During a brief stop in Okinawa, we took on a full load of provisions and three riders. They were called Communication Technicians, but we all knew that they were onboard to collect information about the radio and radar signals emitted from Soviet bloc ships, planes, and shore stations. We had three tasks to accompish during the 120 day patrol. The first was to observe and record the firing of Soviet ship-to-ship cruise missiles from a surfaced submarine. The second was to determine whether a newly fielded class of Russian built submarine was powered by a nuclear reactor or by conventional diesel engines. And the third was to investigate why a second new class of subs made very little propulsion noise. Each of these involved getting very close to Soviet warships in their home waters - at times hanging only ten feet beneath their hulls. Once, with our attention focused on that delicate job, we followed our target into shallow water and ran aground. The Sargo crunched to a grinding halt and we lay there trapped and leaking, unable to move or make a sound, while an entire enemy fleet sailed overhead.