My father was a designer on the HMB, and "Clementine", the huge Claw that was used to grasp the sunken Russian Golf Class sub and lift it into the Moon Pool of

My father was a designer on the HMB, and "Clementine", the huge Claw that was used to grasp the sunken Russian Golf Class sub and lift it into the Moon Pool of the HMB, through it's secret retractable floor. Of course, that all happened after the HMB was submerged and maneuvered under the Glomar Explorer. Just the HMB itself was HUGE! When it was based at the Port of Redwood City, CA, I drove my dad to work there a few times, as I'd just gotten my drivers license. It was really exciting that my father was involved with Howard Hughes and deep sea mining! Of course, the CIA project eventually was revealed to the public, and my father received a large Presidential Commendation, which he had framed and hung over the kitchen table. After it was declassified, he was then legally able to show me the claw, Clementine, and all the other photos he took during the construction of the Glomar Explorer and the HMB. I still have several of the black and gray, cauliflower shaped, Manganese Nodules that were harvested from the deep ocean floor, as part of the CIA cover story that it was a mining barge for the Hughes Glomar Explorer. It was only years later that I realized my father was involved in several CIA black Ops, starting in 1958 or '59 with the Lockheed A-12 at "The Ranch". He took the "red flight" out of Edwards and would be gone for over a week at a time, but that's another story.