[expat_panama]

“This is the first time in my memory that anyone was ever killed in one of these accidents,”

What about the Thresher --nuke sub sank killing all back in '62?

[Robe]

First let me establish that I'm a "Brown Shoe" Aviator (Former F-4 jock) not a bubble-head (although I did trade a ride in an attack boat for a ride in the back seat of the F-4 in Hawaii once....I was fine on the bridge, but I REALLY didn't like it when they pulled the plug... I knew then that I had a mild case of Claustrophobia

What I think his statement (ie:“This is the first time in my memory that anyone was ever killed in one of these accidents,”) was meant to mean is accidents in which subs have hit undersea obstructions.

The Thresher disaster was caused by inferior welding in the construction process