Science: The Man in Tempo 3

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In 1951 the prototype STR began to take shape in the desert near Arco, Idaho. The designing and testing (with 50-ft models) of the submarine itself were well along in the Bureau of Ships.

By this time the word had spread that something extraordinary was centered in Tempo 3. As confidence in Rickover grew in the Navy, a second nuclear submarine, the Sea Wolf, was scheduled, and General Electric was commissioned to build a different reactor for it. Named SIR (Submarine Intermediate Reactor), it will use neutrons of "intermediate" speed and molten sodium as a working fluid. It is now taking shape near Schenectady.

Time Bomb. But even though official Washington was growing enthusiastic, a time bomb was ticking under Tempo 3. Over the years the Navy has developed a kind of supreme court called selection boards to pass on promotions. The boards keep no records and need give no reasons for their decisions. Theoretically, they can be overruled, but they hardly ever are. If they "pass over" a captain, i.e., select his junior to be an admiral, there is normally no appeal.

In July 1951 Rickover was passed over by a selection board consisting, in this case, of nine admirals. This was bad for but not fatal to his career. He went on with his work. In June 1952 the keel of the Nautilus was laid in the yard of the Electric Boat Co., Groton, Conn. President Truman presided over the ceremonies, along with the Secretaries and Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, and the chairman of the AEC. Captain Rickover, in civilian clothes even for this occasion, kept in the background, but his work and vision had not gone unappreciated. Secretary of the Navy Dan Kimball awarded him the Legion of Merit for what he called "the most important piece of development work in the history of the Navy."

No Confidence. The very next day another selection board met to consider more captains for promotion to flag rank. It had received pleas for Rickover's promotion to rear admiral from the Secretary of the Navy, from the chairman of the AEC and from Rickover's own superiors in the Bureau of Ships. But the board passed him over for the second time.

A Navy officer who has been passed over twice for a promotion is normally scheduled to retire. He can be kept on as a special case or put to work as a retired officer, but his prestige is gone. He has suffered a vote of no confidence. Happily, the U.S. Navy does not exist in a vacuum. At news of the rejection of Rickover, both press and Congress protested the decision of the board. At last, Navy Secretary Robert Anderson and the White House took a hand.

To preserve decorum, the board was not ordered to change its decision, but the next selection board, in spite of the "twice passed-over" rule, selected Captain Rickover to be a rear admiral.*

In spite of all the uproar, he had not spent much of his thinking time on the selection board. Too much was happening. The Nautilus was growing fast. So was the Sea Wolf. In the blank-walled building on the Idaho desert, a crucial moment was approaching. The prototype reactor was almost complete; preliminary tests had been encouraging. On March 31 the AEC announced that the reactor had "gone critical." In AEC language, this means that it was producing power.

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