Mal Wright, Larry Marsh and Adm. Rickover's Picture

 

This is to announce that there has been another exchange of the Admiral Rickover picture, this time from Larry Marsh to me.  As you can see from the photo, the Admiral (Marsh) was, as usual, extremely clever in making this happen (I always lose the "cleverness contest").

 

 Larry and I have been exchanging this picture since May, 1978, and as well as I can remember, this is the 38th passing of the vaunted photo.  In the picture, I am pointing to the actual photo (8x10), which was clipped from a May, 1977, article in the Washington Post by Ned Beach ("Run Silent Run Deep" Ned Beach) on what it was like to "live with Admiral Rickover."  

 

The occasion for the original photo was a visit to USS LOS ANGELES (SSN 688) by President Carter, accompanied by Admiral Rickover.  As a former submariner, Carter had expressed an interest in seeing one of our brand new ships. Admiral Rickover, who was one of Carter's first guests in the White House after his inauguration, said, in effect, ". . .I can make that happen."  Of course, the story got picked up by the news media and the Beach article was one of the results. This 8x10 is the photo that is usually passed between us, often under the most surprising of conditions (e.g. under the swimming pool winter cover, on top of the Christmas Tree as the "angel", under the covers of hotel room bed, etc.).

 

The "blowup" of the original photo on the poster board was a remnant of a 1994 Exchange of the original picture.  Larry had been working at the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) and was due to leave to be the Assistant Chief of Naval Personnel.  Of course, there is always a ceremony (medal, nice things, thank wife, etc.) at such times.  At this one, the Secretary of the Navy, then John Dalton, presided (he had been clued in on it).  The "picture" was staged with the connivance of the Secretary's Executive Assistant (surface nuke, can't remember his name, but he "understood" the cultural significance of all this).

 

The poster, draped for secrecy and was uncovered at an appropriate time in the ceremony - "gotcha."  I guess that Larry has been packing that poster around for 17 years!!  The whole thing came back to me two days ago in a huge box filled with pages and pages of balled up newspaper and with a return address at the Department of Energy (I

had worked on DOE contracts for years, so this must have been part of the Operational Deception - OPDEC).  After balling up all that paper, Larry musthave "Popeye Forearms."

 

The blue items hanging from the top of the poster are airline "barf bags."  Many of you know the significance of these.  For those that don't, the story takes too long for this e-mail, even for an inveterate talker like me.  Needless to say, they are a reminder of a special occasion in 1992 when my dear friend, Paul Middents, came up to me after a speech and said, ". . .Now I've heard it all, Wright gives a speech and women throw up."