In today's post, I conclude my chapter of miracles by including 2 events.  The first is my selection to attend the Navy War College located in Newport, Rhode Island.  This year at the War College was a significant point in my career.  It opened many doors for me and gave me incredible credibility when I was dealing with high level military personnel.  The second is my escape from serving on the maiden voyage of the USS Pueblo, the navy spy ship which was captured by North Korea in 1968.  I hope you enjoy these two stories.

SELECTION TO THE NAVAL WAR COLLEGE (1978).  The navy moved the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) from the Washington, D.C. area to the Mississippi/Louisiana gulf coast in 1974.  At that time, the R & D portion separated from NAVOCEANO and became the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity (NORDA).  I remained active in sea ice research, but I expanded my area of interest to include mine warfare (see the miracle of Davis Strait and COMINEWARCOM presented in earlier posts).  Also, in 1976, I was actively involved with Dr. Ralph Goodman and his Assistant Secretary of the Navy-directed assessment of the navy’s exploratory development research program (also discussed earlier).  Following the latter, I was assigned to Dr. Goodman’s staff, and I was tasked to became familiar with all the R & D programs being conducted at NORDA.  In 1978, another opportunity fell into my lap.  I was asked to throw my hat into the ring and apply to attend the U.S Navy War College located in Newport, R.I.  The Navy War College offers advanced programs for leading officers of all the military services (including the Coast Guard), civilians from various government agencies, and for selected officers from international navies.  To graduate from the Navy War College’s 1-year program is a career enhancing event for our military officers.
When I looked into this opportunity, I found that the Chief of Naval Research (CNR), an admiral, had one billet allowed each year to attend the Navy War College.  Again, as with selection to the NSAP program discussed earlier (and which occurred later in my career [1982]), I felt my chances for selection were slim.  CNR had hundreds of senior scientists/managers which would be more qualified than me.  However, I felt that the opportunity would be very career enhancing if I were selected.  So, I applied.  I was still a GS 13 at the time.  This grade is equivalent to a junior Commander in the navy, and all the military officers at the War College would be senior Commanders and Captains (Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels in the other military services (See Appendix C)).  Even if I were selected, by some miracle, I would be a very junior student.  I considered this before I sent my application to CNR, but I felt that I was worrying for nothing since I would not be selected.
        Well, somehow, I did get selected.  I never found out how many applicants there were for that one billet, but I have always felt that Dr. Goodman may have had some influence in the selection process.
The year I spent at the Navy War College (August 1978-August 1979) had a significant impact on my future career.  I became friends with a fellow student, CDR Paul Gaffney, who later attained flag level (i.e., an admiral) and eventually became the navy’s Chief of Naval Research.  I also got to know several other naval officers who would later reach the rank of admiral.
I remember on one occasion, I was giving a talk on the environmental effects on mine warfare at a primarily military conference held in San Diego, CA.  When I walked into the conference hall, I noticed that an admiral was surrounded by several officers of lower rank.  This is normal because admirals attract people like bees to honey.  I further noticed that the admiral was one of my fellow students at the Navy War College.  When our eyes met, he immediately excused himself from this entourage, came over to me, and gave me a big hug.  We had a lot to talk about.  I could see the other officers looking at me and wondering who I was.  My credibility skyrocketed, and my talk was highly successful.  I’m sure my talk was more successful because I was a “buddy” of the admiral.  Whenever I was at a gathering of military officers, I was taken more seriously when they discovered that I attended the Navy War College.

THE USS PUEBLO.  In the near-death chapter, I presented the story when the USS Banner (AGER 1) was purposely rammed by a Soviet derelict ship.  As I mentioned, the Banner was the first of a class of spy ships outfitted to conduct oceanographic research as a cover for the primary objective of its missions.  The second ship of this class was the USS Pueblo (AGER 2).  I was assigned to be the oceanographer on board for the Pueblo’s first deployment.
God then changed my life once again.  My wife, Sylvia, became pregnant with our first child, Monica.  Monica’s projected birth date was late February, well within the scheduled deployment of the Pueblo’s mission.  Sylvia asked me to leave the Banner/Pueblo program so that I could be with her during the pregnancy and the birth in February.  I put in a request to be transferred out of the program, and the request was granted.  My two great friends, Dunnie Tuck and Harry Iredale were assigned to the Pueblo.
The rest of this story is in the history books.  The Pueblo was assigned to conduct a spying mission off Pyongyang, North Korea.  On January 23, 1968, the Pueblo was attacked by N. Korea, seized, and towed into port in the Pyongyang River.  One Pueblo crewman was killed during the attack, and Dunnie and Harry, along with the other 80-plus crewmen were held prisoners for 11 months.  They were beaten and tortured, both physical and mentally, during the 11 months of captivity.
In the famous photo below (Figure 19), Harry is the second from the left on the back row.  I feel badly for Harry and Dunnie, who had to suffer through 11 months of hell.  However, I can’t help but thank the Lord for the pregnancy of my first child that saved me from that ordeal.

