wov 45 1979 Mahlon E. Gates, Manager, NV ~3- Carr vessel would be in competition with U.S. Oceanography and any other proposers when the procurement takes place for a vessel for FY 1981, Dr. Pratt has placed himself in a position of appearing to be in a appearanee—of a conflict of interest. He also was adwm directly injecting himself into PASO's assigned mission responsibility. After the May/June BNL Survey (which Mr. Otterman did not accompany on his own volition) Dr. Pratt reported “outstanding support by the Liktanur II crew and Mr. Munk" (The H&N/PTD contract representative for us), however Dr. Pratt repeated his litany of complaints concerning the inadequacy of the Liktanur II to support the BNL mission. tation was the major problem cited. Space limi~ After the third BNL survey in September/October 1979, Dr. Pratt's vendetta took on a new dimension. The attack was in writing and was distributed to the entire DOE world. His attack now turned to the PASO staff and escalated to a scathing personal attack on Harry Brown. The attack is unfair, @nbalanced, unwarranted and to a significant degree untruthful. This last incident was not totally unexpected by PASO, as Dr. Pratt told me on his last trip through Honolulu that there was "too close an affinity between Harry Brown and U.S. Oceanography" ~ that "Harry got a lot of 'Perks' that others did not get while on board the Liktanur II". The only intelligence that my strong response evoked (“that is a very serious allegation, Hugh. Can you prove it?") was that Harry did not sleep in the hold of the Liktanur with the rest of the contingent, but elsewhere on the vessel. In addition to the attack on Harry Brown, Dr. Pratt has now directly and formally intervened with the U.S. Coast Guard in Honolulu on the matter of the proper classification of the Liktanur II. (See his letter dated October 29, 1979, Enclosure 2). This is a matter which was being formally handled by PASO. Again, Dr. Pratt is interfering with PASO's assigned mission. In addition to all of the foregoing, PASO was recently criticized by Dr. Wachholz for not being present at Majuro - and to possibly prevent but at least to audit Dr. Pratt's sessions with the CBS News Team 60 Minutes, and interview with the President of the Marshall Islands, Amata Kabua. This is an absolutely impossible situation and something must be done to correct it. I now have a very serious morale problem with a most valued employee ~ Harry Brown. I have also received serious complaints from Holmes & Narver management about Dr. Pratt's interrelationships with HEN/PTD employee while accompanying him on BNL voyages. The problem is still further complicated by the fact that the DOE and/or the H&N/PTD representatives on the first and third voyages were the recipients of complaints about Dr. Pratt from his own recruited medical team. I do