1953-1958 Tunny Missile Team

This was an official Navy photograph originally classified Confidential and downgraded on 11/15/1955.  It is the courtesy of Kathryn Seabrook Gauthier, daughter of former Tunny crew member, Paul Delbert Seabrook, EN1, who served on Tunny.  The photograph was annotated on the back of it and identified the individuals who were in it.

 

Shown in the photograph are all former Tunny crewmembers to include:  Front Row: Left to Right: EN1 Paul Delbert Seabrook (1953), LCDR Irving Earl Wetmore, FT1 James W. Holmes (1953-1954); Back Row: TMC Harvey William Blanchette (1953-1955), ET1 Virgil Clarence Hodges (1953-1955), TM1 and GS1 Elmer D. Snoke (1956-1958), EN2 Ernest Harold Hildebrand (1953-1955), ET3 George E. Cox (1953-1955), EM1 Richard Eugene Templer (1953-1956), and LT John Duff, Jr. (1953). All of these men are known to have served on the USS TUNNY (SSG-282) when it was the Navy’s first guided missile submarine operating out of Port Hueneme, California.  These were the men who were responsible for the integration of the Regulus I missile weapons system into the fleet-diesel submarine Tunny.   It cannot be confirmed if LCDR Irving Earl Wetmore was actually assigned to the Tunny as the Navy’s Personnel Diary System did not begin to track officers until 1957. Reference:  USS TUNNY: A History, Tribute, and Memoir by Raymond Vance Olszewski.