Page 55 - The History of Veterans at Highland Springs

RON GENTER
HIGHLAND SPRINGS RESIDENT, NAVY
I attended Iowa State University graduating with a BS Degree in fall of 1958. While there, I went through Naval ROTC receiving a commission as Ensign USNR. Since my degree was in geology, I was assigned to the USS Maury. The Maury was a non-combatant scientific ship. Our mission was to collect highly accurate depth data for construction of hydrographic charts used for positioning submarines before the days of GPS. In addition to hydrographic data, we collected gravity data used to help guide ICBM’s.
In mid-1959 we were operating off the coast of Turkey and in August, when we were in Istanbul, we were told we were going on a secret mission and we were not even to tell our spouses. While there, the ship was repainted stem to stern. A lot of strange people came on board going to work in the “radio shack” which became off limits to the crew. Suddenly the ship sprouted an array of antennas, dishes, etc. The rumor was that the strange people were Naval Intelligence and CIA. On Sept. 13, 1959 we transited the Bosporus Straits and entered the Black Sea. All hands were proud to be the first US Military ship to enter the Black Sea since the Yalta Conference. It then became clear that we were on a spy mission (before the days of satellites). We were to spend 3 weeks listening to military radio traffic in the former Soviet Union. We quickly picked up one of their destroyers on our tail as well as daily fly overs by photo recon planes.
After a few days we finally got word that we would be visiting the city of Odessa, former Soviet Union, the crew got 4 days of liberty. This visit coincided with a visit to the US by Nikita Khrushchev, so represented a tiny thaw in the cold war. Our 4 days there were most interesting and fascinating. The details are beyond the scope of this essay.
In early 1960 we departed the Mediterranean area, transited the Panama Canal, and began operations in the Gulf of Thailand. In August of 1960, the ship went into Pearl Harbor for maintenance. At that point I was released from active duty to spend 4 years inactive reserve. I was discharged in August 1964 as a Lieutenant.
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