Judge Orders Navy to Release USS Thresher Disaster Documents

USNI News ^ | 2/11/2020 | ben werner

[bkopto]

A U.S. District Court judge ordered the Navy to start releasing unclassified documents related to the sinking of USS Thresher (SSN-593), 57 years after 129 officers, sailors and shipbuilders died in the nation’s worst nuclear submarine disaster.

Retired Navy Capt. James Bryant, a former Thresher-class submarine commander, sued the Navy in July to force the release of unclassified investigation documents detailing Thresher‘s operation during its final dive. The Navy previously rebuffed Bryant’s request for records under the Freedom of Information Act.

During a Monday court hearing, Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the Navy to start releasing the requested material. Bryant, while pleased with McFadden’s ruling, shelved his excitement until he sees what the Navy starts releasing and whether the documents are heavily redacted.

In his retirement, Bryant has taken to investigating the cause of Thresher’s sinking because, even six decades later, he thinks there are valuable lessons to be learned. Thresher never resurfaced after conducting a test dive on the morning of April 10, 1963. Mechanical failures or even Soviet interferences have been cited as possible reasons for the sinking.

However, the Navy has kept a close hold on roughly 3,600 Thresher-related documents while saying a classification review occurs. The requested documents – more than 50 years old – should be unclassified and releasable by now under federal declassification rules, Bryant’s attorney, Robert Eatinger, said during Monday’s hearing.

[Bryanw92]

>> After a while I realized that meant:
they were messing around with new technology and water depths.

He was full of crap.

There are very few things that are comparable in the Thresher and Scorpion sinkings except for the end result.

And neither was about “messing around at water depths” with the implication that they intentionally went too deep.

[SubMareener]

There was no “Fast Scram Recovery” procedure at that time. That was one of the lessons learned from the disaster. Also, we got the “Sub Safe” program.

[Repeal The 17th]

I did not mean it that way.

[John S Mosby]

It will be interesting to learn many things, for a fact- if they are allowed to be released.
Bob Ballard’s discovery of the Titanic location was after a still classified mission, under the work cover of the Woods Hole Center “oceanography” cruise, had to do with checking on reactor vessel status (it is said, but was much more), corrosion/leakage and such- from both Thresher and Scorpion.

Doubt that those records (far more recent) will be released.

[Bryanw92]

But the thing that killed their propulsion was the procedure to shut the steam stops on loss of MSW to protect the condensers at all costs. That changed too after Thresher. The scram was very late in the casualty after the loss of depth control.

[Repeal The 17th]

If the gauges fail,
if the pumps fail,
if the welding fails,
if the engineering specifications fail,
you are faced with the unforgiving water depth.
(was what I meant)

[TexasGator]

“After a while I realized that meant:
they were messing around with new technology and water depths.”

Not what you think.

[Bryanw92]

I was just saying that your Naval Intelligence source was full of crap.

[Repeal The 17th]

Yeah, it’s kind of like the rule that
if a guy tells you he is CIA, he probably ain’t.

[John S Mosby]

Few times was offered and went on what was a kind of PR “trip” was all I could tolerate. High admiration for our submarine force crews. Pretty sure they don’t do those anymore, not after the Greeneville collision with the Ehime Maru, while demonstrating to VIPs an emergency blow surfacing.

[Bryanw92]

>> you are faced with the unforgiving water depth.
(was what I meant)

Submariners face failures of equipment at unforgiving water depths all the time and still surface. The pressure of sea water at depth is a cruel bitch and we know it.

[TexasGator]

But the thing that killed their propulsion was the procedure to shut the steam stops on loss of MSW to protect the condensers at all costs. reactor scram.

[Bryanw92]

>> Yeah, it’s kind of like the rule that
if a guy tells you he is CIA, he probably ain’t.

Exactly. ;-)

[TexasGator]

Still off the mark.

[Undecided 2012]

581 and 633 here

[The Antiyuppie]

I thought that only people who are serving or who had served in the Navy could call a ship a boat.

[Repeal The 17th]

I ain’t Navy, much less a submariner.
My respect to those who are.
I spent my 6 years in the National Guard (71-77).

My dad was a Merchant Mariner in “the big war”.
There is an aircraft carrier named after a distant relative.
(CVN 70)

I tried to join the Navy twice in 1969-1970...
...both times they wanted to put me on submarines...
...both times I walked away from the offer.

I just could not see myself doing that.
Too damn claustrophobic...
My respect to both of you.

[Jeff Chandler]

As in Unterseeboot.

[SuperLuminal]

Pass the popcorn, please... This is going to be intense...

[John S Mosby]

Jah— “Das Boot”. Uncle from wwII sub service said it was quite accurate for the borrowed US “fleet submarine” design— borrowed from the Germans, and that the scenes were pretty darned accurate as well.