Mystery of the Marie

On Tuesday June 7, 1960 the private vessel Marie left Santa Barbara Harbor at sunrise but never returned. When the Marie vanished, her seven crew were conducting a covert underwater communications experiment using talking on a beam of light technology serving a Raytheon-related project. Among the Marie's crew, the author's father and an eminent physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project. Four bodies were recovered; three victims, including the author's father and the scientist...
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On Tuesday June 7, 1960 the private vessel Marie left Santa Barbara Harbor at sunrise but never returned. When the Marie vanished, her seven crew were conducting a covert underwater communications experiment using talking on a beam of light technology serving a Raytheon-related project. Among the Marie's crew, the author's father and an eminent physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project. Four bodies were recovered; three victims, including the author's father and the scientist were never found. And the details were buried. The full story may never be known. Yet my search for truth revealed a Heavenly Fathers goodness in operation. My journey began with what, I believed, was a simple question. What happened? Yet, I failed to realize the Goliath I stood before - giant issues that threatened to overwhelm me many times. Nevertheless, by taking on this Goliath, I found peace where I had frustrations, I gained courage serving things that matter most, and I became grateful where I once had a chip on my shoulder. Through an abundance of relationships, collective memories, and a crumbling wall of secrecy, part of the story to a black project launched in the days after the U-2 was shot down by Russia surfaced. And a host of people gathered for a 50th Commemoration who were bedazzled during a sunrise service as hundreds of dolphins and three whales surrounded us as we sought to remember and honor the day seven men were lost at sea serving a project to expand the frontiers of infrared June 7, 1960.