Posted on 04/15/2007 12:18:47 PM PDT by labette
Much has changed in the more than four decades since the submarine USS Thresher and her crew have rested at the bottom of the Atlantic at a depth of 8,400 feet. But the lives of the 129 men who perished have not been forgotten.
"They are on eternal patrol," said Gary Hildreth, commander of the Thresher Base, during the 44th anniversary memorial service yesterday at R.W. Traip Academy in Kittery, Maine.
Hundreds of people are still touched by the tragedy, which occurred not far from Cape Cod on April 10, 1963, during deep-dive trials. A mechanical error caused the submarine to lose power, causing it to sink below crush depth.
John Cook, a former crew member, remembers the sinking as "devastating" and "kind of unbelievable."
Cook had left the Thresher three months before the accident to attend nuclear power school. He remembers the constant phone calls his mother received from worried friends after the news broke.
"There's no closure for the families, no grave to visit," said Cook. "This is the closest thing you're going to get to that."
Navy commanders and captains spoke of the Thresher crew as giving something indispensable to the security of the country and the sailors who followed.
"We vowed that the great patriots that died that day would not go down in vain," said Capt Gregory Thomas during the memorial service.
Thomas added that since the Thresher tragedy, the Submarine Safety Program (SUBSAFE) was created. Since then, the Navy has not suffered a loss like that of the Thresher.
To honor each lost man, a bell was run as each of their photographs were displayed on a screen. Each man's name was read aloud while a bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" in the back of the auditorium.
Most of the portraits looked as if they had come from a high school year book, while others were those of seasoned sailors with families and pasts too long to retell.
The gathering of nearly 100 people then walked down to the edge of the Piscataqua River and a wreath was laid in the water.
For information on the USS Thresher Base, visit www.thresherbase.org.
These men deserve to be remembered. God rest their souls.
PRESENT ARMS
Wars are not the only things that kill our bravest.
To those of the Thresher and thousands of others
who have died facing the enemy, even the threat
of war...
Thank you for your service and sacrifice
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Trashing a mournful remembrance with political invective is little better.
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I was stationed at the New London Sub base (USS Jallao, SS-368) when this happened. A very, very sad day.
Thresher and Scorpion. I remember when they both went down.
Even in “peacetime” there are plenty of dangerous jobs that have to be done.
My thanks to you. {and them!}
We lost a dear friend and fellow Naval Academy classmate of my husband on the Thresher. His name was Merrill Collier. He was brilliant and kind to a fault. What a terrible tragedy this was.
I went to the Thresher site and said a little prayer for each name posted, including Merrill Collier. Reading the son’s ‘Unknown Father’ poem was so sad. We’ll never know the suffering of those men and the pain of their families that continues to this day. God bless them all.
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