     FIGURE. 19  Famous Photo of Some Pueblo Captives Giving the Glad-Hand Signal

I'm continuing to post the miracles that I have been blessed with throughout my life.  Of all the stories in my memoirs, this is, perhaps, my favorite.  I have titled this event  "My Mother's Rebirth".  This miracle of my mother coming to the Lord Jesus when she was over 90 years old is truly a miracle.  In fact, this story is made up of 4 separate miracles.  Whenever I think of this event in my life, I still shake my head in amazement.

MY MOTHER’S REBIRTH (2008).  This next story seems out of place.  All the stories in this chapter involve episodes in my professional career.  This story could also be included in the next chapter where I relate stories that are in my full faith-walk testimony.  However, the story of my mother coming to the Lord Jesus has to be included in this chapter of miracles.
My mother and father moved from Rhode Island to be with us on Hilton Head in 2003.  They moved in to a 2-bedroom condominium.  Soon thereafter, their health began to fail, and my dad passed away in January 2005, one week short of his 90th birthday.  Soon thereafter, my Mother had to have her gallbladder removed, and her health began to worsen.  Before long, she was in a full-care nursing home.  Her ideas of God and faith had deteriorated over the years, and I began to fret over her eternal future.  I began witnessing her in earnest.  I tried to talk to her about the beauty of the Christian faith and that eternal salvation was available to her if she accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior and gave her life over to Him.  I went over our weekly Community Bible Study (CBS) questions and commentaries, I took her to church, and read daily devotionals to her.  All to no avail.  This went on for several years, and as I saw her health continuing to fail, I started to panic.  Then, the first of several miracles happened.
I did what I should have done in the beginning; I prayed for help.  Soon, one night I was lying in bed thinking about what I could do.  Then I heard the Holy Spirit in a very clear and concise voice.  [This was not the first time that this had happened.  See my chapter on Testimony Stories].  He said, “Ask your mother questions about our faith and see what is troubling her.”  I immediately got up, went to my desk in the bedroom, and began writing down questions fundamental to our faith.  This was a strange occurrence to me because it seemed like an out-of-body experience.  I actually saw myself from behind writing at my desk.  When I awoke the next morning, I rushed to the desk to see if I had been dreaming.  There, on the desk, were two pages of questions written in pencil in my handwriting.  The first question was very basic, “Do you believe in God”?, and they got progressively more specific about our faith.  I shook my head. It had not been a dream at all.
The next day, I visited my Mother and got her out of her bed and into her recliner.  I then told her that I would ask her a series of questions about the Christian faith, and I wanted her to give me a truthful answer; not one she felt that I wanted to hear.  She agreed to do this.  I started with the belief in God question and worked my way through the others.  Her answers were very encouraging to me.  Her answers were what I had hoped to hear, but she did have some caveats.  But as I progressed through the questions, I got to the one on the virgin birth.  Her answer was a very definitive “Absolutely not!”  This took me by surprise since she had done so well to this point.  I asked her why, and she said it was impossible for a virgin to get pregnant.  I used all the standard arguments like, if God can create the universe, then getting a virgin pregnant should be a piece of cake.  All to no avail.  She was immovable on this issue.  Then, the second miracle took place.
At this time, at St. Luke’s Church, I was responsible for calling people who were new to Hilton Head and had attended the church Sunday service.  I would welcome them, tell them what the church was all about, and answer any questions they may have.  I called a lady who had filled out a visitor’s card.  I remember her name.  It was Mary Pryor.  I don’t know if Mary had ever attended St. Luke’s more than once.  In fact, I never met her.  Then, weeks later after our phone conversation and about 2 days after I asked my mother the questions, I received an email from Mary Pryor.  The subject of the email was “The Virgin Birth.”  Well, this caught my immediate attention, and I read her email.  It was a daily devotional on how important the virgin birth is to our faith.  It talked about how Luke, a physician, had probably talked to Mary, the mother of Jesus, about her experience.  And if anyone understood the process of conception, it certainly would be Luke.  If he bought into the idea, it had to be true.
I could not believe what was happening.  This little devotional seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.  That day, I rushed to see my mother with a copy of the devotional along with a version of the sinner’s prayer.  I read it to her and gave her more information on Luke; the writer of the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, a highly intelligent Greek, a thorough, careful historian, and a traveling companion of the Apostle Paul.  I asked her to read the documents several times and think about them.  Two days later, I visited my mother again, and I asked her if she had studied the devotional.  She said that she had.  I then asked her if she had a love for Jesus.  She said that she did, and it was growing every day.  I had to pick myself up off the floor.  I could not believe what I had just heard.  She had also prayed the sinner’s prayer and had committed herself to Jesus.
Now it is time for miracle 3, the clincher.  About a month or so later, Sylvia and I were eating dinner.  I was just about to put some food in my mouth when Sylvia asked me. “Sam, have you noticed how much your mother has changed lately?”  The food never reached my mouth.  I put the fork down and said, “Yes I have.”  I could not believe what I had just heard.  Before, my mother would constantly complain about her roommate; how she bothered her all the time and complained about everything.  My mother hated the nursing care staff and said how they were always making fun of her behind her back and laughing at her; how the food was bad and she hated it; how she could not sleep at night.  She complained about everything.  Now, after she came to the Lord, I asked her about her roommate, and she said how her roommate had no family, was lonely, and that she (my mother) was all that she had.  One day she asked me if I could buy a blouse or something for one of the nursing staff.  She said how much the nurse had been tending to her needs.  She also said how much fun they were by cracking jokes all the time.  I asked how the food was lately.  She said that it was still bad, but she added how difficult it was to prepare food for so many people at once.  She also told me that she was sleeping better.
Once, not long before this happened, I had told my mother about the Holy Spirit; that once you accept Jesus into your life, you are given this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit, and how the Holy Spirit can change your life.  I remember what she told me, “How can I change?  I’m over 90 years old and living in a nursing home”.  Reread the paragraph above, and you can see what the Holy Spirit can do.
There is one other aside which I feel is important to this story.  I call it miracle number 4.  I mentioned that I had never met Mary Pryor.  After this miracle of my mother’s conversion, I called Mary, and I asked her why she had sent me the virgin birth devotional.  I had never told her about my mother’s hang-up.  She said, “I don’t know why.  I just thought that you might find it interesting”.  Isn’t that interesting?

