It all started with a hamburger.

 

Many years ago, as a staff historian for the U.S. Navy I, Dr. Gary E. Weir, travelled to Woods Hole Massachusetts to visit one of the world’s greatest ocean research institutions. I had discovered in my research on American submarine design a reference to a primary source that only resided in the amazing archive of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. During a day of working with that source in Woods Hole, I broke for a meal at the Institution’s lunch room. With a mouthful of hamburger, I suddenly heard a  man at the checkout ask one of the people in line , “Are you Gary Weir?” I raised my hand at a distance of about ten feet and the questioner made a quick move toward me. He sat down opposite and said, “My name is Allyn Vine and I need to talk to you.” He then proceeded to regal me with a rapid succession of stories of World War II and the Cold War. I swallowed my mouthful of hamburger and to his chagrin , I told him to stop. I said that what he had to offer was golden and I need to get a tape recorder. Bill Dunkle, the Woods Hole archivist, found a recorder for us and I proceeded to collect an extremely valuable and unique testimony from the man who created the wartime bathythermograph and the Alvin submersible, later used by Robert Ballard to find Titanic. That episode encouraged me to do as many oral histories as possible. You never know what gold lies in these testimonies. The very thing you do not expect, or were never looking for, will emerge suddenly as your most important find.

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         Over a forty-year career in professional History I have accumulated over four hundred oral histories to support my historical work on undersea warfare and the ocean sciences. Sponsored as I was by the U.S. Navy’s Historical Center and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), I found it easy to approach some of the seminal players in the evolution of our understanding of the ocean and its attributes. My interviews covered both the course of a subject’s life, scientific interests, and progress made in scientific discovery.

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         Currently in retirement as the former Chief Historian of NGA I have decided that I should share as many of my oral histories as possible with the larger historical community. My intention became reinforced by my discovery that some historians of ocean science have unfortunately published conclusions not informed by many of these essential oral sources. The operational archive of the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command would have made the original recordings available upon request, but were never approached. Without the insights provided by scientists like Allyn Vine, Robert Frosch, Dale Leipper, and others much of the currently published historical work comes up short of the insights sought.

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         Given my professional affiliations over the decades of my career, many of the oral histories I conducted carry security clearances because of the frequent discussions of sources and methods important to the proper functioning of the American military and intelligence communities. This necessarily excludes the classified oral histories from possible publication here. This group of excluded oral histories includes those done by me as part of my work for NGA. All of the NGA interviews are classified. Thus this initial posting of twenty oral histories comes from my unclassified collection. However, this represents only an initial effort. By the time I finish using AI to transcribe the entire unclassifed collection, this site will carry seventy-eight complete oral histories.  In each case, the interviewees signed a form releasing rights to their interview. These forms and the original recordings currently reside at the U.S. Navy History and Heritage Command, Washington Navy Yard, D.C. Thus this testimony belongs to the Navy and the American people.  The only restriction I place upon the oral histories posted here concerns downloading, cut and paste, and alteration. As with the act of deriving information from documents at the National Archives, you cannot keep an original document, remove part of it, or actually alter what the document says. Simply read what you find on the screen, copy what you need via hand or typing, and move on. I am doing this to protect the interviewee and the integrity of the oral history.

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As with any source that will inform scholarship, it is always important to comprehend the nature of an oral history (OH). They are not anything like typed, written, or printed sources. Each carries the character and manner of the interviewee. In some cases the product reads like a transcribed conversation with all of the idiosyncrasies of the subject in terms of vocabulary, expression, pace, and focus. Very often distractions may intervene as well as changes in focus and pace as the effort recall an earlier time takes place. Both of these results present advantages and difficulties for the scholar.  In other cases the OH can emerge as a very clear and considered expression of a very ordered mind which may not truly represent the advantages implied. Has the subject consciously imposed a clarity and order that did not characterize the time? Each of the oral histories you may find here demonstrates one of more of these attributes. In any case, each is the product of a very significant life rendered in recall. Use them well, keeping the pitfalls in mind.

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         I hope you find these discussions useful. Please let me know if you have any questions. (gweir@whoi.edu)

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Dr. Gary E. Weir

Historian/Guest Investigator

Marine Policy Center

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution