Charles C. Patton Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

equipment, and it was really a magnificent effort by the inwstry
of the United States ta come up with all this stuff in the 'short
time that they did. They certainly did help win the war./ But
after VE Day, there wasn't too much use left for all these +ople
except to continue experimental work on determining what tp do
under various circumstances where. . . you see, echo-rangink is a
very frail art. It's very difficult to get information dut of
the ocean cause the ocean is so variable. Thermal layers in the
ocean, that is where the water changes temperature at various
depths of the ocean. It isn't the same temperature all the way
down, and there are thermal layers that will reflect sonar
signals so that a submarine could get beneath a thermal layer and
could not be detected. And there are also salinity layers where
changes in salinity would deflect the sonar signals. Submarines,
if they knew about them, could use them to avoid detection. Far
instance, off the Amazon River, for out over a hundred miles,
there's a layer of fresh water that lays on top of the salt
water, and this salinity gradient would reflect sonar signals so
that you couldn't get down below it.
Well, after VE Day, we continued experimenting with, and
trying to learn more about the art of ensonifying the ocean, and
trying to get back the information. We knew that you could get
long range signals with explosions, For instance, they could be
heard for long distances if they got down deep enough. But even
today, the art of, and it is an art, of echo ranging and
detection is pretty frail at best, it's not nearly as good as
radar, for instance, that's used in the air. So now where m I?
Q. Well, have you come home yet?
A. I came home in June of 1946, I guess, from Key West. I think
that was the last station I was in. And they were still
work down there, and after VJ Day, they had a hell of a
trying to keep people in the service to continue
operations. Everybody wanted to go home, including
they wanted to offer me an increase in rank if I'd stay anpther
three months, and I said "To hell with them." (laughter) bind I
came home. But they were desperate.
The trade school boys, which were the. . . we called the
trade school boys which were the boys who went to Annapplis,
which were the Navy men, not the reserve people, all deserve a
lot of credit for what they did during the war, and what they do
during peace time, because they keep the Navy together, and they
keep the ships going, so that in war time, the Navy Reservists
can fill in the positions for them and help. . .
I
if we d'dn't
have the Navy boys, it would be a terrible thing, and I give them
all a lot of credit. But they had a hard time at the end of the
war trying to keep all the bases going, and all the ships oing
and everything else after everybody wanted to go home. We I 1, I
don't want to talk about the war anymore.
Q. Well, let's come home then. Did you come back to the Sa gamo
b