But they still were under high-pressure air and just as if they had been in diving suits they had to decompress in order that they would not develop compressed-air illness. The nitrogen gas that saturated their bodies had to be eliminated slowly, and unfortunately they had stayed well beyond the 20 minute limit which had been set for them. LT Momsen read them their new cable and had to repeat each step several times for they were in no mental condition to do any calculating or even to remember what was told them. They had to spend almost four hours in the bell and for Mihalowski this was a second four hours within 24 hours. He was learning to know the inside of that bell whether he liked it there or not. But as he said, he joined the Navy to be a diver and this was certainly being one. While Badders and Mihalowski were slowly decompressing, the group topside were talking about the salvage of the SQUALUS and the hope they would be allowed to do it! The rescue was over. Now came the long salvage operation.
True to my assignment from Captain Edwards, I was allowed to return to the Submarine Base at New London as soon as the last boat load of survivors went ashore. I left them there at the hospital and made my way back down to New London. I realized that an epic had been made in submarine history. How thrilled I was to have been part of it!
The salvage job was decided upon and immediately undertaken. It required three and a half months. Since this is a story of my activities only, I will not tell anything of the salvage. It's secondhand information. But it took--as I say--three and a half months and from all the stories I have heard, and from the pictures I have seen, it was quite a remarkable feat. The poor FALCON was practically foundered by the weight of cables, chains,- with each link weighing 76 pounds - eight and twelve inch manila lines, wire and hundreds of feet of air hoses. But it was accomplished despite the heartache of having it surfaced and dropped down again, and was in drydock on the 15th of September. Another salvage epic - 302 dives to a depth of 240 feet; 640 total dives with no serious casualties. A monumental task in diving, with a successful climax.
I was not allowed to forget the rescue of the men from the SQUALUS for several groups around New London asked me to talk to them about it. I developed a talk which became so popular that I rescued these men 86 times throughout New England. I took along my little dummy diver "Little Jake" and we talked over the exciting episode of the rescue. But no matter how it is told, no matter how many times it is told, it will always remain a thrilling story in naval history.