two-dimensional video and remote sensing. we have to deal with the oil on the sufshts and we re dealing with that in every way possible, skimming, on-site burning and some evaporates. jon meacham. admiral, what is the historical analogy here? what was the first thing you asked to be briefed on? was it santa barbara, the valdez, which is obviously different? has there been any experience that we have had that can in any way shed light on what we should be doing? well, that s a terrific question. the first time i heard about the event was literally minutes after it happened. i got a call at home when they had the explosion. this started out as a very serious search and rescue case. we tragically lost 11 people. when you re trying to get your mind around this problem, which is very, very difficult, i think you feed to think about the fact we re dealing with a source of oil with no human access. everything is being done through remotely-operated vehicles. i ve said on many occasions,