SSN-593, USS Thresher...

[sub-moa]

No offense taken my friend, glad to see someone so interested in the subject .....

 

[roundgunner]

A proud tradition.



Rest in peace brothers.

 

[OMCHamlin]

I reported to the Periscope Shop in Groton in '83 (NSSF/NLON), part of our QA school included listening to the audio tapes of Thresher breaking up. I got it, SUBSAFE and rigid procedural compliance saved lives.

At the Submarine Ball, listening to the Tolling of the Boats is a somber experience...

ETA: SUBSAFE is a rigid set of controls that actually was adopted by NASA for spacecraft. When I did an assembly, I had a thoroughly reviewed and approved controlled work package that had torque diagrams, signature blocks, places to record the torque wrench data, an independent QA inspector and authorized testing/re-certification criteria to ensure that the SUBSAFE boundary had been re-established beyond a shadow of a doubt. The history and pedigree of each component was known and documented from cradle to grave.
Water in the people tank is bad, number of surfaces = number of dives...

Oh, and for what it's worth, my buddy and I overhauled the scopes on the Nautilus when she was turned in to a museum in Groton.

 

[Beemerguy53]

I was stationed at Ft. Devens, in MA. in 63 when the Thresher went down. I almost enlisted in the Navy and if I had, I was scheduled to attend Sub school in Conn. Several friends had been with me and gone to the Navy recruiter and heard about me going Sub. duty and couldn't believe I turned it down along with the commission.

I went Army and never looked back. We were at Devens and heard about the Thresher and they just looked at me and shook their heads.


I am kind curious, did they ever find any debris from the Thresher?

If I remember correctly, the wreckage was found fairly quickly, within months of the sinking. I think I have a copy of LIFE or National Geographic from that era with an article on it somewhere around here.

My Dad spent 38 years with the Navy as a civilian chemical engineer, and for the first 22 years or so he worked on nuclear submarines. He went on sea trials and shakedown cruises regularly, and was at sea, for periods of a week or two at a time, about six months out of the year when we were kids.

He was a Depression kid who grew up in abject poverty. He was supporting his disabled parents and his little sister at age 14, by driving an ice truck illegally after school. From that background, he went on to put himself through Johns Hopkins University. He had three patents awarded to him, and was one of the designers of the CO2 air scrubbers that enable nuclear subs to stay undersea for extended periods.

He loved his three sons, and he loved the US Navy. On his desk he had a photocube with a picture of my brothers and me on one side, with the question "What have you done for them today?" written in the margin of the photo. On the other side of the cube was a photo of the Admiral he reported to, with the question "What have you done for the fleet today?" written on it. He was a good guy....