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document.getElementById("story1").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Paul Middents<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Captain USN Retired<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Silverdale, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Bill Harwi was a staff instructor at the S1C nuclear protype training unit, Windsor Locks, CT., when I was a trainee. He left in 1966 to become the chief engineer on Scorpion. He was the only person I knew personally lost on Scorpion.  <br><br> My first ship was the <em>USS George Washington</em> (SSBN 598). 1966 - 68. Washington started out as the Scorpion and then was cut in two, a missile compartment inserted, and transformed into the first SSBN. <br><br> I was Navigator on the <em>USS James Madison</em> (SSBN 627) Gold from Jan. 1968 - Mar 1972. Madison was assigned to CSS 16 in Charleston. We were on a North Atlantic deterrant patrol at time of the loss of the <em>Scorpion</em>. I think the loss occured while we were in transit back to Charleston from our patrol area. We were diverted to conduct a passive sonar search for some period--it may not have been long but I think our arrival was delayed.  <br><br> Our families back in Charleston were very concerned when the loss was announced. Someone observed one of the Charleston based submarine rescue vessels (ASR) get underway and rumors immediately started that another submarine was lost.  <br><br> I was Chief of Staff to Commander Submarine Group Nine Bangor, WA from 1987-1991. I had several contacts with Ed Offley during this time. I found him a very knowlegable and fair minded reporter. </span><br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Capt. Middents helped introduce me to the growing Trident submarine community at Subase Bangor during my initial years as a military reporter for The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Despite the obvious challenge of covering a program that included so many aspects that were highly classified, Capt. Middents and his colleagues were always courteous and willing to work with me to get the story straight without compromising legitimate national security secrets. I will always treasure my journalistic experiences along the waterfront on Hood Canal.</b.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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document.getElementById("story1").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneOpen()\">Paul Middents<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Captain USN Retired<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Silverdale, WA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story2").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Roger<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Seattle, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My dad was an intelligence officer on spy ships during Vietnam. He said that the Russians would not hesitate to sink a sub that came too close to their fleets. No more would he say. I do not doubt it. My dad knew many sub officers in the 50s and 60s. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function twoClose() {
document.getElementById("story2").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twoOpen()\">Roger<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Seattle, WA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story3").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Hanley Harding<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Miami Beach, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Dear Mr. Offley:</p> <p class=\"bodytext\">My son (Army Staff Sergeant) recently read your &quot;Scorpion Down&quot; and asked me a few questions about it. I was aboard <em>USS Essex</em> CVS-9 at the time, involved with the ASCAC. I seem to remember drinking beer with several of my nuclear power school classmates, from the <em>Scorpion</em>, in Hamburg. They got underway two days before we did. Two more days after that, <em>Scorpion</em> was reported being lost at sea with all hands. I was also aboard <em>Essex</em> during the shocking and spectacular Soviet &quot;Bear&quot; reconaissance bomber crash and was involved with the Apollo 7 recovery.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> The   Scorpion and the  USS Essex shared a number of taskings together while both the submarine and the  Essex HUK group were heading for the Atlantic. The tragic crash of the Soviet Badger bomber while shadowing the  Essex group in the Barents Sea occurred on May 24, 1968, just two days after the   Scorpion sinking.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"threeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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document.getElementById("story3").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"threeOpen()\">Hanley Harding<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Miami Beach, FL</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story4").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Chester L. Robbins<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Pleasant Hill, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was Purser/ Marine Physician Assistant on a U.S. Merchant Ship, the <em>S.S. Export Bay</em> enroute from New York to the Mediterranean and we were in the area near the Azores where the <em>Scorpion</em> was lost. This was my first trip back in the Merchant Marine after serving three tours in Viet Nam in the U.S. Navy.  We were involved in the search.  In the early morning there was a very low layer of sea fog hugging the near lake like surface of the Atlantic.  I was on the starboard side bridge wing searching with 7 x 50 binoculars as instructed by the Master, E.A. Olsson. I first spotted, about 2 miles off our stbd bow, a Russian submarine on the surface, crossing from port to starboard. There was a white light on his conning tower.  The sub then turned toward us, bow on, flashed a white light and submerged.    We were all startled by seeing a submarine running on the surface in mid Atlantic.  We had no knowledge other than a U.S. submarine was missing in the area that we were in</p><p class=\"bodytext\">I asked the Captain if he was going to radio in a report of our sighting.  He said, &quot;Hell no!&quot;  He didn\'t want to get involved with the U.S. government and all the associated paper work that would probably follow.  At the time I thought that this was a totally irresponsible act on behalf of the Master but in retrospect was probably the smartest thing he did.</p><p class=\"bodytext\"> This whole event just didn't seem right to me at the time and through the following years.  I have known people that have researched this and information that came up was very interesting, from direct messages from the J.C.S, not from COMSUBATLANT to the <em>Scorpion</em>, to check on Russian surface activity near the Azores whether or not the Russians used a diesel sub to lure the <em>Scorpion</em> while a nuclear sub lay in wait for her.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> This is an interesting and poignant addition to the overall   Scorpion story!</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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document.getElementById("story4").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fourOpen()\">Chester L. Robbins<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Pleasant Hill, CA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story5").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Cherelynne Cheney<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Colorado Springs, CO:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My father, Thomas Edward Amtower, was on that submarine. My mother has told me the story so many times...It was only a couple of months before my third birthday. I wore a new dress and carried a small, white, straw purse decorated with flowers bought specifically for the occasion as we waited in Norfolk for his return. We waited and waited and waited. We finally went home to wait some more, and were given the news that changed my life forever. I never wore the dress or carried the purse again. My small white straw purse was placed in the cedar chest along with all of the momentos of my father, a hearbreaking reminder of that day. Even now when I periodically open that cedar chest, passed on to me by my mother, I still cannot bring myself to look at that purse. I grieve in some way every day, some days more than others. This is such a small piece of my story, and mine is only one of the hundreds of personal experiences in this tragedy. This book was long overdue. <br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Cherelynne, thank you for sharing your poignant and heartbreaking story about your father, Interior Communications Electrician 2nd Class Thomas E. Amtower. I hope that <i>Scorpion Down</i> helps bring closure to you and your family.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>";