     I am continuing in the posting of the miracles which I have been blessed with in my life.  Today's post titled "MY MOTHER'S REBIRTH (2008)" is, perhaps my favorite story in all of my memoirs.  There are 4 separate miracles in this story.  Look for them and be amazed as I still am.

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MY FIRST WEEK AT CONSUBPAC (August 1982).  I arrived with my family in Hawaii in early August.  I started working with Dr. Kranz right away.  He introduced me to numerous military members of the staff as well as several other civilians also assigned to COMSUBPAC.  These civilians were not part of the NSAP program but were on temporary duty from the Naval Undersea Systems Center (NUSC).  During this first day of Joe showing me the ropes and the many introductions to the staff members, the thought of failure haunted me.  What especially created knots in my stomach was when he told everyone that I was Dr. Janota’s replacement.  I know I cringed in horror each time he did so.  (Read my previous post to see why being compared to Dr. Janota made me ill.)
Then, the first of many miracles happened.  It was about mid-morning on Tuesday, only my second day on the job.  Joe and I were talking at his desk when a young lieutenant came into our office looking very agitated.  He said “Joe, you have got to help me.”  Joe asked what was wrong.  Here is what the lieutenant said.  At the morning operational briefing to the admiral, the admiral announced that the Governor of Hawaii had asked him if he could help him with supporting the OTEC program (I will briefly describe OTEC below).  The admiral asked how he could help.  The governor said that engineers designing the seafloor portion of the OTEC system needed to know what the seafloor looked like so they could have a better idea of how to design the system.  They asked if the admiral could make the DSV Turtle available to them to visually inspect the bottom where they wanted to place the structure.  Well, the DSV Turtle was designed to be a rescue vehicle (for the submarine crew) in case a submarine had a tragic mishap.  The admiral did not know that if he granted this request if he would be providing a joy ride for these guys at the navy’s expense.  He then turned to the young lieutenant and tasked him to look into this and report back to him by next Friday’s morning brief.  Well, the lieutenant had no earthly idea of how to answer the admiral’s request.  After listening to this story, Joe told him that he didn’t have a clue of where to begin either.  I had been sitting there quietly, and then I said, “Maybe I could help”.  The lieutenant, who had not yet even looked at me, turned to me and said “Who are you”?  Joe introduced me to him.  I told him and Joe that I had been recently working with scientists from LSU and Texas A&M on placing oil rig structures on the bottom in the Gulf of Mexico.  I could ask them and see what they think.  The lieutenant said, “You can do that?  Can you have something by Friday morning?”  I said that I would try.
At this time, I think it would be valuable to know something about OTEC.  OTEC stands for Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (See Figure 17).  To be honest, I had heard about OTEC but knew little about it.  It was technology that had been around for many years, and it involved creating cheap energy by exploiting the temperature differences between the ocean surface and the ocean floor.  Hawaii is an ideal place for this technology to be exploited.  Huge water depths are close to the Hawaiian land mass (hence the necessary temperature differences are available), and a minimum of cabling to shore is needed because of this proximity. 
                       
