Orion was 178 00:10:25,200 --> 00:10:29,560 Speaker 1: the name of this this idea to go see if 179 00:10:29,600 --> 00:10:31,640 Speaker 1: we can get this sub right, yeah, which means, of 180 00:10:31,640 --> 00:10:33,960 Speaker 1: course we're not going to go out there next week 181 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,600 Speaker 1: and start looking like there's a long process that has 182 00:10:36,720 --> 00:10:39,440 Speaker 1: to be undertaken before we can even figure out if 183 00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:41,760 Speaker 1: we can do this right. So they actually did get 184 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:44,959 Speaker 1: together like a working group, a top secret working group 185 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:50,680 Speaker 1: of engineers and nautical engineers and any kind of engineer 186 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:53,680 Speaker 1: you can think of, and said, how would you do this? 187 00:10:54,280 --> 00:10:59,680 Speaker 1: It was a submarine, a twenty five hundred ton submarine 188 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:04,360 Speaker 1: three hundred feet long. That's a thing in and of itself. 189 00:11:04,400 --> 00:11:06,360 Speaker 1: It's a big sub like that'd be hard to pick 190 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:10,839 Speaker 1: up off land, sure, but it's not on land. It's underwater. 191 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:15,960 Speaker 1: It's sixteen thousand, five hundred feet under the surface of 192 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,640 Speaker 1: the Pacific Ocean in the middle of nowhere about is 193 00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:22,360 Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere as you can get. And 194 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:25,640 Speaker 1: how could we do this? How could we possibly pick 195 00:11:25,679 --> 00:11:28,559 Speaker 1: this up? And wait, wait, wait before you answer, you engineers, 196 00:11:29,440 --> 00:11:31,920 Speaker 1: the Soviets can have no idea what we're doing, because 197 00:11:31,920 --> 00:11:34,440 Speaker 1: they will probably think any ship that they thought was 198 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:38,000 Speaker 1: going after this, I love this stuff more than most 199 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:42,959 Speaker 1: stuff in the world. Yeah. Like, when there's this incredibly challenging, 200 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:48,400 Speaker 1: almost insurmountical, insurmountable task and people get a lot of 201 00:11:48,440 --> 00:11:52,120 Speaker 1: smart people together and say, let's start brainstorming on how 202 00:11:52,200 --> 00:11:54,240 Speaker 1: if this is even possible? Right, I just think it's 203 00:11:54,280 --> 00:11:57,640 Speaker 1: really cool that and I bet these people, the engineers 204 00:11:57,640 --> 00:12:00,680 Speaker 1: are like, oh my god, this is a dream to 205 00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:03,200 Speaker 1: come up and try and solve this problem. Plus the 206 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:05,840 Speaker 1: CIA said that they are holding my family hostage, so 207 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:10,040 Speaker 1: I better get to work. So they decided, here's what 208 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:12,480 Speaker 1: the only way we can try this is by doing this. 209 00:12:13,120 --> 00:12:18,120 Speaker 1: It's gonna involve three large vessels. One is a recovery 210 00:12:18,120 --> 00:12:22,320 Speaker 1: ship that basically has a chamber with the bottom that 211 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:25,760 Speaker 1: could open and close like that ship in the Abyss. Yeah, 212 00:12:25,840 --> 00:12:29,680 Speaker 1: a moon pool. In fact that James Cameron totally glow 213 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:33,400 Speaker 1: marred this totally for his own needs. It would have 214 00:12:33,440 --> 00:12:36,520 Speaker 1: a docking leg system that basically turned it into an 215 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:40,240 Speaker 1: underwater on the ocean floor platform that I did not get. 216 00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: I think just basically it goes down there instead of 217 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:48,440 Speaker 1: like hovering in place, turns into a building. But I 218 00:12:48,480 --> 00:12:51,440 Speaker 1: don't understand. I didn't understand how. But yes, that is 219 00:12:51,480 --> 00:12:54,520 Speaker 1: the understanding. Well, I had four legs, but that's crazy. 220 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:59,320 Speaker 1: That means they had four three mile long legs. Yeah, 221 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:01,000 Speaker 1: that doesn't make which since that does? You know what 222 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:04,920 Speaker 1: I mean? I need to see a picture. I've seen 223 00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:06,480 Speaker 1: pictures of it. I still don't know what it really 224 00:13:06,520 --> 00:13:09,120 Speaker 1: meant with the legs. Yeah, well I don't know then. So, 225 00:13:09,240 --> 00:13:11,800 Speaker 1: but that's that's one. That's the ship that they sail 226 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:15,600 Speaker 1: out there to undertake the whole mission, right, Yeah, there's 227 00:13:15,679 --> 00:13:17,559 Speaker 1: two others that they have to come up with. Two. 228 00:13:17,679 --> 00:13:22,319 Speaker 1: That's right, capture vehicle. So that had a grabber right 229 00:13:22,559 --> 00:13:25,560 Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, like one of those banana clips that 230 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:28,280 Speaker 1: girls used to wear in the nineties. Yeah, but for 231 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:31,880 Speaker 1: a twenty five hundred ton submarine. Yes, and it wasn't 232 00:13:31,880 --> 00:13:34,680 Speaker 1: just like, hey, use a little grabber like that banana 233 00:13:34,720 --> 00:13:38,679 Speaker 1: clip it had. It was specifically designed to attach to 234 00:13:38,679 --> 00:13:41,480 Speaker 1: the submarine, right. It was the one glove, the one 235 00:13:41,559 --> 00:13:44,440 Speaker 1: thing it was designed to do. That's correct. So that's 236 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:46,559 Speaker 1: that's step two. If you have one of these things 237 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:50,679 Speaker 1: and you're loading it onto a massive ship. I think 238 00:13:50,720 --> 00:13:53,160 Speaker 1: a seven hundred foot ship is what they came up with. 239 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:57,480 Speaker 1: Six hundred and eighteen foot long ship, many many meters long, 240 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:04,199 Speaker 1: so many meters. Somebody's gonna say, what is that, Well, 241 00:14:04,240 --> 00:14:07,280 Speaker 1: the Soviets would yes, because they're flying over the US 242 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:10,120 Speaker 1: with their spy cydlites ever since Sputnik got up there, 243 00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:12,480 Speaker 1: so they're gonna want to know what that is. The 244 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:15,600 Speaker 1: Soviet analysts are going to point this out. So if 245 00:14:15,640 --> 00:14:17,840 Speaker 1: you have this big long ship that sticks out like 246 00:14:17,880 --> 00:14:20,400 Speaker 1: a sore thumb, because what are you doing with that thing? 247 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,480 Speaker 1: What are you also doing with this big grabber? How 248 00:14:23,480 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: do you get around the grabber part at least chuck 249 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,200 Speaker 1: oh the grabber? Yeah, well you must be talking about 250 00:14:30,240 --> 00:14:33,440 Speaker 1: the barge. I am, so this is pretty amazing. This 251 00:14:33,480 --> 00:14:39,280 Speaker 1: thing had a retractable sunroof basically, and it was the 252 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:41,600 Speaker 1: whole reason this thing was here was to hide everything 253 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:46,560 Speaker 1: right right, So it was they built the grabber vehicle, 254 00:14:47,400 --> 00:14:52,040 Speaker 1: the vehicle number two, inside the bargees. But like you said, 255 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: the barge had a sunroof. The thing about the barge 256 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,120 Speaker 1: was it was also designed to be submersible. So what 257 00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:00,600 Speaker 1: they did was they built a barge that they built 258 00:15:00,600 --> 00:15:04,080 Speaker 1: the grabber inside of, floated the barge out to this 259 00:15:04,200 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: huge six and eighteen foot ship, Ship number one, submerged 260 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:14,240 Speaker 1: it underneath the ship, opened up the sunroof on the barge, 261 00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,600 Speaker 1: opened up the moon pool on the big ship, and 262 00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:22,440 Speaker 1: raised the grabber vehicle into the six hundred and eighteen 263 00:15:22,480 --> 00:15:26,000 Speaker 1: foot ship, so that the Soviets never even knew the 264 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:29,960 Speaker 1: grabber vehicle existed. They never saw it. It just didn't exist. 