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function fiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story5").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiveOpen()\">Cherelynne Cheney<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Colorado Springs, CO</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story6").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Donald Prendergast <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Pensacola, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I am really proud you wrote the book. My recently deceased brother, Retired Lt. Commander Robert L. Prendergast, April 15, 1936 - April 27 2007, USNA 59, was the CO of the <em>Bowditch</em> when the <em>Scorpion</em> went down. Sadly his position and background would not and could not be released. The <em>Bowditch</em> was the primary vessel before the <em>Mizar</em>, because of the underwater capacity it had. Bob took command of the <em>Bowditch</em> some time in '67 in Amsterdam and then went on station in the Atlantic for over 12 months. The vessel was serviced at sea and did not come to port. Bob was custodian of USN Code System Atlantic Fleet, during the Kennedy Era, and became 24/7 guarded by MP's. during the Missle Crisis. When assigned to West Pak he became CO of Midway Island, and hosted Nixon during the talks with South Korea. His last MOS was Authoring West Pak War Games, while stationed in San Diego before retirement. </p><p class=\"bodytext\">I and my younger brother had the opportunity to spend time with Bob for his 71st birthday, 13 days before his passing, and he finally shared some of his exploits. As mentioned, the <em>Bowditch</em> was unattached to port for over a year and was on station, and was in the vicinity when the <em>Scorpion</em> incident happened. The <em>Bowditch</em> was more than a survey vessel. I only know, what he shared just a month ago, as you have on the front of you book, the <em>Scorpion</em> was sunk! My oldest son, Don Jr.SST on the SS580 and USBN 643, screened the underwater tapes of the incident many times before being deployed to his vessels. Don Jr. was in the Submarine Service 1978-1989, turned down assignment as CPO SST for the Ohio. Because of cutbacks in training, he chose to get out and not be exposed to the danger of the deep by sailors that did not get the same safety training he had. Some day he might reveal his days off Japan in the 580. It visited all deep water ports from Singapor to the Aluetians.  </p><p class=\"bodytext\">All 3 of my brothers are really involved in classified stuff. Bob, Navy, Charles, Rtr's Lt Col., Deputy Director of all Combined Branches Counter Intelligence Espionage, Army (had to rent uniform to retire) and Steve, Capt. Marine (was in the Iran desert for our hostages in 79) was a Special Ops guy and would go anywhere needed, as a volunteer. </p><p class=\"bodytext\">Anyway, Thanks for writing the book, you are right, we have been real close to WWIII because of the Cat and Mouse. What's really sad now, is the games congress is playing in the fight against terrorist! We will get hit again in the future and they just don't get it.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Don, thanks for sharing your thoughts and relating the experiences of you and your brothers.  </b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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document.getElementById("story6").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixOpen()\">Donald Prendergast <font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Pensacola, FL</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story7").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Jerry Imm <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Anchorage, AK:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">During the time of the <em>Scorpion's</em> sinking I was working as a Scientific Staff Assistant in the Operations Office of the Naval Oceanographic Office.  Commander Scotty Macomb was the Director of Operations and who was a submariner who skippered the<em> USS Archerfish</em> before coming to the NAVOCEANO.  During the time of the early stages of the loss, Scotty and I were the only ones in the office, since all the other staffers both civilian and military were on leave or TAD.  We spent the most grueling day getting the Mizar to sea with the necessary Scientific complement and equipment to enhance the search.  We each had telephones in each ear dealing with various Naval Commands involved in the search.  Scotty knew many of the crew on the <em>Scorpion</em> from his days at Annapolis, and a sub skipper.  We put in about 14 hrs that day, and as I remember I took a Navy Satff car down to the Navy Yard in D.C. with a piece of info that I gave to the Master and the Senior Scientist before they sailed for the area.<br><br>I didn't keep any diaries or notes of the activities since most of the work we did was highly classified.  I don't remember that the <em>Mizar</em> was involved before that day, and I do know she left from the Potomac and not Norfolk early in the game.  We both had a late dinner and got royally drunk at the Silver Hill Inn in Suitland, MD after that long and trying day. Oh by the way, I have sailed on the <em>Compass Island</em>, <em>Bowditch</em> and worked in Project CAESAR, so I do know a bit about what we were doing in those days.  I left the NAVOCEANO in May of 1975 and moved to Alaska rather than being transferred to the Stennis Spacecraft Center in Bay St. Louis, MS.  I would be glad to talk to you about public information, since I've been away from the Navy so long, I'm still not comfortable  discussing things which could be still classified.  I just picked up the book today, and I know it will be a good read.  Many of the people in the book were known to me.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Thanks for your comments regarding the  USNS Mizar. The Navy never said anything about the ship being at the Washington Navy Yard. Officials only would say that the research ship was “underway in the Atlantic” when it was diverted to Norfolk sometime after May 27, 1968. Official reports indicated the  Mizar “chopped” to COMSUBLANT control on May 31, took on additional supplies and personnel and left Norfolk on June 2 at 1600 EDT for the “focused operations” search area southwest of the Azores.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function sevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story7").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sevenOpen()\">Jerry Imm<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Anchorage, AK</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story8").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Erick Seager <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Bedford, PA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My Uncle, Thomas Amtower, was on the <em>Scorpion</em>. My grandfather, his father, went to his grave believing 100% that the USSR had my Uncle in a prison camp. Seems he was half right. I remember when my Grandparents got an envelope from the Navy containing documents of the incident; half of what was written was blacked out. I cannot wait to read this book. Thank you for writing it.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Thanks for the kind words and I hope <i>Scorpion Down</i> helps bring closure to you and your family over your loss.</b> </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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document.getElementById("story8").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightOpen()\">Erick Seager<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Bedford, PA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story9").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Frank Sierra (SS) <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Woodstock, NY:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was totally amazed to hear and read your book. I could not put it down!<br><br>Between J. Walker and Aimes, the Russians had a great advantage during the \"Cold War\" but they flinched first...and away they went.<br><br>How many pilots over Vietnam were shot down because the Russians were listening real time?<br><br>All of us submariners could have been casualties of this war....<br><br>Soases was never mentioned and I attended sonar in Key West... FAS.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"nineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function nineClose() {
document.getElementById("story9").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"nineOpen()\">Frank Sierra (SS)<font color=\"#666666\">  | </font>Woodstock, NY </a></span>"; 
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function tenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story10").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Wm Neal Harmon<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Data Systems Sonar Tech<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Charlotte, NC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Loved the book. <br><br>I served in the Sub Service in both Mare Island and Charleston in the mid-late '70s.  Almost every time I would ask about the Scorpion, I would get nothing, but every once in a while, either from old sonar chiefs (I stood sonar watches) or my crypto/spook friends, I would get \"It was sunk, tit-for-tat, look at the timing.\" and never anything more. <br><br>If I would press for more they would get PISSED!  I always thought that was an interesting response, ANGER.<br><br>Oh well, from what I could tell from my eight years in the Silent Service, you got it right, it was a quid-pro-quo to prevent WWIII. <br><br>Thank you for a well written, respectful look at an unfortunate event in the history of the U.S. Navy's other fleet.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"tenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function tenClose() {
