The guest speaker at this week’s RINGKNOCKER Virtual Meetup is Robert Williscroft (NESEP ’69).

Robert enlisted in the Navy as a Sonar Tech in 1961. He studied Marine Physics & Meteorology at the University of Washington under the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Program. After commissioning, Robert returned to nuclear submarines in 1969 as the Navy’s first Poseidon Weapons Officer. When Admiral Rickover’s new nuclear power training program terminated the Missile Officer career path, Robert volunteered for dive school.

Subsequently, Robert served as Navigator and Diving Officer on both catamaran mother vessels for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. Then he joined Submarine Development Group One out of San Diego as the Officer-in-Charge of the Test Operations Group, conducting deep-ocean surveillance and data acquisition to establish and run the top-secret Cold War program now declassified as OPERATION IVY BELLS.

IVY BELLS serves as the backdrop for two of Robert’s novels. The first, Operation Ivy Bells, tells the story of the core IVY BELLS mission: tapping Soviet underwater communications cables by hand in the deep ocean. The second, newly-released Operation Ice Breaker, is the topic of Robert’s presentation to the RINGKNOCKERs this week.

Love a great sea story? Then DON’T MISS THIS ONE!