265 00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,160 Speaker 1: And they had to build all this stuff from scratch, right. 266 00:15:33,400 --> 00:15:35,880 Speaker 1: It wasn't just like they had a grabber laying around 267 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:39,920 Speaker 1: that vit a Soviet sub precisely, or this barge that 268 00:15:40,080 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: could become invisible file accounts and they so this was 269 00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,920 Speaker 1: basically this is what this this working group came up with, like, 270 00:15:49,520 --> 00:15:52,280 Speaker 1: these are the things you need to do this? Yes, 271 00:15:52,680 --> 00:15:56,040 Speaker 1: And the CIA said, who can we possibly get? Who 272 00:15:56,120 --> 00:15:59,880 Speaker 1: in the world, Well, Howard Hughes, Yes, mister Howard Hughes, 273 00:16:00,440 --> 00:16:05,920 Speaker 1: specifically the Suma or Summa Corporation and that was a 274 00:16:05,920 --> 00:16:10,120 Speaker 1: part of the Hughes Tool Company. And they said, go 275 00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,960 Speaker 1: build this thing at thirty six thousand tons six and 276 00:16:14,040 --> 00:16:16,880 Speaker 1: eighteen feet like you said. And they called it the 277 00:16:16,960 --> 00:16:21,040 Speaker 1: Hughes Glomar Explorer because Global Marine was the company that 278 00:16:21,080 --> 00:16:24,760 Speaker 1: operated it. And that's just an abbreviation of Global Marine. 279 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:27,000 Speaker 1: I did not know until a couple of days ago. Yeah, 280 00:16:27,040 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: it's sort of a disappointing end to what Glomar meant. Yeah, 281 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,160 Speaker 1: because it sounds kind of like space ag It definitely does, like, wow, 282 00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:39,640 Speaker 1: look at the healthy glow from radiation exposure. On that thing, Glomar, 283 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:43,160 Speaker 1: Glomar has got a great glow. And here's the other 284 00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:47,040 Speaker 1: cool thing. Because this would I mean, there would still 285 00:16:47,080 --> 00:16:49,760 Speaker 1: be a big beheamoth ship out there in the ocean 286 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:52,120 Speaker 1: in the Pacific, and the Russians would wonder what was 287 00:16:52,120 --> 00:16:55,640 Speaker 1: going on. So they said, here's the deal. There are 288 00:16:56,040 --> 00:16:58,000 Speaker 1: actually it happened to sink in an area of the 289 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,760 Speaker 1: Pacific where there are a lot of may Nganese, really 290 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:05,200 Speaker 1: valuable manganese nodules underwater. So we'll just concoct this story 291 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:08,560 Speaker 1: that said, Howard Hughes built the thing. You know how 292 00:17:08,560 --> 00:17:11,560 Speaker 1: crazy he is right to go out there and try 293 00:17:11,560 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 1: and mind the ocean's depths to get even richer. And 294 00:17:15,520 --> 00:17:18,520 Speaker 1: people actually bought that right. The press even bought it. 295 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:21,240 Speaker 1: They went to the trouble of saying, this is actually 296 00:17:21,240 --> 00:17:24,879 Speaker 1: a really good cover story because there was manganese deposits 297 00:17:24,880 --> 00:17:28,640 Speaker 1: in the area. It checked out. There was the idea 298 00:17:28,800 --> 00:17:33,119 Speaker 1: of deep sea mining was very new, so there wasn't 299 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,439 Speaker 1: There was the idea that this would be a good idea, 300 00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:38,080 Speaker 1: but no one had tried to undertake it yet, so 301 00:17:38,119 --> 00:17:40,800 Speaker 1: the Soviets couldn't have been like, that's not a deep 302 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:42,800 Speaker 1: sea mining ship. No one knew it a deep sea 303 00:17:42,840 --> 00:17:45,000 Speaker 1: mining ship looked like yet. Yeah, Plus it was very 304 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:49,679 Speaker 1: Huesy in thing to do exactly right. He was extremely wealthy, 305 00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:52,080 Speaker 1: so he had the kind of money to just undertake 306 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:54,840 Speaker 1: deep sea mining and be the first one. But he 307 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:58,679 Speaker 1: also operated in strict secrecy, and the press used to 308 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:02,320 Speaker 1: watch his operation and projects from the outside and just 309 00:18:02,440 --> 00:18:06,480 Speaker 1: make guesses about it and create rumors. But it didn't 310 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:10,040 Speaker 1: matter because it was all just conjecture and rumors, right, yeah, 311 00:18:10,359 --> 00:18:13,520 Speaker 1: so it was a perfect cover story. And then add 312 00:18:13,560 --> 00:18:15,760 Speaker 1: on to the top that Hughes was already in bed 313 00:18:15,800 --> 00:18:18,399 Speaker 1: with the US government in a number of ways, but 314 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:23,679 Speaker 1: including making spy satellites in highly classified, top secret projects. 315 00:18:23,960 --> 00:18:26,080 Speaker 1: It was they couldn't have come up with a better 316 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:30,320 Speaker 1: person to helm the actual carrying out of this of 317 00:18:30,359 --> 00:19:03,840 Speaker 1: the project. Should we take a break? Yeah? All right? 318 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,960 Speaker 1: So this this took a while. It was like years 319 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:12,080 Speaker 1: had passed between the sub sinking and then actually saying 320 00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:14,200 Speaker 1: all right, I think we have a plan to do 321 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:16,960 Speaker 1: this and we can get this done. And by the 322 00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,800 Speaker 1: time that came around, they said, wait a minute, like 323 00:19:19,960 --> 00:19:21,760 Speaker 1: should we even should we go take another look at 324 00:19:21,760 --> 00:19:24,720 Speaker 1: this thing? Is still intact. Should we bother? Is this 325 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:27,919 Speaker 1: still relevant? Is it an asset or is it just 326 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,200 Speaker 1: some rusty old, you know, hunk a metal at the 327 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:32,200 Speaker 1: bottom of the ocean. Yeah. Is it basically like a 328 00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:35,080 Speaker 1: museum thing now? Yeah, So they said, and we're not 329 00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:40,520 Speaker 1: into Russian museums. No, let's be honest. So they did 330 00:19:40,880 --> 00:19:43,680 Speaker 1: form another committee. We're great at that, and they did 331 00:19:43,720 --> 00:19:45,960 Speaker 1: take another look, and they said, you know what, let's 332 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,919 Speaker 1: go down there, guys, because even though these missiles, the 333 00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:53,639 Speaker 1: ss N five missiles are no longer like their big threat, 334 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,160 Speaker 1: they do have the ss N eight. Maybe we could 335 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:01,360 Speaker 1: glean some technology and how these things operate, and there's 336 00:20:01,359 --> 00:20:04,240 Speaker 1: still that cryptographic equipment down there, which would be a 337 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: good asset for our intelligence. Right, So they said, okay, 338 00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:10,040 Speaker 1: let's do it. Come on, guys, let's do it. There 339 00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:14,760 Speaker 1: was another thing too, there's this great IO nine article 340 00:20:14,880 --> 00:20:22,000 Speaker 1: on this very project, and the author found some publication 341 00:20:22,119 --> 00:20:26,119 Speaker 1: of memos about project as orient Yeah, and one of 342 00:20:26,119 --> 00:20:29,240 Speaker 1: the things was that they were saying, like, yes, it's 343 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:31,879 Speaker 1: still worth it intelligence wise and everything, but more to 344 00:20:31,920 --> 00:20:34,760 Speaker 1: the point, we're locked in the punch here, like the 345 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:38,520 Speaker 1: US can't afford to seem wishy Washy to its contractors. 