document.getElementById("story10").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"tenOpen()\">Wm Neal Harmon<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Data Systems Sonar Tech<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Charlotte, NC</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story11").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Everett W. Good<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Vallejo, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served on board  USS Triton SSN586. We and   Scorpion often tied up on opposite sides of the same pier in Norfolk.  I got orders to Shore duty my last 2 years in the Navy.   Triton was scheduled to return to New London for overhaul at Electric Boat, in Groton, Ct., and Joe Cross, first class cook, who had family near Norfolk, and had purchased a home there, got a transfer to   Scorpion.  I had been out of the Navy only a short time when   Scorpion went down.  I had discussed this with many subvets, and everyone agreed they thought   Scorpion had been torpedoed by the Russian sub they were following.<br><br>The story that \"they were playing with a torpedo, and it exploded\" was soon changed...BUT was such a lame attempt at a lie that every subvet I discussed this with agreed with me.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"elevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function elevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story11").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"elevenOpen()\">Everett W. Good<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Vallejo, CA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story12").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Roy W.  Patterson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Jose, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I don't have a story as such – But I was in the 14th Armored Cavalry at the time and I remember reading about it (as well as the capture of the Pueblo) in the <i>Stars and Stripes</i> newspaper. I just heard the interview with you on our local station KSFO and wanted to say thanks for writing the book and that it was a fascinating interview!</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twelveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function twelveClose() {
document.getElementById("story12").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twelveOpen()\">Roy W.  Patterson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Jose, CA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story13").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">James DeGuzman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Williamsburg, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My dad (Federico L. DeGuzman) was assigned to the   Scorpion and prior to her sailing was held up on some naturalization papers for citizenship and due to fly to Rota, Spain, and meet the   Scorpion there. But as you know that never happened. My dad, who has since passed away, never took it well that his friends passed away and kept track of all accounts in papers, etc.  I have his Naval records with assignments,   Scorpion pics,   Scorpion shoulder scroll, etc. <br><br>My mom (Betty DeGuzman) is now living with me and my wife and can also give her accounts of my dad with   Scorpion. He was killed in 1973 on active duty but was pretty much never the same after the incident.  He never went back on a sub after this.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Thank you for the information about your father, Federico L. DeGuzman, whom I identified in <i>Scorpion Down</i> as one of four members of the 1968 crew to be off the submarine when it sank.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function thirteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story13").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirteenOpen()\">James DeGuzman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Williamsburg, VA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story14").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Lane Bickford<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Windham, NH:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just picked up the book today. I have several connections to this incident. I met Joseph Underwood in Rota, Spain. I gave him a ride to the  Canopus when he exited the base hospital.  I was a CT-R Brancher in the Navy in Rota during this time. I did help try find the   Scorpion. I may be able to shed some more light on this subject.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fourteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function fourteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story14").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fourteenOpen()\">Lane Bickford<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Windham, NH/a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story15").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Gerard Kwilecki<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Valdosta:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed your book.  I was born in 1972 so I do not have a   Scorpion story.  However, I have studied submarines and read many books about subs.  I have even had the pleasure of touring the  USS Pennsylvania (SSBN 735) while it was stationed at Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Kingsland, Ga.  I have read several stories on the   Scorpion and this definitely gives me a new perspective of what happened. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fifteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function fifteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story15").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fifteenOpen()\">Gerard Kwilecki<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Valdosta</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story16").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">D. Perry<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Gainesville, GA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">From April 1978 until sometime in 1981, I lived next to a retired Navy enlisted man.  One evening, while sitting around his pool, I asked what he had done in the Navy. He said he was an oceanographer.  When I asked about the job, he explained that he listened to sensitive microphones located around the ocean and was able to track the movement of ships and submarines. By this time he had consumed several drinks.  I had always had an interest in the Navy and especially submarines.  This interest was further peaked by the fact that someone from nearby Toccoa, my mother's home town, had been on the crew of both the Thresher and the Scorpion.  I at the time believed the Navy line that the   Scorpion was an engineering failure.  Ed very quickly informed me that the Russians had sunk the Scorpion.  I asked how he knew and he explained that at the time he was stationed on Bermuda and was on duty at the time of the sinking.  He stated that they were following an incident in which the   Scorpion and a Russian missile boat we messing with each other in a series of events that started when a boomer had left Rota and the   Scorpion had escorted her out.  The incident had continued for some time and I believe he indicated the two boats collided in a game of chicken and then the Russian fired a torpedo and sank the   Scorpion.  He indicated they followed the Russian sub all the way back to home port and that the Navy knew about the incident when it happened, the ID of the Russian sub, and where she went. Later, when he was sober, he denied any knowledge of the conversation and explained that he had signed and agreement that he could not discuss anything he did in the Navy and could go to prison if he did.  I am glad the truth has finally come out.  I wish he could have read your book.  I got the impression he was bitter about having to keep the fate of   Scorpion secret.  He died of cancer several years ago.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function sixteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story16").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixteenOpen()\">D. Perry<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Gainesville, GA</a></span>"; 