                Figure 17.  Schematic of OTEC Concept

      SEE FIGURE 17 BELOW

In addition, outside of windmill farms and solar paneling, the oil resources necessary for Hawaii’s energy needs have to be transported by ship to the islands and is expensive.
As soon as the lieutenant left, I phoned Dr. Joe Suhada at LSU.  There was a 5-hour time difference between Hawaii and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, but he had to work late that day and I caught him still at his office.  I explained the situation to him and asked what the oil companies would do.  Joe said that he would call Dr. Bill Bryant at Texas A&M and discuss it with him.  Before noon on Wednesday (the next day), I had a response from Dr. Suhada.  Essentially, he told me that the oil companies would never send people down for a visual inspection.  They had much cheaper, less dangerous, and more effective ways to get the information needed.  They would use high-resolution photographic cameras, high frequency side scan sonars, and sub-bottom profiling systems.  Well, I took this information and wrote up a 1.5-page report for the lieutenant recommending that the admiral not honor the governor’s request.  The lieutenant was extremely grateful for what I did.
Later that day, an enlisted yeoman came to my desk and asked if I was Dr. Tooma.  By now I was getting tired of correcting them about being a doctor, and I said that I was he.  He then told me that the admiral wanted to see me at 3:30. I showed up on time and was invited into his office.  ADM Bernard Kauderer immediately got up from his desk, walked over to me, and shook my hand.  He asked me to sit on his couch so we could talk.  He commended me for the work I had done on the possible use of the DSV Turtle.  The lieutenant had told the admiral that I had prepared the report.  Once again, someone had passed the credit to me taking none for himself.  ADM Kauderer welcomed me to the staff and was very gracious.  In fact, he told me that he was having a “little” party at his house on Saturday, and he hoped that Sylvia and I could attend.  This was pretty heady stuff to me.  Here was the commander of all our submarines in the Pacific asking me to attend a party at his house.
What just happened in the first week of my assignment at COMSUBPAC?  I was convinced that I offered nothing at this new job.  I felt that in short order I would be sent home packing with my tail between my legs.  But through some miracle, a very unique and specific opportunity was dropped into my lap.  It was just what I needed to get my confidence up and help me be productive.  In the next few days. I was constantly approached by military staffers and the civilians on the staff asking me for my advice on environmental matters.  It was soon thereafter that I was the Environmental Advisor to the admiral and not “just” the Acoustic Advisor.  If this story does not fit into the miracle category, then nothing does.  In the next two years at COMSUBPAC, God continued to watch over me in unbelievable ways.
As an interesting aside to this story, I found out that ADM Kauderer had honored the request by the governor.  I couldn’t believe it.  Hadn’t I recommended that the admiral say no?  I was told that admirals get the big bucks for making decisions like these.  They have to make hard decisions.  By granting the governor’s request, ADM Kauderer was putting his career on the line.  If a submarine went down and needed the Turtle for rescue when it was supporting a civilian need, it would not have been good for him.  But often politics drive decisions.  Since the state of Hawaii strongly supports the US military, ADM Kauderer felt it was worth the risk.

TWO YEARS AT COMSUBPAC (1982-1984).  Instead of being a horror story, my two years at COMSUBPAC turned out to be extremely exciting and unbelievably rewarding.  Again “coincidences” and “just so happens” continued to occur.  For example, the Soviet submarine threat in the Arctic Ocean was growing at that time, and countering that threat was a high priority problem.  Environmental issues abounded.  I had a very strong level of experience in the arctic.  In fact, I had co-authored a classified paper on detecting submarines in contact with the underside of the ice.  When I showed the intelligence officer on the SUBPAC staff my test results, he immediately wanted me to show the data to his superior, the Third Fleet intelligence officer.  Soon I was designing a 2-submarine test in the arctic for an upcoming deployment.  This test involved 2 nuclear submarines, a remote sensing aircraft, 2 manned camps on the ice, and a Coast Guard icebreaker.  Wow!  I was working with several other agencies in designing this test, but I was the guy on the SUBPAC staff coordinating the test.

SUBMARINE MINE AVOIDANCE TEST (1984).  Another important program that I got involved with was submarine mine avoidance.  Sea mines are a serious threat to a submarine, especially in narrow straits.  The question put to me was how can we avoid mines in a minefield?  How we addressed this question is presented below.
        Whenever you can utilize systems that are already onboard a naval ship, that is a great plus, especially on submarines where space is just not available for a new system.  To detect mines in the water column, a high frequency, high resolution system is required.  It just so happens that the nuclear submarines in the US Navy all have such a system; the BQN-17 secure fathometer.  The thought was that this system could be trained to look forward (instead of downward) and possibly “see” mines.  To test this theory, we used the USS Houston, an SSN often used for research projects.  We established a dummy minefield in the test area near Pearl Harbor, and we conducted a series of runs through the minefield.  We started the test around 9:00PM.  We knew exactly where the mines were located (geographic location and depth) but we could not detect one mine with the BQN-17.  We ran lines with all kinds of tactical changes but could not detect the mines.  We were totally discouraged.  At about 7:00AM, we decided at the last minute to do one more run.  Near the end of the run, we heard a weak sonar return.  We all stood up and wondered what that sound was.  Was it a mine?  Or was it something else?  Before the run was over, we received another blip, and both were right where the mines were located.  We were all very excited and began to plan another track line.  On our next series of runs, we detected more and more of the mines with clearer and louder sonar returns.  Soon, we were able to navigate around the mines with ease.  The BQN-17 worked!
During analysis of the test results, we found out that another oceanographic test was being conducted close to where we were operating.  We requested access to their data.  Upon analysis of their data, we found that they had collected samples of the Deep Scattering Layer (DSL).  The DSL is a layer of very small fish that have swim bladders which scatter sonar energy.  This layer is shallower at night and deepens during the day.  What was happening during our test was that during the night, we were operating in the DSL, thereby rendering our sonar useless.  When daylight occurred at dawn, the DSL deepened so that it was below us.  As it deepened, our sonar performance got better and better.
We now had something to report to the admiral.  When we told him of the affect the DSL had on the sonar, he asked the question that admirals seem to ask.  “How can I tell if I am in a DSL or not?”  He then said, “I won’t take my submarine into a minefield unless I know the answer to that question.”  Well, the answer to that question is another story which I was not involved in.