346 00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:42,080 Speaker 1: That's crazy, So we need to do this regardless. Yeah, 347 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:43,879 Speaker 1: that's kind of nutty when you think about it. That 348 00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:48,879 Speaker 1: the the risk of pissing off Howard Hughes. Huh. I 349 00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:52,280 Speaker 1: guess was too great, right, And I mean it sort 350 00:20:52,280 --> 00:20:53,639 Speaker 1: of makes sense in a way because if he was 351 00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:56,680 Speaker 1: a big time contractor for them. Yeah, I feel like 352 00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:59,360 Speaker 1: that relationship going. But yeah, there's not that many top 353 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,560 Speaker 1: secret factors that you know you need trust and yeah, 354 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:05,040 Speaker 1: you don't want to take them off, right. Very interesting though, 355 00:21:05,119 --> 00:21:08,800 Speaker 1: are we saying pissed off? Now? Sure? Is that a thing? 356 00:21:09,040 --> 00:21:11,680 Speaker 1: I guess it made an appearance in the last episode two? 357 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:16,640 Speaker 1: Did I say that just now? No? No, the the listener, 358 00:21:16,720 --> 00:21:21,000 Speaker 1: male guy Peter Oh about vaping. Yeahbody said, I'm pissed off. 359 00:21:21,040 --> 00:21:23,800 Speaker 1: If you can't if you can't tell, well, I'm not sure, 360 00:21:23,880 --> 00:21:25,480 Speaker 1: but I appreciate you drawing attention to it. Well. I 361 00:21:25,480 --> 00:21:27,560 Speaker 1: guess we'll find out if Jerry bleeps all this out 362 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:29,680 Speaker 1: or if we get booted out of the sixth grade 363 00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:32,080 Speaker 1: classes around the world. Yeah, kids, what you should say 364 00:21:32,280 --> 00:21:34,840 Speaker 1: is off, ticked off, and you really shouldn't say that. 365 00:21:34,880 --> 00:21:36,920 Speaker 1: You should say that I'm going to use my words 366 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:38,679 Speaker 1: and let you know that what you just said bothered me. 367 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:41,359 Speaker 1: Oh is that what you're supposed to say? Yeah? Okay, 368 00:21:41,400 --> 00:21:44,280 Speaker 1: speak like an adult. So how adults speak? I say, 369 00:21:44,320 --> 00:21:50,000 Speaker 1: pissed off. Here's the other side note, and this will 370 00:21:50,040 --> 00:21:52,760 Speaker 1: come into play later, is that there was another memo 371 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:55,400 Speaker 1: that said, you know what, there are bodies down there, 372 00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:59,800 Speaker 1: and according to the Geneva Convention nineteen forty nine, there's 373 00:21:59,840 --> 00:22:02,639 Speaker 1: a proper way that you handle even and quote unquote 374 00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:06,200 Speaker 1: enemies remains, and we're gonna abide by that, and we're 375 00:22:06,200 --> 00:22:08,600 Speaker 1: gonna take all the stuff we need to make sure 376 00:22:08,640 --> 00:22:12,160 Speaker 1: that we can do that in a respectful way, because 377 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:14,680 Speaker 1: this will eventually probably come out and at least maybe 378 00:22:14,680 --> 00:22:17,840 Speaker 1: that'll be a slight goodwill gesture to the Russians that say, hey, 379 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:22,040 Speaker 1: we were very respectful of your dead seamen. Right. So 380 00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:29,520 Speaker 1: they outfitted the Huge Glomar Explorer Bloor Explorer, the hGe 381 00:22:29,720 --> 00:22:34,159 Speaker 1: with I think a capacity to handle one hundred bodies. Yeah, 382 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:36,679 Speaker 1: which is kind of funny. If you were a sailor 383 00:22:36,720 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: engineer on the Huge Glomar Explorer might have made you 384 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:44,359 Speaker 1: a little nervous, considering there were ninety eight sailors on 385 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:46,399 Speaker 1: the sub that you were going to get. So they 386 00:22:46,440 --> 00:22:49,400 Speaker 1: made room for two more two more dead guys. Don't 387 00:22:49,440 --> 00:22:52,199 Speaker 1: think that was by accident either. Yeah, they didn't just 388 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:57,320 Speaker 1: round up to a nice even hundred cadaver coolers. They 389 00:22:57,359 --> 00:22:59,720 Speaker 1: I'm sure they're like, yeah, two people will probably die 390 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:05,040 Speaker 1: on the mission, that's right. So there's there's another memo 391 00:23:05,200 --> 00:23:09,800 Speaker 1: from I think the nineteen seventy four June third, and 392 00:23:10,520 --> 00:23:13,920 Speaker 1: it basically said, hey, all this stuff's ready. The ship's ready, 393 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:19,959 Speaker 1: the grabb Her class vehicle's ready, the barge is even ready. 394 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:23,159 Speaker 1: Everything's ready. Let's do this. Are we going to do 395 00:23:23,200 --> 00:23:27,520 Speaker 1: it or not? They estimated a forty percent chance of success, 396 00:23:28,040 --> 00:23:31,320 Speaker 1: which they were like threw the moon over the moon about. Yeah, 397 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:34,200 Speaker 1: they were over the moon pool about this, which is interesting. 398 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:38,280 Speaker 1: But I guess when it's something something that tough to 399 00:23:38,320 --> 00:23:46,440 Speaker 1: accomplish and that innovative and and bleeding edge nice, the 400 00:23:46,440 --> 00:23:48,920 Speaker 1: apparently forty percent wasn't too bad, No, not at all. 401 00:23:49,240 --> 00:23:51,840 Speaker 1: So and that was like of one hundred percent success, 402 00:23:51,880 --> 00:23:55,120 Speaker 1: A forty percent chance of one hundred percent success, yeah, okay, 403 00:23:55,359 --> 00:24:00,520 Speaker 1: so well oh yeah, sure, so they the project has 404 00:24:00,560 --> 00:24:04,840 Speaker 1: approved June fifth, nineteen seventy four, and just a few 405 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,680 Speaker 1: days later, on June fifteenth, the ship departed. The Hughes 406 00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:13,000 Speaker 1: Glomar explored departed I believe the port of Los Angeles. Yeah. 407 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:14,800 Speaker 1: And another wrinkle that will come up a little bit 408 00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:19,320 Speaker 1: later is because this was so covert, they couldn't surround 409 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:23,560 Speaker 1: it by battleships or have F sixteen's. Well they probably 410 00:24:23,560 --> 00:24:25,680 Speaker 1: didn't have. I don't know when the F sixteen came about. 411 00:24:26,480 --> 00:24:29,200 Speaker 1: I think maybe like the sixties or something. I'm sorry 412 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:31,840 Speaker 1: to all the aviators, I'm sure we're way off, but 413 00:24:31,920 --> 00:24:38,360 Speaker 1: whatever fighter jets they had at the time, they couldn't 414 00:24:38,840 --> 00:24:41,760 Speaker 1: draw attention to themselves by being protected like that. It 415 00:24:41,760 --> 00:24:44,840 Speaker 1: would be really weird if there was a naval or 416 00:24:44,920 --> 00:24:50,159 Speaker 1: air force escort for a manganese ship. Right. Yeah, this 417 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,560 Speaker 1: is a pretty I want to read this. So this 418 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,920 Speaker 1: is pretty great. This quote from the CIA to kind 419 00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:58,280 Speaker 1: of just drive it home of what a task was 420 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:02,879 Speaker 1: before them. Some in the CIA said this, Imagine standing 421 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,160 Speaker 1: atop the Empire State Building with an eight foot wide 422 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:09,280 Speaker 1: grappling hook on a one inch diameter steel rope. Your 423 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:11,240 Speaker 1: task is to lower the hook to the street below, 424 00:25:11,720 --> 00:25:15,280 Speaker 1: snag a compact car full of gold, and lift the 425 00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:17,240 Speaker 1: car back to the top of the building. And on 426 00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:19,520 Speaker 1: top of that, the job has to be done without 427 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 1: anyone noticing. And that essentially describes what happened there, right, 428 00:25:23,840 --> 00:25:26,240 Speaker 1: That's what they were doing when they when they shipped out. 429 00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,200 Speaker 1: That was the task ahead of them, right, yes, and 430 00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:32,280 Speaker 1: add to this that it keeps getting worked well. Yeah, 431 00:25:32,359 --> 00:25:37,880 Speaker 1: but the Soviets were still surveiling everything. Right, So remember 432 00:25:37,960 --> 00:25:42,200 Speaker 1: like they couldn't have a US Navy escort of a 433 00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,439 