Posted on 12/18/2005 6:56:53 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
One unforeseen blessing of the collapse of the Soviet Union has been the easing of security restrictions in former Iron Curtain nations. Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Western journalists have been able to access to classified documents that would have gotten them shot a few years before.
That's a scary thought - but not nearly as chilling as some of the secrets they've uncovered.
In "Red Star Rogue," author Kenneth Sewell takes us inside the once top-secret Soviet nuclear navy to reveal the explosive facts about one of best-kept secrets of the Cold War, the sinking of Soviet sub K -129. The incident could have ended the world as we know it. And very nearly did.
Sewell is no dilettante. A nuclear engineer and U.S. Navy veteran, Sewell served five years aboard America's most decorated fast attack submarine, the USS Parche. During his time in the Navy, he heard rumors of a disaster at sea during the late '60s that had been hushed up by both sides. But as Sewell probed deeper to ferret out the details, he uncovered a story more shocking than he ever imagined.
Some of the facts are straightforward. In March 1968, the K-129, a Soviet nuclear submarine, exploded and sank with all hands in the Pacific Ocean roughly 300 miles from Pearl Harbor.
From the beginning, the tragedy was shrouded in mystery. Despite the fact that K-129 was carrying atomic missiles, neither the U.S. nor Soviet navies reported an explosion. The Russians simply announced that the sub was missing and launched a massive sea and air search to locate it.
Finding it could have been easy. The K-129 had been photographed from space by American spy satellites, and we knew exactly where it sank. Unfortunately, informing the Soviets of K-129's location would have compromised the capabilities of our satellite surveillance systems, a breach of national security. So we left the Russians to their own.
What happened next was even more surprising. The Russians began looking for K-129 in the wrong place. They were combing the seabed nearly 400 miles from where the sub actually sank.
No military unit on the planet is as closely monitored as a nuclear submarine. Why didn't the Russians know the location of their own sub?
In rechecking its radio-intercept files, U.S. Navy intelligence determined that K-129 hadn't filed a position report for at least four days, a incredible breach of Soviet security procedures. If the Russians were searching for K-129 in the area where it was supposed to be, why had the sub moved so much closer to Pearl Harbor?
From the satellite photos, it was clear that K-129 had surfaced shortly before the blast. There were only two reasons why it would have done so. If it had been in desperate trouble, K -129 might have surfaced. But, if so, the sub would have radioed for help immediately. It didn't.
The second reason was far more chilling. The sub would have had to surface in order to launch its nuclear missiles at Pearl Harbor. And from all appearances, that's exactly what K-129 was trying to do when it blew up. But if the Russians were planning a nuclear war, why would they attack Pearl Harbor? From a strategic standpoint, it made no sense.
The truth of the incident was 3,000 feet below the surface at the bottom of the Pacific. At the time, the US Navy had no means of recovering a wreck from that depth. Only one man might be able to do it: An eccentric billionaire named Howard Hughes who owned a gigantic deep water research vessel called the Glomar Explorer.
"Red Star Rogue" reads like the latest Tom Clancy thriller, with twists and turns that are positively breathtaking. The truth is like that sometimes. But Sewell spent nearly a decade researching the story of K-129, and his scholarship is impeccable.
This tale is as fascinating as it is frightening, and it has a timely message. Are terrorists capable of launching a nuclear attack on an American city? You bet. In 1968, it nearly happened.
I know this question is old but yes there was a special on Discovery Channel last year, but I’m not sure if it had been on before. Yes the Glomar Explorer was made for this exact purpose. Interestingly, on another program I watched last year about the Cold War, I found out my father was onthe US sub that sank it!! It ttotally changed my opinion about him and the way he was with our family, when he WAS home!!
The article link is dead, but that sub has a long Wikipedia entry.
Not likely. The Japanese and Germans both had nuclear projects, but neither was close to anything resembling a bomb.
WOW, Where’d you did up this relic of a thread?
I had forgotten about that.
Note: this topic is from 12/18/2005. Thanks Tailgunner Joe.
Interesting, old topic. Got thinking about it because of a new topic about the Argentine sub gone missing. K-129, the Soviet sub in this article, may have been heading to Pearl Harbor in order to defect; this fits their failure to make daily reports of their location.
After the fall of the Soviet Union the US Gov. arranged a viewing of Soviet crewman’s funerals aboard the Glomar Explorer for Boris Yeltsen and other Russian government officials.
I remember the cover story when the Glomar Explorer was launched. It’s purpose was reported to be to mine manganese nodules on the sea floor.
Uh...no...
You don't get anymore than that.
Hi.
“American spy satellites in March 1968? “
On the surface we followed them out of port. It wasn’t till much later we could follow them submerged.
5.56mm
I read this years ago. Fantastic book. Excellent.
Read the book...highly recommend it...
We were this > < close to nuclear war...
There is a movie out with Ed Harris and David Duchovny about this very topic.
It was based on this story, and the sinking may have occurred due to mutiny. It is possible, and given what we now know about the structure and hierarchy of the Soviet Navy back then, that a group aboard had essentially jacked the sub and locked up the crew. The crew got loose and they ended up battling each other for control of the sub.
As for our ability to see it from space, after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the NRO was given an essentially unlimited budget. Who knows when the first KeyHole-caliber tech was deployed?
K-129 probably wasn’t equipped any kind of Sub Emergency Comms Transmitter (SECT) buoys, which are EIRP-like devices located outside the pressure hull in two or more locations. Needs to be a hell of an explosion to disable them. The Soviets likely didn’t want the world to know they had a SUBSUNK.
The first P-3A was delivered to the fleet in 1962. The first P-3C was in 1969. We flew the P-3B and after active duty, we in the Reserves flew the SP-2E and SP-2H until 1975.
The Cuban Missile Crisis was when Fidel Castro and Che Guevara wanted to take control of the missiles and warheads and launch them. Khrushchev reportedly crapped his pants when he got wind of that.
The Glomar Explorer was later used for mining the seabed. Kind of ironic since that was the original cover story. I believe it was also a deepsea drilling platform under another name.
There’s a wiki on it. It was finally scrapped by wreak breakers in China, 2015.
that's just silly. We all know what really sunk K-129.
"P-3s circling overhead.."
Yeah, it would be over a year before we could put a man on the Moon!
Nonsense!
That would defund CNN and ESPN!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.