In October of 1971 the USS Halibut (SSN 587) entered the opening stages of Operation Ivy Bells. In 400 feet of water divers exited the Halibut and installed a 20-foot-long wiretapping device on a soviet underwater telephone cable in the Sea of Okhotsk. The cable connected the Naval Base on the Kamchatka Peninsula to the mainland headquarters of the Soviet Pacific Fleet at Vladivostok. Remarkably the telephone lines were not encrypted, providing useful intelligence information to the United States. A more detailed description of this operation is outlined in the Book “Blind Man’s Bluff”.
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Next Hawkbill Base meeting is October 21st at the Blackfoot Elks Lodge – 123 N. Ash St. Social gathering at noon, meeting at 1 p.m.