Tim Kelly: I’d like to welcome you all here to the National Geographic Society. We’re excited about today’s event. My name is Tim Kelly, I’m the president of National Geographic Television. We’re excited to report the results of our Midway expedition to you, and I would just like to acknowledge the support of the U.S. Navy in this expedition as well as Newport News Shipbuilding, which was the builder of the Yorktown, the aircraft carrier that we photographed in this expedition. I’d like to also thank Mike Hatfield, who’s the vice president of corporate communications for Newport News, for supporting the expedition. I’d also like to acknowledge Gil Grosvenor and John Fahey, the Chairman and President of the Society, who are here today. Now to the expedition.

I’d like to just talk, give you a little bit of background. You might ask why the Yorktown, the U.S. aircraft carrier, needed finding. I think that the reason that we would give for that is the same reason the Titanic needed finding. Unless we forget, it was not James Cameron who found the Titanic; it was actually Bob Ballard and the U.S. Navy who found the Titanic. But the Yorktown was an aircraft carrier that struck one of the critical blows in a critical battle that changed history 56 years ago today. And that battle, the Battle of Midway, was all about geography and the fascinating things behind geography. It was a clash of cultures, a struggle for resources and power, a story of war and tragedy and inspiration, heroism, lives lost, and lessons learned, hopefully. And it was also perhaps the finest hour in the history of the U.S. Navy. And for those reasons we think that it is a story well worth telling again, and the images that Bob Ballard has brought back of the Yorktown are an inspiration and a basis for us to retell that story. We will be telling the story in 1999 through a television special on TBS Superstation, a two-hour special—also through articles in the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine, through a book on the Battle of Midway, and currently on our Web site now and over the next few months.

It was also a great technical challenge to find this ship, and Bob Ballard, who we consider the premier undersea explorer of this century was sorely tested, as he’ll tell you, in finding it. The ship lay three miles deep, which is a full mile deeper than the Titanic. But Bob Ballard, like the Royal Mounties, he always gets his man—or his aircraft carrier or his battleship or his fourth-century Roman wreck or his deep ocean vent. He’s the person that we bet on when we need to go deep. And on top of that, of course, Bob has another extraordinary talent. He’s an incredible storyteller, and that’s what we’re all about, and of course, many of you are about, I guess, telling these kind of great stories.

But first, I would like to again acknowledge the Navy, and I’d like to introduce Rear Adm. Malcolm Fages, who is the director of the submarine warfare division of the U.S. Navy, which includes the office of deep submergence. The Navy provided the ROV, the remotely operated vehicle, which allowed us to go down to the Yorktown, and we have a relationship that goes back with Admiral Fages. He was the commander of the NR1 [a nuclear-powered research submarine] last summer, when we went to the Mediterranean with Bob and conducted the deepest underwater archeological recovery. He has been a great supporter of ours, a good friend. We’re happy with his new assignment here in Washington. He’s closer to us now, and I’d like to introduce Admiral Fages.

Rear Adm. Malcolm Fages: Actually, I was the commander of the commander of the commander of the NR1 here, but it was still great to do that last summer with Bob. Tim, thank you very much. It is my pleasure to be here this morning to represent the Navy and the submarine force as we share the exciting results of the expedition to the Midway battlefield.

The Battle of Midway really was one of the defining moments in naval history. It confirmed the aircraft carrier as the premier strike platform of a bluewater navy, and it did mark the turning point of the war in the Pacific. And so it’s a personal and a professional honor for me to recognize the sacrifices of our forebears in uniform and to commemorate the exploits of that gallant ship, U.S.S. Yorktown.

Our expedition to Midway represents exactly the kind of cooperation between the military, the scientific, and the academic communities that the Navy seeks to promote in the exploration of the deep oceans. In this case we were able to exercise our equipment and ships in an extremely challenging deep-sea environment, three miles below the ocean surface. This type of hands-on training and experience is absolutely invaluable as we maintain and enhance the skills of our deep submergence system operators. The hallmark of these expeditions is the teamwork that was developed between our sailors in uniform and our civilian counterparts at National Geographic and the University of Hawaii. As you will see, they were able to bring together a variety of technologies and platforms to achieve success. And the proficiency and expertise developed in these missions of exploration repay our investment many times over in purely military applications, such as aircraft mishap investigations and deep-sea search and rescue.

The Navy has a long history of working with Dr. Ballard and other distinguished members of the scientific community over the past three decades. We have worked together on expeditions to the Guadalcanal battle site, to the Titanic and to the Britannic. More recently, our joint expedition last year to the Mediterranean with submarine NR1 reaped very rich archaeological rewards. Now in a moment Dr. Ballard will describe the exciting results of the expedition. I’d like to just briefly recognize some of the people in the organizations within our Navy family who helped to make this expedition possible.

First, I am very pleased that with us today is Comdr. Kurt Sadorf, who commanded our Navy detachment aboard the Advanced Tethered Vehicle [ATV] support ship Laney Chouest, also commander Dave Beyrodt, who commands the Navy’s deep submergence unit in San Diego, California. The deep submergence unit command operates the Advanced Tethered Vehicle and other manned and unmanned deep submergence vehicles for us. Capt. Ben Wachendorf is the commodore of Submarine Development Squadron 5 in San Diego, and Squadron 5’s material and logistical support were crucial in ensuring mission success. Rear Adm. Paul Sullivan, and before him Rear Adm. Joe Krol, were the directors of the Navy deep submergence program, and they have worked very closely with Dr. Ballard. And finally I’d like to recognize the commander of the Military Sea Lift Command, Vice Adm. Jim Perkins. Within the Navy, the Military Sea Lift Command oversees the surface support vessel Laney Chouest, which is owned and operated by the Edison Chouest Offshore company and was also a crucial element in this expedition.

It’s these dedicated and distinguished officers who represent the many sailors who constitute the Navy’s deep submergence program, and so please, before I turn this over to Dr. Ballard, join me in recognizing their ongoing contributions to the exploration of the deep ocean. And now I’d like to turn this back to Tim. Thank you.

Kelly: Thank you, Admiral. I’d like again [to] express our thanks for the support of the Navy, without which this would have been impossible, and our excitement at looking forward to, hopefully, plans next summer. We’re looking forward to going back to ancient history in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean with the Navy and with Bob.

So, now I get to introduce Bob Ballard, somebody who I have worked with now for 17 years. It has always been a pleasure. He has done so much, there’s a lot to be said about Bob, but I’ll try to make this brief. He’s written about ten magazine articles for the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. He’s produced about ten television shows, so he’s going for his eleventh on both counts. He’s been involved in a number of our books. Bob is an explorer extraordinaire, a scientist, a writer, a recipient of the National Geographic’s Hubbard Medal. He is the President for the Institute for Exploration at Mystic Seaport. He is a commander in the U.S. Navy Inactive Reserve. He’s known in the Navy as the White Tornado, although he is not dressed in his whites today. He is a father, and last but not least, he’s the husband of the great Barbara Ballard. It is a real pleasure to introduce Bob Ballard.