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cable in different locations around the world. Incoming sound was not only analyzed for its acoustic content in order to identify the source, but it was also analyzed over short time intervals, using the huge arrays as vectoring antennae that could generate circles of position. Crossing three of these circles resolved the location of the sound source.

The bottom line is that we actually knew the precise location of every single vessel of interest above and below the surface, essentially all the time, throughout most of the Cold War. Furthermore, the other guys knew that we knew. They did everything possible to thwart our ability. They mapped shadow zones unseen by SOSUS, where they hid their submarines. They dragged the bottom with special anchors designed to pull up and destroy specific hydrophone arrays when they could find them. (This resulted in some interesting surreptitious placements of arrays in a poker game of subterfuge and bluff that proved unequivocally that while the Soviets may have been master Chess players, Stud Poker was our game.)

After the fall of the Soviet Union, we no longer needed to know the exact locations of the world's shipping, since most commercial vessels were tracked by one or more international tracking systems similar to air traffic control, and there no longer were submarines out there capable of threatening our existence. SOSUS was expensive to operate, so eventually we shut it down, keeping it in a standby mode in the event we would ever need it in the future.

At some point scientists within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) determined that the old SOSUS network could help them identify and locate deep ocean vents and volcanoes. And so the old Cold War sword and chariot was beaten into plowshares for science where even today it serves the scientific community in ways never envisioned by its creators a half-century ago.

After 9/11, we found ourselves at war once again - this time with an unseen enemy who kills women and children and innocent civilians with a glee normally reserved for great victories on the battlefield. We have dramatically changed our society to accommodate this enemy. In fact, we have made it so tough for him in our own country that he has turned to blowing up innocents in places where the watchers are less observant and the system is less secure.

We still have a major gap in our homeland protection, however. Our great shipping ports still bring in huge amounts of goods and materials,

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