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document.getElementById("story17").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Dennis Mosebey<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Emporia, KS:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have no story specifically about   Scorpion, but while I have not yet finished the book, I am skeptical she was sunk by an Echo Class boat. First Slattery was too experienced a skipper to not be entering an area where he was told to spy on Russian Ops unless he was going super quiet. His bow sonar would have detected another boat in my view long before she could have got off a shot. The book clearly states in the beginning that it was an amid ship hit. While I have not finished it, this is not supported by pictures taken by Trieste and discussed in both John Craven's book and <i>Blind Man's Bluff</i>. I believe there is a cover up, but not that it was a Russian boat – rather the Naval Bureau of Ordinance knows it had at least two of a faulty batch of Mk 37 torpedoes on board   Scorpion. I believe one of these cooked off, similar to Kursk, but not as severe and pressurized the forward loading hatch and blew it open and flooding caused the rest of the damage to occur. The Navy would never want to admit they sunk one of their own boats by not taking the opportunity to replace the faulty torpedoes either before she left for the Med or at any one of the tenders overseas. That is where I believe the cover up is. I do believe that the author proves that on or around May 23 or 24 Admiral Schade knew she was lost. I think his interviews prove that. It should be fairly easy on the recordings taken by the hydrophones to confirm that one way or the other, for surely they have a time marking at least on a 24 hour scale or date of the week when the explosions were noted.  <i>Red Star Rogue</i> pretty much proves Swordfish was not involved with K129 and that she blew up trying to launch a missile—which is much more scary than this book. Of course if the Russians believed we caused her to sink, it is plausible that an ambush was arranged for   Scorpion. Given the Walker Spy Ring it would not be beyond the possibility that once the order was given for   Scorpion to observe fleet Ops of the Russians on the way home that a spy passed the word as to her track and thus the Echo had the advantage. Also there is the troublesome 1-2-3-4-5 Brandywine Radio Transmission that definitely happened -- perhaps this was the ECHO passing an open transmission she had been successful. If she knew which way Scorpion was coming, she could certainly have known her call sign. What does John Craven think of the author's hypothesis? Anyhow, it is a great book, but I do not think for whatever reason we will know what happened to this brave boat. It was a torpedo, no doubt -- the only question that will forever remain is whose - ours or theirs?</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventeenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventeenClose() {
document.getElementById("story17").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventeenOpen()\">Dennis Mosebey<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Emporia, KS</a></span>"; 
} 
function eighteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story18").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Walter Grant<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Shelburne, Vermont:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Just finished reading the book.  I'm wondering whether anyone has researched Sosus records for the period from 17 May 1968 when the   Scorpion left Rota and 22 May, when she was lost. Surely there must be some incident reports or routine summary reports that might shed light on who and what was involved on the Russian side.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Walt, I’m sure there were significant records of the type you describe, but the sources I was able to reach for <i>Scorpion Down</i> agreed that naval intelligence officials did everything they could to seize, impound and suppress any such evidence.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eighteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eighteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story18").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eighteenOpen()\">Walter Grant<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Shelburne, Vermont</a></span>"; 
} 
function nineteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story19").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Jerry M. Pratt<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Osceola, Iowa:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I am a former crew member until July 1967. I have a memorial website about the Scorpion and the friends I lost. <a href=\"http://www.jepra.net\" target=\"_blank\">www.jepra.net</a>.<br><br>I will order the book today and give you my opinion of it soon. Many of my friends have called or emailed me saying that it is not accurate in any respect but I will reserve judgment until I have read it at least twice.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"nineteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function nineteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story19").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"nineteenOpen()\">Jerry M. Pratt<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Osceola, Iowa</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story20").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Tom White<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Bernardino, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Ed,  I appreciate you sticking with the   Scorpion story.  I was skeptical when I first starting reading, however, by the end I am a believer.  I particularly enjoyed the book since I qualified on the  USS Permit SSN 594 in the mid-1960s.  We were the first of our class to make a WestPac cruise and engage in all the fun and games on the upper Kamchatka Peninsula.  We experienced the \"Crazy Ivan\" in 1965 although I don't think we called it that.  We did some trailing, had some \"gum shoes\" aboard, and operated as close to the edge as we could.  I was young enough to think it was adventure.  <br><br>Thanks again for keeping the   Scorpion story alive.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Thanks for the kind words, and thank you for your service to our country.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentyClose() {
document.getElementById("story20").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyOpen()\">Tom White<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Bernardino, CA </a></span>"; 
} 
function twentyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story21").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Jerry Carter<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fortville, IN:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was an HM3 and had recently reported aboard the  USS Richard E. Byrd at D&S piers, Norfolk in May 1968. I didn't remember that there was media coverage at the time; I'd mentioned the   Scorpion search in a letter to my then girlfriend, now wife (she kept the letter all these years) but, our ship wasn't involved. Ed's book is a great read. I too believed that no-one knew the cause of the   Scorpion's sinking; I was also aware of the errant torpedo theory but never dreamed the Soviets were involved. A most fascinating book backed up by a lot of hard research...</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story21").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyoneOpen()\">Jerry Carter<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fortville, IN</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story22").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Marshall Chapman, ENC (SS) USN Ret <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Matthews, NC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My first boat was the   Scorpion, September of 1963, in the yards at Charlestown. I stayed on the boat for four years, and shipped over early for the 19 and 6 retirements, for ENC School in Great Lakes. Me and a 2nd. class ET (I was 1st. class) threw off the lines for the under way to the med. I would like to have gone. I was single and could not think of anything, but going to the med. Oh well.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story22").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentytwoOpen()\">Marshall Chapman, ENC (SS) USN Ret <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Matthews, NC</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story23").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Scott Kenney<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Ankeny, IA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">As most submariners we were not told much about her loss [ USS  Scorpion]. If she did do ops with the Soviets it is possible she did get in to close and the Soviet fleet tried to scare her away. Also a diesel boat is very deadly even though they have limited range.  With all the background noise of their fleet, diesel subs may have been hard to pickup. The subs may have collided, which has been known to happen before. Was there any evidence of other subs being destroyed or radio traffic we intercepted from the Russians? Or have the Russians declassified any records from that time?  Subs are pushed to their design limits and accidents do happen.   Is it possible we did not want a design flaw (perceived weakness) known to the Soviets?   I will check out your book, it may be right on target, or it may not be. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story23").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentythreeOpen()\">Scott Kenney<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Ankeny, IA</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story24").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Lee Scholey<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Newport Beach, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">With all due respect to the author, he should pick up a copy of <i>Blind Man's Bluff</i>, in which this incident was discussed and analyzed at length.  