Speaker 1: deep sea mining ship. That just looked really weird. But 434 00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:47,879 Speaker 1: that's not to say the Soviets didn't send their navy 435 00:25:47,880 --> 00:25:50,040 Speaker 1: out to see what was up. So for the first 436 00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:55,600 Speaker 1: two weeks after the Hughes Glomar Explorer made made it 437 00:25:55,640 --> 00:26:00,439 Speaker 1: to its destination and started working, there were Soviet ships 438 00:26:00,440 --> 00:26:03,399 Speaker 1: surveilling them basically twenty four hours a day for the 439 00:26:03,440 --> 00:26:07,680 Speaker 1: first fourteen days. Yeah, so these guys are actually undertaking 440 00:26:07,800 --> 00:26:11,880 Speaker 1: raising a Soviet sub within sight of Soviet naval ships 441 00:26:12,280 --> 00:26:17,000 Speaker 1: watching them, and the Soviet they were really nervous at 442 00:26:17,040 --> 00:26:19,199 Speaker 1: this point. They didn't know if the Soviet navy was 443 00:26:19,200 --> 00:26:21,199 Speaker 1: going to try to board the Glomar Explorer just to 444 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:23,479 Speaker 1: be like, what are you guys doing. You're making us 445 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:27,560 Speaker 1: nervous and apparently the CIA. One of the CIA offers 446 00:26:27,640 --> 00:26:30,159 Speaker 1: on board was like, we need to stack some crates 447 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,879 Speaker 1: on our helicopter landing pad to prevent them from landing. 448 00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:38,240 Speaker 1: And there was I don't know exactly what alert status 449 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:42,960 Speaker 1: it was on, but maybe high alert, which was there's 450 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:45,280 Speaker 1: a chance of soviets are going to board, there's sensitive 451 00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:48,440 Speaker 1: materials on board. The team that's in charge of destroying 452 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:51,880 Speaker 1: those sensitive materials. You guys are on alert the people charge, 453 00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,480 Speaker 1: but defending the team, you guys are on alert, but 454 00:26:54,520 --> 00:26:56,119 Speaker 1: we're not going to give you guns yet because we 455 00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:00,240 Speaker 1: haven't reached that point. This is the tension. But what 456 00:27:00,280 --> 00:27:02,480 Speaker 1: were they supposed to do? Like karate chop? I think 457 00:27:02,520 --> 00:27:05,320 Speaker 1: karate chop? Wow. It was like you can karate them, 458 00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:09,040 Speaker 1: but don't shoot them. They're probably going to shoot you, yeah, 459 00:27:09,040 --> 00:27:12,199 Speaker 1: but just deflect the bullets with your karate chops. So 460 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:17,000 Speaker 1: they're out on the ocean. It's very complicated mission, to 461 00:27:17,040 --> 00:27:20,320 Speaker 1: say the least. So you've got your ocean currents at work. 462 00:27:20,880 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 1: You have to maintain your position through those. That's hard enough. 463 00:27:24,680 --> 00:27:27,640 Speaker 1: Then you had to lower this capture vehicle by doing this, 464 00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:32,240 Speaker 1: adding sixty foot pieces of steel pipe one at a time, 465 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,120 Speaker 1: connecting to each other sixty feet at a time, three 466 00:27:36,200 --> 00:27:39,960 Speaker 1: miles down right to lower that recovery vehicle down to 467 00:27:40,000 --> 00:27:42,159 Speaker 1: the sub and then when it gets down there, it 468 00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:45,960 Speaker 1: has to be just in the right position to straddle 469 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:50,000 Speaker 1: over that submarine and get that grabber out, attach it 470 00:27:50,040 --> 00:27:54,480 Speaker 1: to the hull, and then reverse that whole process by 471 00:27:55,160 --> 00:27:59,000 Speaker 1: now towing a freaking submarine yep, by taking one sixty 472 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,200 Speaker 1: foot length pipe off at a time until you're raising 473 00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,000 Speaker 1: the sub like that. You know what I need to 474 00:28:04,040 --> 00:28:06,840 Speaker 1: see to understand this fully is remember the beginning of 475 00:28:06,880 --> 00:28:13,280 Speaker 1: Titanic when James Cameron did that terrible obvious recreation of 476 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,960 Speaker 1: what happened to sink the Titanic. Was at the very 477 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:19,160 Speaker 1: beginning when Bill Paxton was in modern Days and they're 478 00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:22,400 Speaker 1: out searching for the Jewel of the Sea, and he says, well, 479 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:26,000 Speaker 1: that guy with the beard, you know, the nerd, fat 480 00:28:26,000 --> 00:28:29,040 Speaker 1: bearded guy that's in every movie, to explain what's going on, 481 00:28:29,480 --> 00:28:31,679 Speaker 1: And he said, here's how the Titanic sunk, And it 482 00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:33,879 Speaker 1: did the little recreation on the screen and showed exactly 483 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:36,679 Speaker 1: how it happened, just so everyone would know. That's what 484 00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:40,720 Speaker 1: I need to see. Yeah, oh of this, I need 485 00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:44,400 Speaker 1: a chubby bearded guy to explain to me visually. That's 486 00:28:44,400 --> 00:28:49,800 Speaker 1: not me or Ellen Page. You want to be an 487 00:28:49,800 --> 00:28:53,480 Speaker 1: inception and you want to be inception. Yeah, no, I 488 00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,800 Speaker 1: know what you mean. The problem is is there are 489 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,480 Speaker 1: so many holes in this story. I need a picture book. 490 00:28:58,640 --> 00:29:01,360 Speaker 1: But everybody's everybody accepts that there's holes in the story 491 00:29:01,400 --> 00:29:04,760 Speaker 1: because it's a covert CIA operation. Yeah, that is just 492 00:29:04,960 --> 00:29:08,560 Speaker 1: we'll probably never fully be explained, although there have been 493 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,720 Speaker 1: interviews with people who are on the ship. They could 494 00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:14,320 Speaker 1: probably tell you, we'll look them up after this. Yeah. 495 00:29:14,360 --> 00:29:16,120 Speaker 1: And at the very end of that whole process of 496 00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:18,960 Speaker 1: bringing this thing up, then it's not like they get 497 00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:21,200 Speaker 1: it up kind of close enough to the ship and 498 00:29:21,240 --> 00:29:23,080 Speaker 1: they're like, all right, it's thirty feet below us, we'll 499 00:29:23,080 --> 00:29:26,680 Speaker 1: just glide in from here. Then they had to suck 500 00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,200 Speaker 1: it on board and stow it in the docking well 501 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,920 Speaker 1: right successfully. Yes. I could you imagine getting it to 502 00:29:32,960 --> 00:29:35,200 Speaker 1: where it's right below them and then it breaks free. 503 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:38,080 Speaker 1: I'd be so nervous. And that's kind of almost what happened. 504 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: That's close to what happened. So remember the Soviet navy 505 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:44,440 Speaker 1: is circling them, and they're lowering this claw down to 506 00:29:44,560 --> 00:29:47,800 Speaker 1: the sub, but also like, we're not doing anything over here, 507 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:52,280 Speaker 1: just no guns, right, So they reach the sub and 508 00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:57,240 Speaker 1: start doing the submersible claw thing, and at that time 509 00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:01,080 Speaker 1: the Soviet Navy twots three times like peep peep, peep, 510 00:30:01,400 --> 00:30:05,080 Speaker 1: see you later, and they laughed for good. And so 511 00:30:05,120 --> 00:30:09,800 Speaker 1: the Glomar explorer starts raising the sub. They get it. 512 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,239 Speaker 1: I have no idea how they know they've gotten it, 513 00:30:12,560 --> 00:30:15,040 Speaker 1: but they've got the sub. I don't know how they 514 00:30:15,080 --> 00:30:18,080 Speaker 1: directed this thing over the sub. I don't understand either. 515 00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:21,680 Speaker 1: I'm totally with you, But as far as the story's concerned, 516 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:24,719 Speaker 1: the claw got the sub and they started raising it, 517 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:27,040 Speaker 1: and they got it over the course of a few 518 00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 1: days a mile up and then all of a sudden. 