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\nUSS Thresher (SSN 593)<\/p>\n
\nUSS Thresher (SSN 593)<\/p>\n
USS Thresher (SSN-593) was commissioned on August 3, 1961, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. Following commissioning, she completed trials in the Atlantic and Caribbean areas. On April 10, 1963, following overhaul, Thresher began deep-diving tests, along with USS Skylark (ASR-20), about 220 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. As the testing proceeded, Skylark received garbled communications from Thresher which eventually stopped. It became apparent she had sunk taking the lives of the 129 officers, crewmen, and civilian technicians. Thresher’s remains were located about 8,400 feet below the surface. After a review of evidence, a Court of Inquiry found she had probably sunk due to a piping failure, subsequent loss of power and the inability to blow ballast tanks. Fair winds and following seas.<\/p>\n
By\u00a0Gina Harkins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Nearly six decades after a\u00a0Navy<\/a>\u00a0submarine plummeted to the bottom of the sea during a deep-dive test, families of those lost in the tragedy are finally getting a look at hundreds of documents about the accident the service has long kept under wraps.<\/p>\n The Navy on Wednesday released the\u00a0first 300 pages of a court of inquiry<\/a>\u00a0on the catastrophic 1963 loss of the nuclear-powered submarine Thresher. The documents provide details into the Navy’s worst undersea accident, which claimed the lives of 129 men onboard.<\/p>\n While Navy leaders say they’re committed to being transparent with the families and the public about what caused the Thresher — the first sub in its class — to sink, it took a court order to reach this point.<\/p>\n Capt. Jim Bryant, a retired Navy submarine officer, sued his former service in 2019 to get it to release the full 1,700-page report on the Thresher accident. A federal judge ordered the Navy in February to begin releasing portions of that report monthly to the public.<\/p>\n “I think I’m doing the Navy a favor,” Bryant told Military.com this week. “This is a significant historic event … and the reactions were very sound. It’s a really good story here for the Navy.”<\/p>\n Rear Adm. Bill Houston, director of the Undersea Warfare Division at the Pentagon, told reporters Tuesday that Navy leaders don’t believe the newly released Thresher documents “will shed any additional light on her loss.” Still, he added, the Navy is committed to releasing additional portions of the report monthly, despite much of it remaining classified.<\/p>\n “This process requires coordination between many organizations, and takes time to be done correctly,” Houston said. “But the Navy knows this is the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n He declined to comment on Bryant’s lawsuit prompting the documents’ release.<\/p>\n The first batch of documents released this week includes witness and exhibits lists, findings of facts, opinions, recommendations and initial testimony. Families were notified in a letter sent last month from Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of Naval Submarine Forces, that the Navy was working to declassify the documents and make them public.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thank you, CAPT Bryant. The Cold War is long over and the very word “SOSUS” is no longer classified. High time to shed light on this tragedy. Read the entire article here: Military.com<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"