It has been a few years since I read it, was conclusively proven that a torpedo caught fire while inside the   Scorpion and could not be extinguished.  And it was not from a runaway torpedo that had to be fired, or some reason, like because it armed itself, and came back at the sub and sank it.  I just can't believe that the author is serious about this allegation that the Soviets sank the  Scorpion.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Chris Drew and Sherry Sontag compiled an admirably comprehensive history of Cold War submarine operations, and came to the conclusion that the   Scorpion fell victim to a torpedo battery mishap that sparked a “low order” explosion in the forward compartment. Their conclusion fit their facts, but I respectfully submit that they lacked all of the facts. While supported by significant evidence, the torpedo-battery assessment, like many others, was silent on the operational events that occurred between the time the   Scorpion left Rota on May 17, its sinking on May 22, and the U.S. Navy’s concerted cover-up of evidence pointing to the combat incident I cite in <i>Scorpion Down</i>. </b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story24").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyfourOpen()\">Lee Scholey<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Newport Beach, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story25").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Hobie Lunin<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Harrisburg, PA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I remember the events pretty well, as I was out of college more than 10 years and was married with a family.<br><br>I remember that at the time how bad I felt for the families of those sailors lost.<br><br>At the time, I believe there was a theory floating around that the Russians did it but there was no proof, of course.<br><br>Anyway, I am writing to say how much I admire your writing style and especially your skills at research!  Excellent!</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story25").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyfiveOpen()\">Hobie Lunin<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Harrisburg, PA</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story26").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">John L. Howard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>West Paterson, NJ:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have friend who was assigned to missile tender in Rota.  The best man at his wedding was aboard  USS Canopus when   Scorpion departed last.  His recollection is that   Scorpion had some type minimal damage near sail.  Unconfirmed.<br><br>Q;  Where is recovered   Scorpion sextant?<br><br>Q:  Where was  Halibut during search?  Any evidence that  Halibut ever investigated the wreck site?<br><br>Great job.  I have long said that it was not accident.  My sources and my Navy friend say that a boomer was being tracked by USSR and the   Scorpion took hit for her but managed to get a war shot off herself. <br><br>Q:  What boomers were at sea and any in that patrol area?<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Thanks for your comments and questions. As to your questions: The bathyscaph  Trieste II reportedly recovered the   Scorpion’s hand-held sextant from a debris field near the hull. I do not know its current whereabouts. I have seen no evidence that the Navy ever considered or used the “spy sub”  USS Halibut to explore the   Scorpion. In the summer of 1968, the  Halibut was searching for the sunken Soviet missile submarine  K-129 in the north Pacific, and afterwards took part in a prolonged intelligence-gathering program to “tap” Soviet communications cables in the Sea of Okhotsk and other places. It is still impossible to state exactly where the U.S. Navy’s missile submarines were operating in relation to the site of the   Scorpion sinking 400 miles southwest of the Azores. In the book, I recount how several “boomers” on patrol were alerted and briefly diverted to carry out a passive sonar search for the Scorpion. The Navy did publicly say that the  USS Simon Bolivar was operating somewhere near the Canary Islands and had been dispatched to an area where several underwater seamounts came close to the surface. But again, specific course track and position reports were never declassified.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story26").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentysixOpen()\">John L. Howard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>West Paterson, NJ</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story27").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Captain David Williams:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Ed,<br><br>Congratulations on getting the book out.<br><br>I am just now putting the finishing touches on my book about the loss of the scorpion and hope to have it ready within the next 3 months.<br><br>Good luck with sales.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story27").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentysevenOpen()\">Captain David Williams</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story28").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Rob<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>California:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Have you heard anything about there being two Soviet attack boats also on the bottom in the same are as the   Scorpion?  A friend who served in the Navy the same time as I did who told me about this.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Over the years, I heard from Navy veterans on several occasions that one or more Soviet submarines went down in the vicinity of the   Scorpion sinking but never found credible evidence to confirm that point. The two former SOSUS operators (and two more veterans of that ASW specialty) I interviewed all said the Soviet submarine involved was not destroyed.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story28").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentyeightOpen()\">Rob<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>California</a></span>"; 
} 
function twentynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story29").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Gordon Fish<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sandpoint, ID:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book on the true fate of the   Scorpion. I did not have any direct experiences with the   Scorpion, but I did serve in the Pacific submarine force from 1966-1969 aboard the  U.S.S. Sabalo (SS-302) as a Radioman (RM1).  During that period I was in the Western Pacific twice which included the time period of the  Pueblo and   Scorpion incidents.  I attended both the KWR-37 and KW-7 repair schools in Vallejo during my service aboard the  Sabalo.  I was later stationed at the Radioman \"A\" School in San Diego as an instructor, where I was associated with John Walker and Jerry Whitworth.  Walker was in charge of the entire school and Whitworth was a peer instructor between 1969 and 1972.  I was shocked as were many when the true story of their exploits was revealed.  I did not however connect the dots between the  Pueblo and the   Scorpion until I read your well researched book.  With my background in the Naval communications world, I can easily see how this scenario is correct.  Your book was a real eye opener.  Thanks for revealing all of your research to the world.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function twentynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story29").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"twentynineOpen()\">Gordon Fish<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sandpoint, ID</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story30").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Lee Eubanks<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Hampton, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was on patrol on an FBM at the time.  We were asked to search the area.  We figured both submarines had collided and poked a couple of holes in the ocean floor.  We never believed it to be an accident.  I haven't read your book, but I hope you have some verifiable information and not just a theory.  If what you say is true then someone should pay a price for the cover up.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtyClose() {