519 00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:34,760 Speaker 1: That's an extremely incredible accomplishment. I know. Imagine trying to 520 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:38,280 Speaker 1: sleep while this thing is like slowly being pulled. Yeah, 521 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,560 Speaker 1: you would not, you'd not be able to. But there 522 00:30:40,640 --> 00:30:43,800 Speaker 1: was an engineer who was on the ship who later 523 00:30:43,840 --> 00:30:47,040 Speaker 1: recounted in an interview that there was something that felt 524 00:30:47,040 --> 00:30:49,680 Speaker 1: like about a ten second long earthquake on the ship. 525 00:30:50,040 --> 00:30:52,200 Speaker 1: And he said, you knew something bad had happened. Yeah, 526 00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:55,640 Speaker 1: and this was right after he said it's going great, everybody. 527 00:30:56,120 --> 00:31:01,120 Speaker 1: We can't lose now that first miles the trick. Yeah. So, 528 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,000 Speaker 1: I mean, I guess was it an earthquake? No, it 529 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:07,600 Speaker 1: was the sub breaking up in the submersible claw. Oh okay, 530 00:31:07,600 --> 00:31:09,800 Speaker 1: I thought that caused it to break up. No, he 531 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,120 Speaker 1: said it felt like an earthquake. That's how big of 532 00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: a an energetic release it was. So the sub breaks apart. 533 00:31:18,440 --> 00:31:21,320 Speaker 1: I guess it had been down there so long that it, uh, 534 00:31:22,480 --> 00:31:26,240 Speaker 1: it just wasn't you know, it wasn't viable as a 535 00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,480 Speaker 1: single solid piece of metal anymore. Here's what I think 536 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:33,960 Speaker 1: happened based on some other stuff, like later memos. They 537 00:31:34,040 --> 00:31:37,640 Speaker 1: said that they needed to redesign the claw so that 538 00:31:37,680 --> 00:31:40,720 Speaker 1: it wasn't as britty. Yeah, the banana clip, so that 539 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:45,320 Speaker 1: it wasn't as brittle, and that it was well, so 540 00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:47,520 Speaker 1: it wasn't as brittle. I think the claw broke up 541 00:31:48,160 --> 00:31:51,480 Speaker 1: and some of the sub was able to fall out. 542 00:31:52,480 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 1: Some remained in it's held into the grabber, but most 543 00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:57,760 Speaker 1: of the sub, this is a three hundred foot sub, 544 00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,720 Speaker 1: about two one hundred and sixty feet of it broke 545 00:32:02,760 --> 00:32:05,880 Speaker 1: off and fell back a mile down to the ocean floor. 546 00:32:06,080 --> 00:32:08,160 Speaker 1: So I thought you meant that the grabber should have 547 00:32:08,240 --> 00:32:11,440 Speaker 1: had like, did anybody think to put felt on this 548 00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:14,160 Speaker 1: grab of right or rubber tips on the end of 549 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:18,440 Speaker 1: the clause? No they didn't. Oh I know. So the 550 00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:21,360 Speaker 1: the most of the sub, including all the stuff the 551 00:32:21,360 --> 00:32:24,440 Speaker 1: CIA was after all the good stuff, the the the 552 00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,840 Speaker 1: code books, the con tower. They're like, we had the galley, right, 553 00:32:29,040 --> 00:32:32,400 Speaker 1: they ate, well, like, I guess that's okay. I love borshed, 554 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:34,520 Speaker 1: so that it is a silver lining. Yeah, they only 555 00:32:34,520 --> 00:32:37,400 Speaker 1: got what ten percent of this thing, yeah, which which 556 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:39,560 Speaker 1: was the four of the sub The four of the 557 00:32:39,560 --> 00:32:42,600 Speaker 1: subs stayed in the grabber claw and they were able 558 00:32:42,600 --> 00:32:43,920 Speaker 1: to bring it the rest of the way up and 559 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,840 Speaker 1: salvage it, which included the nuclear torpedoes. Unfortunately for the 560 00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:53,400 Speaker 1: CIA and everybody aboard. The nuclear torpedoes were of course 561 00:32:53,400 --> 00:32:55,720 Speaker 1: something that had detonated, so they all suffered from some 562 00:32:55,800 --> 00:32:59,080 Speaker 1: plutonium exposure as well. Yeah, so it was it was 563 00:32:59,240 --> 00:33:02,000 Speaker 1: their exposure was consistent with the fact that there was 564 00:33:02,480 --> 00:33:05,600 Speaker 1: in fact nuclear materials. Right. Yeah, they had been exposed 565 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,080 Speaker 1: to these nuclear torpedoes. Not they didn't get their hands 566 00:33:09,080 --> 00:33:11,760 Speaker 1: on the nuclear missile they were after, right, Basically none 567 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:13,680 Speaker 1: of the prize that they were looking for they got 568 00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:17,400 Speaker 1: their hands on. But one thing they did find on 569 00:33:17,480 --> 00:33:19,520 Speaker 1: their hands all of a sudden were the bodies of 570 00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:24,000 Speaker 1: six Soviet submariners. Yeah, for submarriners. How do you say it? 571 00:33:24,320 --> 00:33:27,040 Speaker 1: I think sub mariner. Okay, but we'll get taken to 572 00:33:27,120 --> 00:33:29,320 Speaker 1: task and told the right way. Well, we said both, 573 00:33:29,360 --> 00:33:31,480 Speaker 1: so you can't get it wrong when you say it 574 00:33:31,520 --> 00:33:33,640 Speaker 1: both ways. So, like we said, they could hold a 575 00:33:33,720 --> 00:33:37,320 Speaker 1: hundred bodies, so they could certainly hold six. And then 576 00:33:37,360 --> 00:33:41,440 Speaker 1: I guess ninety four other guys on board worried I 577 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:45,760 Speaker 1: would guess, so, and they did. They had copies of 578 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:51,640 Speaker 1: Soviet burial manuals American burial manuals. They had a ceremony. 579 00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:54,120 Speaker 1: Did you watch the video of this? I did, well, 580 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,440 Speaker 1: some of it they conduct They've filmed it in color, 581 00:33:57,040 --> 00:33:59,680 Speaker 1: and I love How is it you who wrote this part? Yeah? 582 00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,880 Speaker 1: I love how you put it. The bizarre an inexplicably 583 00:34:02,960 --> 00:34:06,719 Speaker 1: futuristic video. Yeah, it looks weird. It looks like it 584 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:11,560 Speaker 1: does look like a George Orwellian like transmission from the future. Right, 585 00:34:12,160 --> 00:34:14,319 Speaker 1: But if the future was in the nineteen eighties and 586 00:34:14,360 --> 00:34:16,839 Speaker 1: it was being written in the nineteen twenties, right, and 587 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,560 Speaker 1: the reason why I put my finger on it. Finally, 588 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:25,759 Speaker 1: it's men wearing matching coveralls in hard hats disposing of bodies, 589 00:34:26,760 --> 00:34:30,640 Speaker 1: and the video quality is just weird. It's just perfectly weird. Yeah, 590 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,960 Speaker 1: just go check it out. It's a I guess CIA 591 00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,640 Speaker 1: project is z Orian Burial at C. I think would 592 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:39,680 Speaker 1: probably bring it up on YouTube. And eventually this film 593 00:34:39,760 --> 00:34:43,840 Speaker 1: was turned over to Boris yeltson Somebody Still Loves You 594 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,240 Speaker 1: Boris Yelton in nineteen ninety two by CI director Robert Gates. 595 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:51,080 Speaker 1: At that time, yeah, do we take another break? Yeah, 596 00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:53,480 Speaker 1: I think we're going all right, go wow, all right, 597 00:34:53,480 --> 00:35:20,440 Speaker 1: we're gonna wrap up this whole mess in just a minute. 598 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:28,960 Speaker 1: So they found it. Once they got part of it, 599 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,879 Speaker 1: should they go again? That was the big question, right, 600 00:35:32,440 --> 00:35:35,560 Speaker 1: And there was a lot of discussion that the CIA, 601 00:35:36,200 --> 00:35:38,279 Speaker 1: for its part, was like, I don't know if there's 602 00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:42,040 Speaker 1: anything left of that sub like it's the seventies now, right. 