NH and Maine Senators Join to Push for USS Thresher Memorial
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted a resolution Tuesday night marking the 40th anniversary of the loss of the USS Thresher, a pioneering nuclear submarine that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic on April 10, 1963, killing 96 Navy sailors, 16 officers and 17 employees of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
New Hampshire Sens. Judd Gregg (R) and John Sununu (R) and Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe (R) and Susan Collins (R), who sponsored the resolution, said Wednesday they would introduce legislation next week to build a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., in honor of the 129 people who died on the Thresher and in the rest of America’s nuclear submarine program..
“The loss of the Thresher was an enormous tragedy for the U.S. submarine service, for the Navy, and for the nation,” Sununu said in a statement. “Yet from this tragedy, the Navy learned important lessons about submarine safety and acted to improve designs and to prevent engineering and design flaws on future submarines.”
Sununu said the crew’s “ultimate sacrifice” helped improve the nation’s defense system.
Thresher was launched in Kittery at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1960. It was one of the first of a new class of submarine for the Navy: deep-diving, fast-attack crafts that boasted many innovative features, such as a sound silencing system, a large bow-mounted sonar and a hydro-dynamically streamlined body. The Thresher failed to resurface during a deep-sea diving trial, but the Navy never determined the reason.
Snowe said in a statement that the loss of Thresher led to the creation of the SubSafe program, which strengthened regulations on hull integrity and pressure-related components for submarines. It also prompted the establishment of additional training for engineers studying submarines and ocean dynamics. Since the advent of these programs, Snowe said, not a single U.S. submarine has been lost under similar circumstances.
“Our nation owes a great debt to the 129 men of the USS Thresher, years, and to the civilians who have accepted the risk and sacrificed alongside their submarine shipmates,” Snowe said. “It is an entirely appropriate time for us to acknowledge the loss … and express our gratitude for their sacrifice.”
Gregg, in a separate statement, said, “This measure we introduced recognizes the courage and bravery these men demonstrated in risking their lives in the development of the United States Navy’s submarine program, a program which has proven invaluable to the American military.”.
New Hampshire Rep. Jeb Bradley (R) said he will introduce similar legislation in the House of Representatives.
Published in Foster’s Daily Democrat, in New Hampshire.
