Domp: Deep Ocean Mining Project

In March of 1972, Dr. R. John Rutten was practicing family medicine in Santa Barbara, California, when he was contacted by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Before taking up a public sector career, Dr. Rutten had obtained specialized training and experience in diving medicine while operating decompression chambers for the US Navy. It was that expertise that won him the attention of the CIA.

The plan was to secretly raise the Soviet K-129 nuclear-armed submarine that had sunk in 1968. The Hughes Glomar Explorer, the tremendous deep-sea drilling platform that would carry the crew on their journey, was still under construction at the time. Two years after being recruited, in August of 1974, Dr. Rutten and forty-five companions flew a private charter to Hawaii where they boarded the completed Explorer. He was assigned to B-Crew, charged with exploring and recovering the submarine after its miraculous discovery at a depth of 17,000 feet two months earlier.

In this firsthand, historical account, Dr. Rutten recounts his seven weeks with the B-Crew aboard the Hughes Glomar Explorer as they attempt to elude the ever-watchful Soviet trawlers to exhume a priceless relic of Soviet engineering.

Dr. John (Jack) Rutten and his wife, Laura, were natives of North Dakota. After twenty-one years as a family physician in Goleta, California, Jack and Laura returned to government service overseas until retiring in 1987. Jack passed away in January of 2010, and Laura resides in a nursing home in Southern California.