603 00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 1: We lucked out that it was intact to begin with. 604 00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:49,160 Speaker 1: After a series of explosions, Yeah, we're pretty sure that 605 00:35:49,239 --> 00:35:52,799 Speaker 1: the stuff that fell a mile back down to the 606 00:35:52,840 --> 00:35:56,799 Speaker 1: seafloor probably broke up. Yeah, I'm suspicious of that, but 607 00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:02,800 Speaker 1: that was the CIA's position. Regardless. Kiss and the rest 608 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:05,920 Speaker 1: of the Nixon administration were like, how can we do 609 00:36:05,960 --> 00:36:09,120 Speaker 1: this again? The thing is, right around the same time 610 00:36:09,640 --> 00:36:12,560 Speaker 1: Nixon resigned, and all of a sudden, everybody who'd been 611 00:36:13,400 --> 00:36:17,279 Speaker 1: high flying and freewheeling and overthrowing governments and all that 612 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:20,279 Speaker 1: were suddenly like, nothing, we're not doing anything. There's no 613 00:36:20,440 --> 00:36:26,040 Speaker 1: operations going on whatsoever. So the idea of a second 614 00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:31,040 Speaker 1: project being undertaken was pretty doubtful for a number of reasons. Yeah. 615 00:36:31,080 --> 00:36:33,359 Speaker 1: And one of the other big reasons was that this 616 00:36:33,400 --> 00:36:36,920 Speaker 1: whole cryptographic equipment and the codes probably weren't even relevant 617 00:36:36,960 --> 00:36:39,359 Speaker 1: by that point. Yeah, And so they didn't think I mean, 618 00:36:39,360 --> 00:36:42,279 Speaker 1: they're basically like, there's so little upside to this at 619 00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:47,480 Speaker 1: this point, they Kissinger. I think he even finally relented, right, Yeah, 620 00:36:47,520 --> 00:36:50,200 Speaker 1: I think so, it's not the worth it. What I 621 00:36:50,239 --> 00:36:53,759 Speaker 1: found was interesting was that a later interview by an 622 00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,520 Speaker 1: admiral said, even if you found the code books and 623 00:36:57,600 --> 00:37:03,880 Speaker 1: you found the communications equipment and figured out the arrangement 624 00:37:03,920 --> 00:37:06,880 Speaker 1: of like the burst transmitters and circuits and all that stuff, 625 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:11,120 Speaker 1: all you'd be able to do is break the codes 626 00:37:11,400 --> 00:37:14,439 Speaker 1: for a twenty four hour period. Yeah, but that would 627 00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:16,080 Speaker 1: have been the case no matter if they've gotten the 628 00:37:16,120 --> 00:37:19,440 Speaker 1: whole suburbine at any point, so that it was already 629 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:21,840 Speaker 1: years later when they first went down, right, So I 630 00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:25,040 Speaker 1: guess they you probably would still be a pretty big 631 00:37:25,080 --> 00:37:28,440 Speaker 1: treasure trove intelligence wise, to just get a one day 632 00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:33,759 Speaker 1: snapshot of Soviet submarine operations, they'd probably be worth it. 633 00:37:33,840 --> 00:37:35,960 Speaker 1: But maybe it was more about those warheads though. I 634 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:37,880 Speaker 1: think that was definitely part of it too. But they 635 00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,600 Speaker 1: said there's probably not a good chance we're going to 636 00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:45,640 Speaker 1: do this. The other the other problem was this, by 637 00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:50,040 Speaker 1: this time, journalists named Seymour Hirsch, who's written some of 638 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,560 Speaker 1: the most some of the deepest exposees on the US 639 00:37:54,680 --> 00:38:00,760 Speaker 1: government ever written, wrote about the Mili massacres. He wrote, 640 00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:04,319 Speaker 1: he didn't write, or he wrote a few stories on 641 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:09,480 Speaker 1: the Frank Olsen case that Wormwood was based on. Seymour 642 00:38:09,560 --> 00:38:13,520 Speaker 1: Hurst was in that towards the end. Yeah, he's written 643 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:16,880 Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff. He had this story down cold. 644 00:38:17,480 --> 00:38:20,440 Speaker 1: He had everything for well over a year before it 645 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:23,839 Speaker 1: finally broke and the CIA director went to Hurst and said, 646 00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,400 Speaker 1: don't please, don't say anything about this. Please sit on 647 00:38:27,440 --> 00:38:30,840 Speaker 1: the story. Please sit on the story, and behind Hirsh's 648 00:38:30,880 --> 00:38:33,560 Speaker 1: back or right from under him. The story ended up 649 00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:38,600 Speaker 1: breaking in the most bizarre, suspicious way it possibly could have. Yeah. Well, 650 00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,399 Speaker 1: and even before that, a very famous term came about 651 00:38:41,440 --> 00:38:44,120 Speaker 1: because of this. There was a Rolling Stone writer named 652 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:47,120 Speaker 1: Harriet and Philippi, and she flat out asked the CIA 653 00:38:47,200 --> 00:38:50,719 Speaker 1: to reveal its existence. And that's where the phrase we 654 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 1: can neither confirm nor deny its existence came into play, 655 00:38:55,239 --> 00:38:57,520 Speaker 1: which is now known as the Glomar response. Right, if 656 00:38:57,520 --> 00:38:59,239 Speaker 1: you've ever heard that, that's where it comes from. Yea, 657 00:38:59,400 --> 00:39:01,920 Speaker 1: which is a great little cherry on top. I think 658 00:39:02,160 --> 00:39:04,040 Speaker 1: I think so too. Even though this isn't the end, 659 00:39:04,160 --> 00:39:06,200 Speaker 1: No it's not. It gets even weirder to tell you 660 00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:10,280 Speaker 1: the truth. Yeah. So, Harriet and Philippi was asking about 661 00:39:10,320 --> 00:39:14,000 Speaker 1: Project as Orion because there is a cryptic, weird, little 662 00:39:14,520 --> 00:39:18,400 Speaker 1: short news blurb in the Los Angeles Times that was 663 00:39:18,480 --> 00:39:22,319 Speaker 1: basically about some gossip and rumor that was circulating at 664 00:39:22,320 --> 00:39:25,840 Speaker 1: the LAPD and among cops in LA There was a 665 00:39:25,920 --> 00:39:31,080 Speaker 1: rumor that the Hughes Corporation had cooperated and carried out 666 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:35,879 Speaker 1: a project to retrieve a lost Soviet sub with the CIA. 667 00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:38,480 Speaker 1: Weren't any other details about that. They said it was 668 00:39:38,520 --> 00:39:41,399 Speaker 1: in the Atlantic Ocean. There were a lot of problems 669 00:39:41,680 --> 00:39:44,080 Speaker 1: with this story, but for the first time ever, it 670 00:39:44,200 --> 00:39:47,040 Speaker 1: started to see the light of day. And the whole 671 00:39:47,040 --> 00:39:51,080 Speaker 1: reason that that was in there, Chuck, was just the 672 00:39:51,160 --> 00:39:54,279 Speaker 1: weirdest things that I think, the weirdest part of this 673 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:57,680 Speaker 1: story and the most suspicious. Yeah, the fact that all 674 00:39:57,719 --> 00:40:01,280 Speaker 1: this came together in this way is pretty remark So. 675 00:40:01,520 --> 00:40:05,919 Speaker 1: The huge Summa corporation that we talked about, they were 676 00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:09,239 Speaker 1: broken into. Their HQ was broken into in Los Angeles. 677 00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:14,200 Speaker 1: They got cash, they got boxes of documents, including a 678 00:40:14,280 --> 00:40:18,480 Speaker 1: memo describing this secret project to the CIA, and no 679 00:40:18,520 --> 00:40:20,200 Speaker 1: one knew for sure whether or not they had this 680 00:40:20,320 --> 00:40:24,120 Speaker 1: document or not, right the thieves yes, until a few 681 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:28,120 Speaker 1: months later there was this I guess sort of deep 682 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:32,920 Speaker 1: throat intermediary person that called up and said, hey, we 683 00:40:32,960 --> 00:40:35,880 Speaker 1: have possession of a lot of these stolen papers. They 684 00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:39,120 Speaker 1: didn't say we have the CIA document about Project Hazorian, 685 00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:41,400 Speaker 1: but they say we've got boxes full of stuff, we 686 00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:44,960 Speaker 1: got binders full of women, right, and we'll take a 687 00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,520 Speaker 1: half a million bucks to return this to you, right. 