Did the Nazis Have a Space Program?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Story of one of the Navy's Cam Ranh Bay dolphins going "AWOL" here.

"The dolphins were deployed at night to small boats called 'Sentry Vehicle Stations' in which the dolphin works," said Goforth. The dolphins each surveyed a 180-degree segment of the bay around the pier using their echo-location senses, which Goforth said are better than any human device. "They (the dolphins) had a paddle at one end of the pen to tell them to search and a 'Yes' and 'No' paddle at the other end," said Goforth. The dolphins got a fish if they saw something and were then released to rout out the enemy swimmer or anyone pretending to be a swimmer for training purposes.

If they found a swimmer, they would approach from behind and hit them with their nose, then return to their station for a fish reward. They never found a real enemy, because the training was carried on in view of the ammunition pier which was crowded with Vietnamese workers, many of whom, Goforth believes, went home and told the Vietcong to find another target.

Goforth said the object was not to kill an enemy diver, but to put him out of commission so he could be captured and interrogated.

One dolphin went AWOL because during the day, South Vietnamese patrolling against enemy swimmers randomly tossed hand grenades into the bay. "The mammal couldn't stand the noise and just took off," said Goforth.