document.getElementById("story30").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyOpen()\">Lee Eubanks<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Hampton, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story31").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Paul Middents<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Captain USN Retired <font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Silverdale, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">story</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story31").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyoneOpen()\">Paul Middents<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Captain USN Retired<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Silverdale, WA</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story32").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Capt. C. J. McGrew, Jr. (MC) USN/Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Spring Hill, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was in the commissioning crew of both the  USS Skipjack and the  USS  Scorpion.  I have read <i> Silent Steel</i> and was a small contributor to that book.  I have kept in touch with Mary Etta Nolan who was 4 years old when the   Scorpion was lost May 22, 1968.  Her father was the Chief of the Boat at the time.  He was a 2nd Class Torpedoman when I was on the Scorpion.  I have ordered the \"fiction\" book out of curiosity.  I have a copy of the fiction book <i>To Kill The Potempkin</i> written 21 years ago.  Dr. Craven's thought that   Scorpion was sunk by a torpedo has been completely debunked by competent folks. You book may be a \"good read\" but it is not true as to the cause for the loss.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> I do not doubt Capt. McGrew’s sincerity, and I laud him for his dedicated service to our nation in the submarine force. My only response is that both John Craven’s book (<i>The Silent War</i>) and journalist Stephen Johnson’s book (<i>Silent Steel</i>) are accounts based on an incomplete set of facts regarding the   Scorpion’s final mission in the eastern Atlantic, the sinking itself, and the U.S. Navy’s highly classified response both before and after the submarine failed to reach port in Norfolk on Memorial Day 1968.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story32").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtytwoOpen()\">Capt. C. J. McGrew, Jr. (MC) USN/Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Spring Hill, FL</a></span>"; 
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function thirtythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story33").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Pete Whelan:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">On the crew members list under Donald Yarborough you show him to be a IC1 when in fact I believe it should be a TM1.  I was a shipmate of Petty Officer Yarbrough on the  USS Skipjack and he was my leading petty officer as a Torpedoman, not Interior Communications.  Could you please let me know if I am wrong?<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Thanks for catching the error. Yarborough, nearing the 12-year mark in his Navy career in 1968, indeed was a Torpedoman’s Mate 1st Class.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story33").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtythreeOpen()\">Pete Whelan </a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story34").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Bonnie Petersen<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Lancaster, PA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I bought the book last week and read the whole thing.  I said from the beginning it was taken out but nobody would listen to me. You see I saw it happen, back in those days people who saw things like that were crazy.  I remember waking up crying as I saw the flash and felt it.  I woke up, called Theresa Bishop and told her something happened.  She just said that I was anxious for the boat to come home.  I sat in church and it was completely dark; a light filled the church and I knew I really knew.  My son was in the sub and I never gave up on this.<br><br>Thank you for giving me peace at last.  I know the men are now at rest.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> Chief Electrician’s Mate Daniel Christopher Peterson, 27, was one of the 99   Scorpion crewmen who perished on May 22, 1968. </b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story34").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyfourOpen()\">Bonnie Petersen<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Lancaster, PA</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story35").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Robert Karge<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>ETC (SS) Retired<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Altamonte Springs, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I'm a retired Submariner with 20 years of service almost all of it assigned to several different boats both Diesel and Nuke. <br><br>At the time   Scorpion left for the Med I was on a boat in the same squadron in Norfolk.<br><br>Previously I had been in the Polaris program and was a Reactor Operator on two different boats.<br><br>Due to family problems, I was returned to the Diesel fleet in Norfolk. After a short stay on one boat, I was selected to relieve a young man with a family, on another boat, so he could go to his first Nuke. He also was Nuclear trained and wanted to finally get duty on a fast attack. Tragically, it was to be the  Scorpion.<br><br>This particular event was tragic to not only the Submarine fleet but to our squadron as a number of crew members from diesel boats in the squadron requested to ride Scorpion doing their usual duties.  I believe they all had families.<br><br>The reason I'm writing this to you is that we, the Sub fleet and its families have suffered over this loss for years and if this book, which I have scanned through, is not absolutely true.  Then it is just one more jab in the heart.<br><br>I have read the supposedly final findings by the investigators some time ago, as you might have also, and it seemed quite plausible.<br><br><span class=\"names\">Ed Offley replies:</span><b> No one can exaggerate the pain and sorrow felt not just by the   Scorpion families but by their many comrades in the Submarine Service as you note. My goal has not been to inflict any additional stress but to tell them exactly what happened to their loved ones and fellow submariners. Having researched the   Scorpion Court of Inquiry and interviewed four surviving members for this book, I was not surprised to learn from all four that the Atlantic Submarine Force had withheld critical evidence from their deliberations. This included intelligence information revealing the 4-5-day encounter between the   Scorpion and the  Echo-II;  SOSUS tapes depicting the actual torpedo launch that sank the   Scorpion; the pre-May 27 secret search that to this day the Navy will not admit occurred; the actual discovery of the submarine wreckage by the  USS Compass Island in early June, and the charade of a search by the  USNS Mizar that went on for five months afterwards to conform with the U.S. Navy’s limited deep-ocean search capabilities at that time. The Court of Inquiry report may seem credible but it suffered from a massive effort by COMSUBLANT and the various naval intelligence agencies to manipulate the evidence the panelists saw so as to avoid any conclusion that pointed to a combat incident.</b></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story35").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyfiveOpen()\">Robert Karge<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>ETC (SS) Retired<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Altamonte Springs, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story36").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Jim Brodhead:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have no story about the   Scorpion per se. In 1969 I served as a radioman on board the  USS Atakapa (ATF-149). We deployed to the north Atlantic in the spring of that year, tasked with a mission similar to that of the  USS Pueblo only in regard to Soviet naval forces. The procedures and equipment which the Navy had put in place by the time we sailed were as I thought at the time, driven by the  Pueblo incident. It appears to me now that perhaps the fate of the   Scorpion and the circumstances of its sinking were also factors.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story36").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtysixOpen()\">Jim Brodhead<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Silverdale, WA</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story37").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Stephanie Zolezzi<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Francisco, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Mr. Offley, I heard you on KSFO radio in San Francisco with Melanie Morgan and Lee Rodgers.  What a great piece of work and what \"patience\" taking all those years to bring this story and the truth of it all to the \"light.\"  I was shocked and stunned to hear of it.  I will buy your book to tell this story to several others.  I am so sorry for the pain and sorrow and the heartache that was forced upon the family and friends of those who’s loved ones perished onboard the   Scorpion.  God Bless you for this service to your fellow countrymen.  May it help to bring healing to all those broken hearts and lives. God Speed.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story37").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtysevenOpen()\">Stephanie Zolezzi<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Francisco, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story38").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Tom Clark<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>FTCM (SS) USN Ret<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Manassas, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Great Book.  I have no first hand knowledge, but offer three comments:<br><br>Shortly after the   Scorpion loss, the procedures for handling torpedoes underway was changed and made much more difficult - ostensibly for greater safety.  