688 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:50,080 Speaker 1: And so there's a couple of points that need to 689 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:53,279 Speaker 1: be mentioned. This is the fourth or fifth breaking of 690 00:40:53,320 --> 00:40:57,320 Speaker 1: a huge office in like the last four or five months. Yeah, 691 00:40:57,320 --> 00:41:00,360 Speaker 1: and what they think They think the Vegas mob and 692 00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:03,000 Speaker 1: the Saint Louis mob was involved, but they don't know 693 00:41:03,040 --> 00:41:05,480 Speaker 1: who they were working for. Were they working for the government, 694 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:08,879 Speaker 1: were they working for Howard Hughes. Who were they working for? 695 00:41:09,239 --> 00:41:12,719 Speaker 1: But they were very clearly after some specific papers. They 696 00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,280 Speaker 1: think what they were after was definitive evidence that Howard 697 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:20,040 Speaker 1: Hughes owned a number of high level politicians in the 698 00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:23,080 Speaker 1: United States and that they actually found it. There was 699 00:41:23,080 --> 00:41:25,600 Speaker 1: a Center report that was repressed at the last minute. 700 00:41:25,840 --> 00:41:29,200 Speaker 1: So they do think that they found evidence of just high, 701 00:41:29,320 --> 00:41:34,759 Speaker 1: high corruption, but that they didn't know that they had 702 00:41:34,840 --> 00:41:40,480 Speaker 1: this CIA document in their possession until the CIA accidentally 703 00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:43,400 Speaker 1: tipped them off. Yeah. So the CIA tells the FBI 704 00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:48,120 Speaker 1: about this police report that the the LA cops supposedly 705 00:41:48,160 --> 00:41:51,239 Speaker 1: have h and there's being offered up for sale and 706 00:41:51,280 --> 00:41:54,320 Speaker 1: for money and it might have this project is orient information. 707 00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:58,360 Speaker 1: The FBI then tells the LA police about this because 708 00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:00,480 Speaker 1: they didn't know They didn't know about this. They just 709 00:42:00,520 --> 00:42:03,040 Speaker 1: knew that they had this box full. They were being 710 00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:06,360 Speaker 1: offered to exchange this box full of documents for a 711 00:42:06,360 --> 00:42:08,600 Speaker 1: lot of cash. They didn't know what was inside of it. 712 00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:10,720 Speaker 1: Apparently people I had it didn't know what was inside 713 00:42:10,719 --> 00:42:13,520 Speaker 1: of it. So the LA police told this dude who 714 00:42:13,560 --> 00:42:18,160 Speaker 1: tried to broker the deal and the CIA. That's how 715 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:20,680 Speaker 1: the CIA found out about it, right this. I think 716 00:42:20,680 --> 00:42:24,360 Speaker 1: the CIA was surveiling the LAPD, I probably as a 717 00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:28,359 Speaker 1: matter of course, and found out about the LAPD being contacted. 718 00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:31,640 Speaker 1: Right like you said, the CIA contacts the FBI. The 719 00:42:31,719 --> 00:42:37,080 Speaker 1: FBI contexts the LAPD, and the LAPD says to the intermediary, Hey, 720 00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,600 Speaker 1: do you happen to have a document that shows the 721 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:43,880 Speaker 1: Hughes Corporation trying to receive retrieve a Soviet sub for 722 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:46,360 Speaker 1: the CIA thumbed through the boxes and let me know 723 00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:49,200 Speaker 1: if you see the word Azorian And the intermediary says 724 00:42:49,800 --> 00:42:52,960 Speaker 1: b RB Yes, And the next thing you know, the 725 00:42:53,080 --> 00:42:56,160 Speaker 1: La Times is starting to report on it. Yeah. February seventh, 726 00:42:56,200 --> 00:43:00,840 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy five. La Times article US reported to russ 727 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:04,640 Speaker 1: sub short for Russian. Sure, I guess they just had 728 00:43:04,680 --> 00:43:07,879 Speaker 1: a They wanted that big font right, They couldn't get 729 00:43:07,920 --> 00:43:13,120 Speaker 1: it get Russian in there. So, according to reports circulating 730 00:43:13,120 --> 00:43:16,880 Speaker 1: among local law enforcement officers, Howard Hughes had contracted with 731 00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:20,680 Speaker 1: the CIA to raise a sunken Russian nuclear submarine from 732 00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:24,759 Speaker 1: the Atlantic Ocean. Not true. It was a Pacific right, 733 00:43:24,880 --> 00:43:27,880 Speaker 1: and again just a lot of holes in this. However, 734 00:43:27,960 --> 00:43:30,080 Speaker 1: it was now out there. So there's a dude named 735 00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:35,520 Speaker 1: Jack Anderson, I believe, who had a nationally syndicated radio show, 736 00:43:35,600 --> 00:43:38,040 Speaker 1: and he was the first to really mention this thing, 737 00:43:38,440 --> 00:43:39,960 Speaker 1: and he said he was going to get to the 738 00:43:40,000 --> 00:43:42,120 Speaker 1: bottom of it and reveal some more stuff about it. 739 00:43:42,440 --> 00:43:45,080 Speaker 1: And by this time, once he did that, all of 740 00:43:45,120 --> 00:43:48,120 Speaker 1: the reporters who were sitting on stories about it, all 741 00:43:48,120 --> 00:43:51,880 Speaker 1: bets were off, including Seymour Hirsh And so mysteriously, the 742 00:43:51,960 --> 00:43:55,560 Speaker 1: day after Jack Anderson mentions it, there's front page in 743 00:43:55,680 --> 00:44:00,520 Speaker 1: depth stories about Project as Orion, which they rectally called 744 00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:05,120 Speaker 1: Project Jennifer on newspapers around the country. And the cat 745 00:44:05,160 --> 00:44:07,239 Speaker 1: was out of the bag. As they say, I'm Jack 746 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:12,319 Speaker 1: Anderson and that's the last word. It sounds like that's 747 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:14,759 Speaker 1: the kind of show he would add. Yeah, Yeah, he's 748 00:44:14,840 --> 00:44:19,760 Speaker 1: got his fedora with scoop like in in the bill. Yeah, 749 00:44:19,920 --> 00:44:23,240 Speaker 1: I'm kind of curious about why project or why Jennifer 750 00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:28,080 Speaker 1: was the name of the compartment. So this I okay, 751 00:44:28,200 --> 00:44:30,600 Speaker 1: so it comes like some sexist thing to me if 752 00:44:30,600 --> 00:44:32,600 Speaker 1: you asked me, I think it was just maybe like 753 00:44:32,640 --> 00:44:36,040 Speaker 1: a hurricane, like they just that was up for usage. 754 00:44:36,680 --> 00:44:40,360 Speaker 1: But the compartment, it's it's kind of like all communications, 755 00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:43,080 Speaker 1: all memos, all everything that has to do with this 756 00:44:43,320 --> 00:44:48,160 Speaker 1: project goes into this compartment. And somebody thought the compartment 757 00:44:48,239 --> 00:44:51,040 Speaker 1: name Jennifer was the name of the project, so they 758 00:44:51,040 --> 00:44:53,880 Speaker 1: messed that up. Yeah, but they got just about everything 759 00:44:53,920 --> 00:44:55,800 Speaker 1: else right. And so by the time that this story 760 00:44:55,840 --> 00:45:01,360 Speaker 1: comes out, the US is like, well, it's the Soviets 761 00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:05,960 Speaker 1: are about to unleash hell on Earth diplomatically, maybe militarily. 762 00:45:06,280 --> 00:45:09,480 Speaker 1: This is going to be really bad. And the US 763 00:45:09,600 --> 00:45:15,000 Speaker 1: braced itself for a response and out of Moscow crickets. Yeah, 764 00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,200 Speaker 1: and for very good reasons, all of which kind of 765 00:45:17,200 --> 00:45:21,560 Speaker 1: tie back to embarrassment. Three things. Mainly, they would have 766 00:45:21,600 --> 00:45:24,520 Speaker 1: to admit that they lost a sub which would be embarrassing. 767 00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:27,239 Speaker 1: They would have to admit that they couldn't find it 768 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:32,000 Speaker 1: and the US could find it super embarrassing, and then 769 00:45:32,800 --> 00:45:36,799 Speaker 1: they had to admit that we were following them out there. 770 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:40,279 Speaker 1: In the ocean and saw them doing something. But we 771 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:42,800 Speaker 1: turned around and went home. We went beep beep, so 772 00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:47,719 Speaker 1: super triple embarrassment. So they said, nyet, we're not doing it. 773 00:45:48,320 --> 00:45:50,640 Speaker 1: And I think it's interesting. I've seen a bunch of 774 00:45:50,640 --> 00:45:54,759 Speaker 1: stories lately about the Cold War where like where we 775 00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,680 Speaker 1: knew something that the Soviets knew, but no one could 776 00:45:57,719 --> 00:45:59,719 Speaker 1: admit it out loud. So there was a lot of 777 00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:01,840 Speaker 1: city back and like, all right, are they going to 778 00:46:01,920 --> 00:46:03,759 Speaker 1: say something? Uh? Huh are they going to say something? 