I need to add here that this mine detection experience plays an important roll in my first book "The SOOF" which is due out on 5 June.  Be sure to purchase a copy to find out how I used this experience in my book.

I included this last story, not because I was near death or because it is humorous in some way. [ But the coincidence that another agency was conducting tests near our area and just happened to collect the DSL data we needed to solve our problem, seems like a God-incidence to me.  Also, our last minute decision to make one more run seems like a miracle to me.]  But it does show what kind of issues I had to deal with the 2 years that I was assigned to COMSUBPAC.  Those 2 years, August 1982-August 1984, were the most exciting and rewarding years of my professional life.  Upon my completion of my 2 years at COMSUBPAC, I was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Award from ADM Austin Scott, who was COMSUBPAC when my tour ended.  This award is the second highest award a Rear Admiral can bestow upon a civilian.  And to think that I was sure that I would be an utter failure back in 1982.  God does work in mysterious ways.
 

     Figure 18.  Receiving the Meritorious Civilian Service Award from ADM Austin Scott

     SEE FIGURE 18 BELOW
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     Figure 17.  Schematic of OTEC Concept

     Figure 18.  Receiving the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal From ADM Austin Scott.  That is Sylvia, my proud wife.

This is the second of the miracle stories that I am posting.  This miracle in my life greatly affected the direction of my professional career as an oceanographer for the navy.  As you read this account, watch for things 'that just so happened', people acting different than most people would act, etc.  To me, the odds of things happening as they did in this event in my life are astronomical.  I think you will agree with me.

DAVIS STRAIT MIRACLE (1976).  I have had several miracles occur in my life which changed the direction of my career and enhanced it in unbelievable ways.  This event is probably the one that changed my career and my life the most.  Again, this miracle is filled with sub-miracles.  By this I mean that people acted in ways that are contrary to what is normally done, that amazing “coincidences” occurred, and that several situations fell into place at exactly the right time.  Look for these things as you read my narrative.
The year was 1976, I was still working in arctic research, and we had just moved from the Washington, D.C. area down to the Louisiana/Mississippi gulf coast near New Orleans.  I remember sitting at my desk working on a paper of the northern Davis Strait (Figure 15 below).  The issue of this particular research was a unique phenomenon which exists in the narrow strait area separating the Lincoln Sea to the north and Baffin Bay to the south.   This small area had what we call a recurring polynya.  Polynya is a Russian term for open water.  The open water/free of ice area that I was studying exists all year round, even in the dead of winter.  As I said, I was sitting at my desk studying the data when the phone rang.  I received a call that changed my professional career and my life.
The caller was Claude Coffey.  Claude was my first supervisor when I began working for the Naval Oceanographic Office in 1963.
. 
FIGURE 15.  LANDSAT Satellite Image of Open Water Area.  Water is Dark; Ice is Light. 
             (SEE FIGURE 15 BELOW)

