The Motor Vessel Retriever was an LCT (Landing Craft Tank) transferred to NASA from the U.S. Navy. It was used to train United States astronauts for post-splashdown ocean recovery operations and water egress from their command modules during the Gemini and Apollo programs from 1964 into the early 1970s. It operated primarily in Galveston Bay, Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Here the crew takes a break for a swim.