Pad (great minds!) - Mary who is 90 and lives with us, as a Canadian Naval Military Intelligence Officer (a Captain, but not allowed to serve on ships) ran a team of 30 girls in an underground bunker at Sandy Point, near Shelburne, Nova Scotia tracking Russian submarines that were attempting bring nuclear weapons to Cuba after JFK had blockaded Russian trips trying to do the same thing. The subs were tracked using underwater monitors from Murmansk, Russia, past Iceland then were caught running between Nova Scotia and Maine. Planes flying off US, Canadian and British aircraft carriers (called trackers) were dispatched once a Russian sub was located and were always right above them whenever they surfaced, not attacked, but forced to turn back. The signature of a diesel sub was very similar to a diesel fishing trawler, so difficult to differentiate, and very stressful when you were sending planes out to intercept them. The Russians thought they would stop the Canadians tracking them by using "quieter" nuclear subs, but Mary said that signature was unique as there were no nuclear fishing boats. The head Russian Admiral could not understand why there was always a tracker plane right over his subs whenever they surfaced. Mary trained all the US/CAN/BRIT pilots at Key West Florida and after the Cuban Missile Crisis was over, at Norfolk, Virginia the top US Admiral Warner presented her with a medal for her service from JFK.
Throw (in the) - Quite the lady is Mary, eh Taff (probably said too much a few posts back, but I think the Official Secrets time period is likely over now after 60 years).