I had not heard from Claude for several years, and I was surprised to hear his voice.  Claude told me that he had just returned from Charleston, S.C. where he had met with staff members of the Commander of Mine Warfare Command (COMINEWARCOM).  The admiral of COMINEWARCOM is the head of all navy mine operations, including mine countermeasures (MCM) and the development and utilization of offensive mine systems.  Claude told me that the staff there had asked him several questions about the arctic ice conditions in Baffin Bay, including ice bergs, ice pack movement, and seasonal variations of these parameters.
Knowing Claude’s experience and knowledge of these things, I knew he could have given them answers that would have satisfied them, thereby making himself look good.  Instead, he told them that he knew someone who could answer their questions better than he could.  He told them that he would contact that person and have him call them as soon as he returned home.  Hence, the call to me.  I often considered how many people would have done such a thing?  Professional jealousy normally motivates people to try to take the glory and make themselves look good.  Claude did not do that on this occasion.
I told Claude that I would certainly contact COMINEWARCOM and see if I could help them in any way.  He gave me the number of the operations officer, Commander Powell, of COMINEWARCOM, and I called him.  CDR Powell seemed very pleased that I had contacted him so quickly.  He immediately asked that I call him back on a secure phone so we could talk about classified issues, which I did.  CDR Powell explained that COMINEWARCOM was in the process of developing plans for possible deployment of minefields in Baffin Bay in order to counter Soviet submarines entering the North Atlantic from that area.  The big concerns were environmental.  Would the sea ice prevent deployment of the minefield; would ice bergs sweep away the mines which were moored from the bottom; would ambient conditions interfere with the detection capabilities of the mine’s sensors; etc.  I told him that I “just so happened” to be doing research in that area, and that I may be able to help them.  CDR Powell asked me how soon could I come to Charleston and work with them.  I said that I could be there the following week.  CDR Powell seemed pleased, even relieved.
I went to the naval base in Charleston where COMINEWARCOM was based.  I met with the minefield planners and assessed the situation.  One of the major issues was cost.  The mines the US Navy uses are not like the round, floating mines we see in WWII movies with John Wayne pushing them away with long boat hooks.  They are very sophisticated devices that are anchored to the sea floor and moored to the appropriate water depth via a cable.  Each mine system contains an encapsulated torpedo and has multiple sensors to detect a submarine.  They can differentiate between a submarine, a surface ship, and a whale.  Each mine costs about a million dollars (a guess here).  So, the minefield planners want to minimize the number of mines needed to get the job done at the lowest cost.  Another issue is deployment of the mines.  Mines can be deployed in 3 ways: by surface ship (slow and not covert); by aircraft (fastest and done by assets that are more readily available); and by submarine (slow and difficult to commit for mine warfare). Obviously, the arctic environment complicates the deployment issue considerably.
After a day of evaluating the situation and providing a general description of the environmental conditions in Baffin Bay, a potential solution to their problems popped into my mind.
You may have been wondering why I included a discussion of the recurring polynya at the beginning of this story.  Here’s why I did this.  In a nutshell, I asked them if they would consider developing a minefield plan farther north (See Figure 16 for a LANDSAT image of Baffin Bay area in winter).  They asked, “Wouldn’t environmental conditions be worse?”  I gave them a quick briefing on the constricted area farther north where the water was ice free all year round, even in winter.  I showed them satellite infrared images taken in the dead of winter which showed that this area was indeed ice free even when farther south Baffin Bay was covered with ice.  In this open water area, mines could be deployed by aircraft and just as importantly, significantly fewer mines would be needed.  In addition, the area was a natural “choke point” and submarines would be forced into the lethal area of a minefield.  The staff became extremely excited.  CDR Powell said that the admiral was in Washington, D.C. at that time, and he said that I had to
 
FIGURE 16.  LANDSAT Infrared Image of Ice Dam In Winter.
    
              (SEE FIGURE 16 BELOW)
 
come back and brief him.  He told me when the admiral would be back in Charleston, and he asked if I could come back then.
When I returned to my office in Mississippi, I briefed my supervisor, Dr. Huon Li, on what had taken place in Charleston.  Soon thereafter, I was called to a meeting with Dr. Li and the technical director of my lab (the Naval Ocean Research and Development Activity ((NORDA)), Dr. Ralph Goodman.  I was told that there was no way that a low-level GS 12 (me) was going to brief an admiral alone.  Soon, a team was formed to develop the briefing for the admiral. The team consisted of myself, Dr. Li, Dr. Goodman, Dr. Al Pressman, and the Commanding Officer of NORDA, CDR Lovnichek (sic).  Dr. Pressman was the top remote sensing expert at NORDA.  We developed a plan to put the briefing together and have several “dry runs” of the brief to be sure it was airtight and that I could do the job.  This all had to be done in a few days because the time had already been set to visit the admiral the following week.
I quickly put the briefing together, and the first dry run was set up 2 days after our initial meeting.  I gave the dry run talk, and they fired many questions at me to see how I would handle a tough, perhaps hostile group of people.  I felt that this first dry run went very well.  As I was gathering my slide materials at one end of the conference table, I overheard Dr. Goodman say to Dr. Pressman “Al, you have done a good job putting this all together in such a short time”. I was shocked by what Al said to Ralph.  He said, ”I didn’t do anything.  Sam did it all”. As with Claude Coffey, once again, someone did not take credit for something when they could have.  In truth, Al Pressman did help me considerably in how I should discuss the various satellite images that I would be showing.  Yet, he gave all the credit to me.
When we went to Charleston a few days later, I felt like a gofer.  I was with my boss, my boss’s boss (Dr. Pressman), and the technical director (Dr. Goodman) and the commanding officer of NORDA.  I was carrying their briefcases.
Well, the briefing to the admiral and his staff went extremely well.  When I completed my talk, the admiral (ADM Roy Hoffman) said things such as: "this is exactly what we need; we can use fewer mines; we can save money; we can deploy a minefield at any time of the year; we can use aircraft operating out of Thule air base”; etc.  As I said, our visit to COMINEWARCOM was a resounding success.  Also, of significant importance, we had established a working relationship with a major warfare area of the navy, Mine Warfare.
In summary, my mind is boggled by how this whole episode turned out and came together.  Two gentlemen, Mr. Coffey and Dr. Pressman refused to take credit for things that they had every right to do.  Instead, they passed the credit to me.  I just so happened to be studying an extremely small area of the world that would come into play and solve a sticky problem the navy was trying to solve.  What are the odds of this?  Even the fact that the admiral just so happened to be out-of-town when I was there is an extremely important “coincidence” that impacted how all this turned out.  If I had seen the admiral during my initial visit to COMINEWARCOM, the whole re-visit to Charleston with all my superiors would have not occurred.
A very important part of this event is what happened soon after we went to Charleston to brief ADM Hoffman.  The paragraphs that follow attempt to describe what happened and how my career suddenly began to take off.

