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"Hopies" leave Wilmington, Delaware for Tunisia,
August 29, 1969.
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Dr. Walsh recruited some 3,000 volunteers for the eleven voyages. They endured cramped quarters, exhausting schedules, and often were met initially with anti-American protests. Radio Moscow portrayed the ship as a floating branch of American center for chemical and bacteriological warfare at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The work, however, changed minds and won hearts. It also changed the volunteers, as one noted: "To be in a situation where people might die, or live in misery, if you weren't there, is meaningful. . . . I thought the HOPE needed me. Now I think I need the HOPE."
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