Domp: Deep Ocean Mining Project

In March of 1972, Dr. R. John Rutten was practicing family medicine in Santa Barbara, California, when he was contacted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Before taking up a public sector career, Dr. Rutten had obtained specialized training and experience in diving medicine while operating decompression chambers for the US Navy. It was that expertise that won him the attention of the CIA. The CIA was planning to secretly raise the Soviet K-129 nuclear-armed submarine that had sunk in 1968. The Hughes Glomar Explorer (HGE), the tremendous deep-sea drilling platform that would carry the crew on their journey, was still under construction at the time. Two years after being recruited to provide medical care on board ship, in August of 1974 Dr. Rutten and forty-five crew members flew a private charter to Hawaii where they boarded the completed HGE. Dr. Rutten was assigned to B-Crew, charged with exploiting the recovered submarine after its miraculous discovery at a depth of 17,000 feet two months earlier. In this firsthand historical account, Dr. Rutten recounts the seven weeks he spent aboard the HGE as they attempted to elude the ever-watchful Soviet trawlers to exhume the secret code books and nuclear missiles.