779 00:46:03,760 --> 00:46:07,960 Speaker 1: All right, they're not saying anything. So despite that, despite this, 780 00:46:08,040 --> 00:46:11,960 Speaker 1: this this uh assessment that the Soviets weren't going to 781 00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:15,560 Speaker 1: publicly acknowledge this, and the United States certainly didn't publicly 782 00:46:15,600 --> 00:46:20,000 Speaker 1: acknowledge it either. Despite that, it was clear that the 783 00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:22,600 Speaker 1: Soviets also weren't going to be like, sure, go ahead, 784 00:46:22,640 --> 00:46:24,839 Speaker 1: try to get the rest of the sub. They were 785 00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:27,480 Speaker 1: worried that if they did go back out, the Soviets 786 00:46:27,480 --> 00:46:30,640 Speaker 1: would maybe sink whatever ship tried to go out there. Yea, 787 00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:34,000 Speaker 1: the Soviets had a military presence, a naval presence around 788 00:46:34,080 --> 00:46:36,919 Speaker 1: the site the whole time from that moment on. Once 789 00:46:36,960 --> 00:46:40,680 Speaker 1: the story broke and they said that's it. It's it's done. 790 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:44,120 Speaker 1: So for all we know, they went back and managed 791 00:46:44,160 --> 00:46:47,160 Speaker 1: to sneak it out from under the Soviets. For all 792 00:46:47,160 --> 00:46:49,560 Speaker 1: we know, this never happened, and that all of this 793 00:46:49,640 --> 00:46:51,680 Speaker 1: is actually a cover story for that break in of 794 00:46:51,719 --> 00:46:55,120 Speaker 1: the Hughes Corporation. That's what I think. Yeah, or for 795 00:46:55,160 --> 00:46:57,680 Speaker 1: all we know, this is all gospel truth. I mean, 796 00:46:57,840 --> 00:46:59,759 Speaker 1: maybe it's sitting next to a spaceship in the area, 797 00:46:59,719 --> 00:47:02,280 Speaker 1: if one right deep within the earth, and a bunker 798 00:47:02,600 --> 00:47:05,239 Speaker 1: very well could be Chuck, don't be so naive. In 799 00:47:05,280 --> 00:47:08,120 Speaker 1: the end, and today's money, it cost about three billion bucks. 800 00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:12,200 Speaker 1: And here's the kind of fun ending is that Glomar explorer. 801 00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:16,480 Speaker 1: Remember the barge. It was eventually retrofitted to be a 802 00:47:16,680 --> 00:47:21,120 Speaker 1: regular deep sea drilling barge. The whole the whole ship. 803 00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:23,399 Speaker 1: Oh I thought just the barge was. No, the whole 804 00:47:23,400 --> 00:47:26,680 Speaker 1: ship was. So it was finally sold only eight years 805 00:47:26,680 --> 00:47:30,000 Speaker 1: ago to a private company for fifteen million bucks. Yeah, 806 00:47:30,040 --> 00:47:33,480 Speaker 1: I think for scrap. Oh the secrets they're in, I know, 807 00:47:33,640 --> 00:47:36,200 Speaker 1: can you believe it? But they actually finally did do 808 00:47:37,320 --> 00:47:40,520 Speaker 1: deep sea mining and then get this, Howard Hughes got 809 00:47:40,560 --> 00:47:43,760 Speaker 1: a free deep sea mining ship out of it because 810 00:47:43,880 --> 00:47:47,440 Speaker 1: the government paid him to build it. That guy, that guy, Well, 811 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:49,400 Speaker 1: if you want to know more about Project the Zorian, 812 00:47:49,719 --> 00:47:52,440 Speaker 1: you should probably go back in time and join the CIA. 813 00:47:52,920 --> 00:47:55,239 Speaker 1: And since I said that, it's time for listener mail. Oh, 814 00:47:55,320 --> 00:47:58,640 Speaker 1: and shout out to the great IO nine article that 815 00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:01,520 Speaker 1: time the CIA and Howard Hughes tried to steal a 816 00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:04,920 Speaker 1: Soviet submarine by Mark Strauss. That was a great source. 817 00:48:05,239 --> 00:48:08,160 Speaker 1: So two with Seymour Hurst's nineteen seventy five New York 818 00:48:08,200 --> 00:48:11,120 Speaker 1: Times article on the whole thing where he mistakenly calls 819 00:48:11,120 --> 00:48:14,600 Speaker 1: it Project Jennifer Law. And there are a bunch of 820 00:48:14,600 --> 00:48:16,640 Speaker 1: other sources too. And we'll go ahead and shout out 821 00:48:16,640 --> 00:48:20,920 Speaker 1: pinto madness again. Why not? Because why not? All right, 822 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:25,799 Speaker 1: listener mail, Yeah, I'm gonna call this really great thing 823 00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,520 Speaker 1: that you should think about throwing a few bucks too. Hey, guys, 824 00:48:28,520 --> 00:48:30,719 Speaker 1: want to preface this by saying I'm not looking for 825 00:48:30,800 --> 00:48:32,719 Speaker 1: a shout out. It's always a good way to get 826 00:48:32,719 --> 00:48:35,480 Speaker 1: a shout out. Yeah. I run a charity trivia night 827 00:48:35,520 --> 00:48:38,080 Speaker 1: every year in honor of my late wife that passed 828 00:48:38,080 --> 00:48:40,560 Speaker 1: away from brain cancer a few days after we got 829 00:48:40,560 --> 00:48:46,520 Speaker 1: married in the hospital. The events the event benefits Grace 830 00:48:46,640 --> 00:48:49,239 Speaker 1: giving a five h one C three we started for 831 00:48:49,239 --> 00:48:52,480 Speaker 1: brain cancer research donations, mainly for our trivia event. We 832 00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:55,600 Speaker 1: created the event three years ago and now in year three, 833 00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:58,840 Speaker 1: we sold out our three hundred person event and roughly 834 00:48:58,920 --> 00:49:01,560 Speaker 1: three minutes. It's awesome with one hundred and seventy people 835 00:49:01,560 --> 00:49:04,360 Speaker 1: on the waitlist. So I just want to publicize this event. 836 00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:10,200 Speaker 1: That's me talking Chuck. I should do it in voices. Yeah, 837 00:49:10,280 --> 00:49:12,960 Speaker 1: that way people would know. Do this guy's voice like 838 00:49:13,040 --> 00:49:15,400 Speaker 1: really high pitched. No, I'm not going to do that 839 00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:18,200 Speaker 1: to Mike. Mike's a really good guy. We've been emailing 840 00:49:18,239 --> 00:49:20,560 Speaker 1: back and forth. So it is April fourteenth this year 841 00:49:20,600 --> 00:49:25,400 Speaker 1: in Chicago, and our tickets. Can you even get tickets 842 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:29,200 Speaker 1: to this thing? Well? I think it's sold out, but yeah, 843 00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:31,040 Speaker 1: I did say, can people at least donate because this 844 00:49:31,080 --> 00:49:32,640 Speaker 1: is such a great thing, and even if you've got 845 00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:36,239 Speaker 1: like five dollars, it's what this family's been through and 846 00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:38,920 Speaker 1: what they're doing now is pretty amazing. So I want 847 00:49:38,920 --> 00:49:41,279 Speaker 1: to say thanks for helping me out these last few years. 848 00:49:41,719 --> 00:49:45,520 Speaker 1: Love the podcast. Really enjoyed the PR Live show that 849 00:49:45,560 --> 00:49:47,560 Speaker 1: you put out. By the way, and by the way, 850 00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:51,600 Speaker 1: my roommate roommate is Emmett Cleary, the football player who 851 00:49:51,640 --> 00:49:55,160 Speaker 1: wrote in about CTE. Oh wow, remember that man alive? 852 00:49:55,239 --> 00:49:58,520 Speaker 1: So wait, these two roommates have both made Stuff you 853 00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,320 Speaker 1: Should Know. Listen to your mails. Yeah, that's really something. 854 00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:04,480 Speaker 1: How about that's some sort of trifecta. So if you 855 00:50:04,560 --> 00:50:06,080 Speaker 1: have it in your heart to throw a few bucks 856 00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:09,440 Speaker 1: toward Grace Giving, we can encourage you to do so. 857 00:50:09,560 --> 00:50:12,960 Speaker 1: You can go to Facebook dot com slash Grace Giving 858 00:50:13,040 --> 00:50:16,920 Speaker 1: twenty four great or just go you know, google that 859 00:50:16,960 --> 00:50:19,719 Speaker 1: stuff on the internet. And that is from Grace and Mike. 860 00:50:20,239 --> 00:50:23,600 Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, guys. It's very it's I think where 861 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:26,719 Speaker 1: you're doing a fantastic Yeah, keep it going there in Chicago. Yep. 862 00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:29,640 Speaker 1: And if you want to let us know about something 863 00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:32,799 Speaker 1: great that we would want to publicize, you can get 864 00:50:32,800 --> 00:50:36,759 Speaker 1: in touch those via Twitter at sysk podcast you can 865 00:50:36,760 --> 00:50:39,239 Speaker 1: send us an email. This Stuff podcast at HowStuffWorks dot 866 00:50:39,239 --> 00:50:41,200 Speaker 1: com and has always joined us at our home on 867 00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:47,080 Speaker 1: the web. Stuff you Should Know dot Com. Stuff you 868 00:50:47,080 --> 00:50:50,400 Speaker 1: Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts 869 00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:54,000 Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 870 00:50:54,000 --> 00:50:55,800 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.