Navy Re-union, Tudor Hill & SOSUS

One of the reasons for choosing September for the visit is that there is an Annual re-union event for any US Navy personnel who were ever stationed in Bermuda, organized by a remarkable lady, Renee Nunn, who should be hired by the Bermuda Tourism Authority for her energy and enthusiasm in promoting Bermuda to the Navy veterans.  I met Renee for an hour (too short!), but unfortunately was unable to meet with any of the other attendees - our busy schedules just didn't quite gybe.  Maybe next year!!
There were a few connections between SOFAR and the Navy units stationed in Bermuda, particularly when SMILS was operational, and on occasion, Sir Horace would don her old garb, becoming USS Redpoll again, to take part in Navy and NATO exercises in the Atlantic.  But there was another connection, a bit nebulous, that was seldom talked about.
There was a highly secret facility at Tudor Hill in Southampton that was part of the US Navy submarine detection system (SOSUS) which was keeping track of Russian submarines.  They had a nice brand new IBM 1620 (??) computer, and we were allowed to use this for our work analyzing Ants Piip's Velocity Profile data, plotting MILS data, and preliminary work on acoustic ray tracing.  We would prepare our data in St. David's, drive (or ride) up to Tudor Hill, and hand the data in at the door, and wait outside for the results to be handed back.  Mostly, Bill Archer, Sheila Craig or Gordon Lees made the drive up to Southampton, but occasionally, I drew the short straw and made the journey on my bike.  On one such run, the heavens opened while I was waiting in the car park, and the Security guard took pity on me and invited me into the covered entranceway.  I took a quick peek in the door when he was otherwise occupied.  Rather boring, as I recall.

At last year's re-union, Renee had an attendee who had worked there, who  rode out to Tudor Hill but was unable to get beyond the main gate.  I had hoped that there would be someone from Tudor Hill attending this year's event - no such luck.  Undaunted, I managed to talk my way in, and was able to take some photos.