Talk:Ron G. Mason

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Doubious tag, Project Magnet & Pioneer survey

The involvement with Project Magnet is doubtful. In any case, that project was not "a highly classified United States Government effort to study underwater magnetism in support of United States Navy submarine operations" as references for that project at the link show. Project Magnet was specifically an airborne world magnetic survey with data going to "support navigation of ships and aircraft and to meet Naval requirements as well as scientific research" and it was a publicized program with purpose and data not generally classified. The project was under the Navy's Hydrographic Office at the time with flight by a special squadron. Shortly after the project started new equipment allowed collection from steel ships and that data supplemented the air program's data for a general upgrade of the Navy/Department of Defense magnetic charts and models. The USC&GS and Geological Survey also had civilian programs emerging at the time and there was coordination and cooperation between those and the Navy. Oceanographic institutions, most getting a majority of funding from the Navy, were also getting involved. None of the ship based collection programs were explicitly "Project Magnet" but that was not always clear to some participants outside the Navy. Thus even scientific articles can be found conflating magnetic data collection with an air program that had a degree of public notice.

The "highly classified" — with no clear reference and not removed solely as a place mark for clarification with references about the Pioneer work of that time — may actually be accurate for the ship's work. The West Coast Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) was underway with pre-installation survey work under Project Caesar. That project was, though not particularly "highly" classified, very tightly held with very strict need to know so that many even in Navy involved did not know "why" things were being done. The Hydrographic Office in the early days of the project managed the surveys and would have been the official sponsor of the Pioneer survey and thus the approval authority for Mason's involvement. With shortage of survey ships for that very high priority program USC&GS ships were at times used for wide area surveys and Pioneer is mentioned in some of the now declassified SOSUS references. It is therefore very likely that this involvement with essentially unclassified magnetic data collection was shrouded in a mystery the participants knew of but with no details. That is how military projects get a fuzz of misinformation about them, sometimes for decades, until declassification. Event then, the "fuzz" remains in the literature.

In summary: Mason was involved in collecting magnetic data with new equipment aboard Pioneer. The data was used for military magnetic purposes and science but not specifically for Project Magnet. The magnetic data was not "highly classified" but the ship's actual purpose for doing the survey was. Conveniently the ship was normally engaged in surveys of the coastal United States so that was the "cover" but rumors . . . Palmeira (talk) 16:17, 6 August 2020 (UTC)

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If the link is an accurate reflection of the published book the reliability of the reference, Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded: August 27, 1883 becomes questionable with regard to details of the operation. Too many major blunders with respect to this subject in the applicable paragraph:

• "Over coffee one morning he asked whether it might be possible for him to join Project Magnet, as it was called and, without interfering with the government work, to tow a magnetometer behind the project's ship and make his own maps of any magnetic anomalies he might find down on the sea-floor. The project director agreed: and that summer Mason arranged for a long, floating, fish-like object – known formally, in the kind of language heard in science fiction, as an ASQ-3A fluxgate magnetometer* – to be towed behind the US Coast Guard's ship Pioneer as it searched for seemingly more important things on behalf of the Pentagon."

Uh, uh! If an author cannot find that the ship Pioneer was USC&GS, not USCG, the whole bit becomes questionable as to accuracy of the author's research regarding the project and ship operation. While it is possible Mason erred in assuming Project Magnet included shipboard surveys (others made such mistakes) he certainly knew the ship was USC&GS. The author with a few keystrokes and a search engine would have known better as well. Palmeira (talk) 15:03, 13 August 2020 (UTC)

Revised without erroneous project associations

Page revised with cites for joint Navy effort with Scripps participation with regard to magnetic device and data collection. Footnote at the ship's page explains the "highly classified" association — though not in any way with Project Magnet (which was rather public with its aircraft gaining some fame). Project Caesar was the unclassified cover name for SOSUS installation and support and, though not "highly classified" was very tightly controlled within Navy so that even personnel involved in its operations often did not know the purpose or associations (See SOSUS). The confusion is an excellent example of how old classifications and their cover stories can create a "fog" of project and operation associations, names and purposes with some persisting in publications and popular media for very long periods. That footnote for reference:

• The Integrated Undersea Surveillance System (IUSS)/Caesar periodical The Cable (Spring 2006) has "Recollections On The Successful Implementation Of The Portion Of Brick Bat 03-Titled Project Caesar Ii-Pacific (PART 1)" by Robert Kneedler who was at the time part of the Navy management team at Commander, Western Sea Frontier. He notes that the survey was actually for the then very closely held Sound Surveillance System (the name itself then classified) installation under the very high priority (Brickbat 3) installation program given the unclassified name Project Caesar. The associations and details of SOSUS/Caesar remained classified until 1991. At the time the Navy's Hydrographic Office managed the project's survey efforts. Also under that office was Project Magnet, an aeromagnetic survey flown by specially equipped Navy aircraft. Within the same division of that organization was a shipboard magnetic data collection effort. The USC&GS was alos collecting magnetic data and beginning shipboard collection in U.S. waters.

Anything written or related without being classified from 1952, when the project started, to 1991 declassification would be without actual knowledge or incorporating cover stories. Palmeira (talk) 16:47, 16 August 2020 (UTC)