This was to avoid the hot run that was suspected in the   Scorpion's demise.  This change added significantly to the effort involved and the number of personnel involved handling fish.  Most of us thought it was all BS, and now it appears that is was. <br><br>On page 199 it mentions the sailors being miffed that they did not get their pay tax exempt.  That is just bunk, no-one in the Med got tax exemptions - that was for \"designated combat zones\" and was mostly those in the Viet Nam area.  I was a FBM submariner in the late 60s and made many runs out of Rota and frequently in the Med - Got Sea Pay, Got Submarine Pay, Got Base Pay, but paid taxes on all of them all the time.<br><br>Page 263 mentions a Retired Warrant Office First Class Sparks who worked in communications.  There is no First Class grade for Warrant Officers.  There was a WO1 grade, which is the most junior grade, typically called Warrant Officer or Warrant Officer One.  The higher grades of Warrant are called Chief Warrant Officer.  And in the 60s there were three grades of them CWO2, CWO3, and CWO4.  Promotion to CWO2 was automatic after 2 years as a WO1.  It would be very unusual to retire as a WO1.<br><br>And although there was a first name put to this character, is it interesting that his last name is Sparks.  Typically Radiomen are called \"Sparky\" due to the emblem on their rating badge.  This is just as common as referring to a cook as \"Cookie\" or \"Stu\" for Stew Burner.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story38").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtyeightOpen()\">Tom Clark<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>FTCM (SS) USN Ret<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Manassas, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function thirtynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story39").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Ron Way<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Santa Maria, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My wife gave me the book on father’s day. I am in the process of reading <i>Scorpion Down</i>. I was stationed on the   Scorpion from 1960 to 1963 as MM1 (SS). Your research is outstanding and as a former crew member, I always thought that your conclusion was the real reason the   Scorpion went down. I still have the hull and machinery book on the   Scorpion that shows all the systems and cross sections of the sub. I met Dr. Craven 2 years ago. He asked me what scenario I believed from his book and <i>Blind Man's Bluff</i>. I'm sure he knew the real reason; however his knowledge of it was probably still classified. Thank you for reporting the true history of the   Scorpion.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function thirtynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story39").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"thirtynineOpen()\">Ron Way<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Santa Maria, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story40").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Richard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Coventry, RI:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was an ASW tech aboard a P-3A Orion patrol aircraft assigned to Patrol Squadron VP-45 out of Jacksonville Florida.  We were involved in the location of the   Scorpion in early June.  Everything at that time was really on the hush-hush.  Rumor at that time was that we were engaged in a cat and mouse game with the Soviets which was the norm for that era.  Your book definitely answered a lot of questions.  One question I present, based on personal experience, is why nothing was mentioned of the messenger buoy that came from the Sub?</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortyClose() {
document.getElementById("story40").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyOpen()\">Richard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Coventry, RI</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story41").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Rex Kramer<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Colorado Springs, CO:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was the Engineer Officer of the  USS Snook (SSN 592) when   Scorpion was lost.  Snook was a sister ship built at the same shipyard at the same time as   Scorpion.  My recollection is of a visit by a group from the Bureau of Ships to look and measure, as we were told, we should be the best \"as built\" depiction of how   Scorpion was actually built.  The area at the forward bulkhead of the reactor compartment was the area of most interest to them.  We were never told any more than appeared in the press.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story41").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyoneOpen()\">Rex Kramer<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Colorado Springs, CO</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story42").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Anthony L. DeWitt<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Jefferson City, MO:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I am reading your book <i> Scorpion Down</i>.  As someone familiar with the inner workings of the intelligence agencies in the 1970s, your work is remarkable for the detail and research that went into it.  As an attorney, I know how hard it is to crack the seal of documents maintained as state secrets through the Freedom of Information Act, and I believe your work in uncovering the truth of what happened to those valiant men aboard the   Scorpion is one of the more important contributions to cold war scholarship in the last few decades.  Winston Churchill said that the truth was so important that it must sometimes be accompanied by a bodyguard of lies.  It would appear that the cover story erected around the   Scorpion was exactly that kind of bodyguard.  In an era when we are told to take Pentagon pronouncements at face value, and in an era when truth has no important place in the conduct of military operations, an account like yours serves the public interest by shedding light on who makes decisions about what we ought to know.  Thank you for your hard work, your excellent research, and for finally offering the public the truth of the   Scorpion incident.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story42").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortytwoOpen()\">Anthony L. DeWitt<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Jefferson City, MO</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story43").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Milton Volosyn<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Carmel, IN:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was Broadcast & Crypto Supervisor at ComSubLant Communications Norva when they declared SAR on the   Scorpion. I remember they kept 3 duty sections on watch at the same time! Typical. I was responsible for providing all of the CW, TTY and encrypted traffic to the Boomers and all trusted links to the sub bases in the Atlantic command. I served there for almost three years (67-70) and not only did I experience the Scorpion tragedy but also worked with the worse spy the military ever had John Walker! How about that for touching history twice...I am really interested in reading your book. I have some recollection of certain items from that time (time also has a way of clouding those thoughts), including seeing the first pictures of the boat when they finally found it. I was privy to what operations those boats were undertaking and what \"Games\" they played with the Russians. I remember originally thinking that it was a Russian sub, but later as I reviewed the traffic for the   Scorpion, they weren't involved in the usual \"Games\" that were played, and there were plenty of messages about faulty torpedoes, among other faulty equipment. So again, I'll be interested in reading what you have to say vs. <i>Blind Man's Bluff</i>. It should jog back some memories, much like <i>Hunt for Red October</i> did, until that book I had never uttered the word SOSUS since I had left the Navy! Thanks for the effort of putting together a part an important event in the history of the Baby Boomers generation. More importantly thanks for providing a place for recounting our memories of that era.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story43").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortythreeOpen()\">Milton Volosyn<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Carmel, IN</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story44").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Mike Jones<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Ellicott City, MD:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My wife bought <i>Scorpion Down</i> on our way to vacation at Mystic, CT.  Complete coincidence.  I read it while visiting New London and Groton.  Then I stayed outside Scranton, PA on the way home, Walker's birth place. When working for Navy in the '90s, I worked TDY at New London sub base and COMSUBLANT in VA.  All in all, reading the book was a little weird. Your book helped me put together some things I've heard over a very long time, for example, the connection between Pueblo, the Walker case and the sub.  