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Willard Franklyn Searle
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Willard Franklyn Searle
Capt. Willard Franklyn "Bill" Searle Jr. USN (ret.) (January 17, 1924 – March 31, 2009) was an American ocean engineer who was principally responsible for developing equipment and many of the current techniques utilized in United States Navy diving and salvage operations.
Searle was born January 17, 1924, in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Bexley High School in 1941 and received the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred during his first year at Washington and Lee University prompting a transfer to the US Naval Academy where he graduated in 1945 (Class of 1946). In 1945, Searle marched with his Naval Academy Company to accompany the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Union Station to the White House. Searle then went on to graduate work in naval architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology attaining a master's degree in 1952. Later that year, Searle was assigned as an Engineering Duty Officer in salvage, diving and ocean engineering.
Searle's first diving experience came in 1946 while serving in the destroyer USS Meredith before transferring to the USS Weiss where he was introduced to Underwater Demolition Team techniques. Searle then trained at the Naval School of Diving and Salvage at the Washington Navy Yard, where he became a deep-sea helium-oxygen diving officer. He was then assigned to two tours at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.
From 1957 to 1959, he was actively evaluating equipment ranging from diving watches to closed circuit breathing apparatus design at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit.
Searle then served two years as Chief Engineer on the USS Providence before attending the Command and Staff Course of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1961. Following two years as Pacific Fleet Salvage Officer in Pearl Harbor, Searle returned to Washington as the Navy Supervisor of Salvage. He served in this role from 1964 to 1969, where he established the Navy Directorate of Ocean Engineering.
As the Navy Supervisor of Salvage, Searle was responsible for the planning and buildup for the salvage and harbor clearance forces in South Vietnam, as well as many major salvage and deep ocean search and recovery projects such as the location of the sunken nuclear submarine USS Scorpion. He was also responsible for coordinating the recovery of the H-Bomb lost off Palomares, Spain as a part of Technical Advisory Group (TAG), Chaired by RADM L. V. Swanson. Speaking on the H-bomb recovery, Searle noted that "When you think about what we did, it had never been done before".
In 1968, Searle co-authored the first National Oil and Hazardous Materials Pollution Contingency Plan.
Searle participated in SEALAB III, working with Dr. John Piña Craven, the U.S. Navy's head of the Deep Submergence Systems Project.
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Willard Franklyn Searle
Capt. Willard Franklyn "Bill" Searle Jr. USN (ret.) (January 17, 1924 – March 31, 2009) was an American ocean engineer who was principally responsible for developing equipment and many of the current techniques utilized in United States Navy diving and salvage operations.
Searle was born January 17, 1924, in Columbus, Ohio. He graduated from Bexley High School in 1941 and received the school's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1992. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor occurred during his first year at Washington and Lee University prompting a transfer to the US Naval Academy where he graduated in 1945 (Class of 1946). In 1945, Searle marched with his Naval Academy Company to accompany the late President Franklin D. Roosevelt from Union Station to the White House. Searle then went on to graduate work in naval architecture at Massachusetts Institute of Technology attaining a master's degree in 1952. Later that year, Searle was assigned as an Engineering Duty Officer in salvage, diving and ocean engineering.
Searle's first diving experience came in 1946 while serving in the destroyer USS Meredith before transferring to the USS Weiss where he was introduced to Underwater Demolition Team techniques. Searle then trained at the Naval School of Diving and Salvage at the Washington Navy Yard, where he became a deep-sea helium-oxygen diving officer. He was then assigned to two tours at the Charleston Naval Shipyard.
From 1957 to 1959, he was actively evaluating equipment ranging from diving watches to closed circuit breathing apparatus design at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit.
Searle then served two years as Chief Engineer on the USS Providence before attending the Command and Staff Course of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1961. Following two years as Pacific Fleet Salvage Officer in Pearl Harbor, Searle returned to Washington as the Navy Supervisor of Salvage. He served in this role from 1964 to 1969, where he established the Navy Directorate of Ocean Engineering.
As the Navy Supervisor of Salvage, Searle was responsible for the planning and buildup for the salvage and harbor clearance forces in South Vietnam, as well as many major salvage and deep ocean search and recovery projects such as the location of the sunken nuclear submarine USS Scorpion. He was also responsible for coordinating the recovery of the H-Bomb lost off Palomares, Spain as a part of Technical Advisory Group (TAG), Chaired by RADM L. V. Swanson. Speaking on the H-bomb recovery, Searle noted that "When you think about what we did, it had never been done before".
In 1968, Searle co-authored the first National Oil and Hazardous Materials Pollution Contingency Plan.
Searle participated in SEALAB III, working with Dr. John Piña Craven, the U.S. Navy's head of the Deep Submergence Systems Project.