" Before the war started, Vic was testing a Goodyear blimp with a prototype
radar mounted on nylon cords glued to the air and gas bags between the upper
gas filled portion of the blimp and the lower air filled portion. Air was
pumped in-and-out of the lower part of the blimp in order to go up or down.


Before the submarine nets were closed at the entrance of Long Island Sound,
it was found by sonar that a German sub had entered the sound waiting for the
war to start. On an experimental run one evening, the sub was found on the
surface charging its batteries. It immediately dove; however, the blimp shut
off its engines and drifted waiting for the sub to run out of air and to
surface.


Shortly before the time expected for the sub to have to surface, a vacuum
tube in the radar quit. Vic stripped to his shorts and crawled out on the lower
fabric, changed the tube, and got the radar working. Very soon after the repair
was made the sub surfaced. As soon as the sub surfaced, it was picked up again
on the blimp's radar and the blimp drifted just over the unsuspecting sub while
Vic and others opened the door and rolled bombs -- brought along 'just in case'
-- out the door sinking the sub. "