AFTERMATH OF THE COMINEWARCOM VISIT (1976-1978).  About a week after we returned to our lab in Mississippi, I was sitting in my office and Ralph Goodman walked in.  Remember, Ralph was the technical director of NORDA, and here he was walking into my humble office.  He said that he was really impressed with what happened at COMINEWARCOM.  I thanked him.  Then he told me that he had just been tasked by the Assistant Secretary of the Navy to evaluate the exploratory development research program of the navy.  This was a huge undertaking that had been put on Ralph.  I was wondering why he came into my office to tell me this.  He then dropped the bomb on me.  He wanted me to help him with this daunting task.  I had no earthly idea of how I could possibly help him with this.  I asked him how could I help?  He told me that he was going to the various research labs of the navy and be briefed on their exploratory development research programs.  He would then make his evaluation and provide the assistant secretary a written report.  He said that he wanted my opinions because my inexperience in these areas of research could provide valuable insights to him that he might miss. He also liked the writing of the technical papers I had written.   I said that I was interested, but I had to ask my supervisor, Dr. Li, for permission.  Ralph told me not to worry about that because he had already talked to Dr. Li.  I guess Ralph had made up his mind.
Over the next year or so, Ralph and I travelled all over the country on this project.  Soon after we began, he told me that I shouldn’t be a GS 12 anymore.  Soon thereafter, I was promoted to a GS 13.  After this mission was completed, Ralph initiated the process to promote me again, and soon, I was a GM 14.  (GS stands for General (or Government) Servant, and GM for general manager; See Appendix C for equivalent civilian and US Navy ranks.  I present Appendix C later in my memoirs).  Talk about miracles!  When I reflect on how my career changed from the phone call from Claude Coffey to when Dr. Goodman walked into my office (all in about 5 weeks of my life), I am awestruck.  God can do amazing things.

     FIGURE 15.  LANDSAT SATELLITE IMAGE OF OPEN WATER.  WATER IS DARK; ICE IS LIGHT.

     FIGURE 16.  LANDSAT INFRARED IMAGE OF ICE DAM IN WINTER.

This story is the first of the miracles I have included in my memoirs.  The others will follow in the next several weeks.  Below, I define what I consider to be a miracle.  This first story is very hard to believe, but I assure you, the event happened as I present it here.  I still shake my head when I relive the event in my mind.  I have included detailed events which lead up to the miracle.  I feel this is necessary because other things happen along the way which I also consider to be miracles.  Look for them as you read the story.

