The Hughes Glomar Explorer (Project Azorian), which recovered K-129, is being preserved. This decision was made by President Ford. Many people have worked hard to ensure this, including Richard Anderson (“The Six Million Dollar Man”) and John Wayne (who often visited on his yacht). Ford himself took care to write to John Wayne to reassure him. The ship will be temporarily stationed in Suisan Bay, a US Navy depot. It will then be leased to Lockheed Ocean Systems Division, which will use it for its original stated purpose: collecting manganese nodules on the ocean floor at a depth of 6,000 meters. The ship will then be used by Chevron in 1998 to drill an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico at a depth of 2,600 meters.