Before I get into the actual stories of where miracles have taken place in my life, I feel that it is necessary to define what I call a miracle.  In general, a miracle is usually defined as something that takes place that could only happen through divine intervention.  Examples in the Bible would be when Jesus fed over 5,000 people with a couple of loaves of bread and a few fish, when He walked on water, and when He was resurrected from the dead, just to name a few.  We don’t see these types of miracles anymore, but miracles still do occur, nonetheless.  As a believing Christian, as I stated early on in these memoirs, I do not believe in coincidences, luck, or “it just so happened.”  God is in control of all things.  In the stories I present in this chapter, they all have so many rare or unusual things to happen and that these things had to happen for the event to turn out as it did, defies all odds.  As you read them, look for instances where people do things that people do not normally do, where the odds of something happening as it did are greatly against it, where timing of related events are unbelievingly “lucky”, and where there just does not seem to be any rational explanation to explain what has happened.
In the end, I am almost sure that you will agree with me that miracles really have happened in my life.
I would also like to mention that in the Near Death experiences related in earlier posts, I feel that God was certainly watching over me in each one of those cases
THE LOST 45 MINUTES OF MY LIFE (1967).  Of all the stories included in this chapter, this one is by far the most bizarre and difficult to explain.  The narrative given is on the long side because so many miraculous things happened along the way.  As you read this event, keep in mind that it is absolutely true.  This event did occur in my life as I have presented it here.
The year is 1967, and I am assigned to the Sea Ice Branch of the Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO).  At this time, I was a very junior scientist in the field of arctic oceanography.  My area of specialty was using remote sensors to determine various physical properties of the sea ice.  In other words, we were trying to measure such properties as height of the ice, its age, and its thickness, to name a few, without actually coming in contact with the ice; hence, the term remote sensors.  The sensors we were interested in were always mounted in aircraft or on satellites.  My supervisor, Robert Ketchum, and I had just completed an involved test over the arctic ice pack using high resolution photographic cameras, a laser profiling system, a forward-looking infrared scanner, and a K-band side-looking radar system.  This was an exciting data set, because nothing like it had ever been collected before.  In other words, it represented what scientists call a seminal data set.  To help us with our analysis, two scientists from the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Dr. Robert Mennella and Dr. Richard Hollinger joined our team.
As mentioned above, I was by far the junior member of this team.  Mr. Ketchum had vast experience in remote sensing of sea ice, and Dr. Mennella and Dr. Hollinger were internationally recognized remote sensing experts.  Because they were so busy with other projects, it fell on me to do most of the analysis.  I also did the majority of the technical report writing.  I have to say here that I did not do it all.  These 3 men provided much advice and editorial review of the manuscript.  It was truly a team effort.
When the paper was completed, we had already selected the international Journal of Glaciology as the peer-reviewed journal that we would submit the paper to for consideration.  Now, it was necessary to define the authorship of the paper.  I naturally assumed that I would be listed as the fourth author since I was junior to them.  As I mentioned above, this was seminal research.   Nothing like it had been done before.  Senior authorship is very important in the scientific community, especially for new research.  Much to my surprise, they all felt that I should be the senior, or first-listed author.  I was dumbfounded.  Each of them had a viable argument to be listed first.  But they did not put forth their arguments, and they insisted that it should be me.
After quite a bit of internal review of the paper at NRL, we were allowed to submit it to the Journal of Glaciology.  What normally happens during this process is that the journal’s primary editors review the paper and determine if it is worthy of possible publication.  This process can take months.  To our surprise, we received a letter within a week or two that the paper might be accepted for publication pending review by selected peers in the field.  Then, lo and behold, about a month after submission, we received a letter accepting the paper for publication.  As I read the letter, I was extremely excited.  I was going to get on my resume my first published peer-reviewed paper.  Then I read on to paragraph 2.  They wanted to include the paper for presentation at the upcoming international symposium in July at Cambridge University in the U.K.  That was only about 2 months away!  And it was at Cambridge University!  And it was at an international meeting of scientists from around the world!  As many people are, I was petrified to speak in public.  I had little or no experience doing this.  I was panicking.  I called a meeting of the three others and gave them the good news.  I then expressed my inexperience and fears to them.  I asked if any of them would be willing to give the paper at this prestigious symposium.  They all had conflicts with the dates of the symposium and could not.  It was on me.  I wondered how “unlucky” I was that all 3 of my buddies had other important meetings to attend during that week in July.  I can’t tell you how nervous I was.
I knew the work that I had to present.  After all, I had analyzed the data and had defined the results into the paper.  I got busy practicing my talk.  At the time, I had a high-quality Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder on which I recorded my talk and played it back.  I could not believe how bad I was.  I sounded nervous, I would forget important points, I could not seem to get it into the required 20 minutes, and I just seemed unsure of myself.  I was convinced that I was going to embarrass myself, my co-authors, and both the Naval Oceanographic Office and the Naval Research Lab.
Well, as time has a habit of doing, it quickly passed, and July was soon upon me.  I believe that I lost about 10 pounds during this time.  But I made it to Cambridge and to the symposium.  It was a 5-day event with Monday being mostly administrative and Friday being summary and wrap up.  I was scheduled to present our paper on Wednesday morning.  Honestly, I do not remember too much of Cambridge, England.  I guess I was too busy practicing my talk.
This is where my story gets bizarre.  On Wednesday, I remember sitting in my chair on the right side of the auditorium.  The gentleman before me on the agenda was on the stage giving his talk.  The next thing I remember was that I was in the same seat, and the guy after me was on-stage giving his talk.  That I was dumbfounded is an understatement.  What had just happened here?  I could not remember giving my talk.  Had I even given it?  I did have small snippets of memory, however.  I remember being in bright lights looking out at the audience and seeing silhouettes of hundreds of people; and I sort of remember looking at a brightly lit screen.  But that is all I remember.  I still was not sure if I gave my talk or not.  But that uncertainty was shortly answered when just before lunch a secretary for the symposium came to me and said “Dr.” Tooma, would you please review the transcript of the question and answer period following your talk?  We want to be sure that we don’t misquote you”.  Q and A?  I didn’t remember any questions put to me, much less my answers.  I nervously read the transcript, and the questions put to me were good ones.  Happily, my answers were what I would have wanted to give.  I had given the talk.
In the next day or so, I was approached by several researchers from different countries.  All told me how much they enjoyed my talk, and a few said that they were doing related work, and would I consider writing a joint paper with them.  I was still in a state of shock over what had happened.  I gave these gentlemen the stock answer that I would have to get approval from NRL before I could work on a joint paper with a foreign national.
This event had a profound effect on my professional career.  Initially, following the symposium, I was still nervous about public speaking.  But shortly thereafter, I became more sure of myself and my confidence grew.  The fact that I was the senior author of an oft-cited paper did not hurt either.  For years, I pondered what happened during that lost 45 minutes of my life.  I now know with all certainty that God was watching over me, and through the Holy Spirit He had got me through a terrible ordeal.