You did such a terrific job of researching that I don't think there is anything I could tell you that you don't already know.  And certainly not in this forum.  I can say your conclusion is right, of course.  But you knew that.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story44").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyfourOpen()\">Mike Jones<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Ellicott City, MD</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story45").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Chuck Ross<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>BM1(ss/dv) USN RET.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Alvin, TX:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Great book! It only confirmed what all we submariners suspected throughout the cold war.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story45").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyfiveOpen()\">Chuck Ross<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>BM1(ss/dv) USN RET.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Alvin, TX</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story46").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">James A. Deckert<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Kimberly, WI:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I participated in a 1968 study of the effectiveness of the SOSUS system, related to the loss of the USS Scorpion.  We finished our report on a Friday and when we came in on Monday we were told that \"Navy people\" came in Saturday and took every copy of our report because the word 'SOSUS' was classified Top Secret at that time and the contents of the report would be classified higher than that.  Our facility (The Center for Naval Analyses) was only authorized up to Top Secret. Also, when the USS Scorpion was 'found' we were told that the Soviets had given someone in the pentagon the coordinates of the boat's location.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story46").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortysixOpen()\">James A. Deckert<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Kimberly, WI</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story47").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Scott Syverson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Greer, SC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just finished <i>Scorpion Down</i>....masterfully documented.  Paradigm shift also comes to mind.  But I hope you don't mind this feedback, but your book raises far more questions than it answers.  After reading the book, I was left with many unanswered lines of inquiry.  Such as: I do not believe for a second that the Navy would have the authority nor the ambition to make the decision to bury a hostile and possibly deliberate act of war from the political, civilian chain of command.  How far up did this go? I believe that a decision of this magnitude had to have come from the oval office.  What was there rational or logic (or lack thereof) for choosing to bury this? Was it to protect some greater good of intelligence or forms of intelligence gathering?  If so, the corresponding gain had to be tremendous because the loss of a nuclear sub and its crew is something completely different than the shoot down of planes over sovereign Soviet territory.  What was the offset to a multi hundred million dollar nuclear sub with nuclear war shots on board and lives of 93 crew men.  Was it a lack of political will?  How could this be interpreted in light of the fact that billions of dollars were being spent a year and thousand of lives lost or altered in Vietnam to face down communism? The story of the Scorpion will always be left incomplete until these questions can be answered.  Can you shed any light in this area, if even speculation?</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story47").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortysevenOpen()\">Scott Syverson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Greer, SC</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story48").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Jack Brockman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Virginia Beach, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">From the pictures I have seen of Scorpion on the bottom something catastrophic happened while at Periscope depth. The EDO fairing and the football antenna were raised, and from my experience on the USS Skipjack SSN 585 in 1964, when returning from deployment you come to periscope depth to do several things. You blow the sanitary tank, which is a relatively safe evolution and flush the garbage overboard. To do so you have to open a large outer door of the garbage/trash disposal unit. This has the potential to be catastrophic if the inner door is opened before the outer door is shut. You remove war shot torpedoes from the torpedo tubes. This also has the potential to be catastrophic, particularly if you take a large down angle during the evolution. I experienced a stern plane failure to full rise on Skipjack and learned that they had survived a failure to full dive. Maybe someone else would know if Scorpion had ever experienced a stern plane failure. There is one thing sure and that is Scorpion is not in an attack configuration. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story48").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortyeightOpen()\">Jack Brockman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Virginia Beach, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fortynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story49").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Bruce Rule<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font> Louisville, KY:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I agree with Dr. John Craven, who has unassailable creditability in such matter, that Offley's book is \"wrong\" and \"irresponsible.\"  (See a <i>Honolulu Star Bulletin</i> article.) A coterie of 11 individuals with a collective total of 350 years of SOSUS and/or acoustic analysis experience know there was no conspiracy to confiscate, suppress, or destroy any SOSUS data.  There are anomalies and inconsistencies about the SOSUS tape Offley claims to be central to his conjecture that the Soviets sank the Scorpion that indicate the tape was made at the ASW Training Center in Norfolk.  I sent these assessments to Offley and two reviewers; they have not responded. Craven's statement: \"wrong\" and \"irresponsible\" says it all.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fortynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story49").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fortynineOpen()\">Bruce Rule<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font> Louisville, KY</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story50").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">David Feist<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>SSBN 644B, SSBN 729, SSBN 731B<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sandy, OR:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I first heard about the USS SCORPION when I went to submarine school in 1978.  Then later the subject came up while I was on patrol on the USS LEWIS & Clark SSBN 644B.  A senior chief told me what he thought happened to it, a story involving a hot running torpedo, which I did not believe.  I have always wondered what really happened to the SCORPION.  One day about five or six years ago after reading books about the traitor John Walker, and numerous other books about the Cold War and watching a few interesting shows on either the Discovery or History channels I decided to do my own research.  I sat down and did a time line of events, starting with when John Walker started spying, to the capture of USS Pueblo, the loss of K-129, to six weeks later when the SCORPION went down and concluded that something really stank, like when you vent the sanitary tank inboard too fast.  I know that the Soviets did it and have long suspected it, now as of five or six years ago I know that they were directly responsible for the loss of the SCORPION. Why did it take so long for the truth to finally come out?  How did America benefit by keeping all of this a secret?</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftyClose() {
document.getElementById("story50").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyOpen()\">David Feist<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>SSBN 644B, SSBN 729, SSBN 731B<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sandy, OR</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story51").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Tom<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Pittsburgh, PA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">In the summer of 1976 while a geology grad student at summer field camp I met a fellow student who claimed to be a navy veteran who served as a sonar man.  He told a story about the loss of the Scorpion essentially identical to the Collier/Falck account in your book.  He told of being shown a chart or tape of some kind.  I don't remember the student's name but there were hardly a dozen or so students in the class and I think it might be possible to identify him.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story51").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyoneOpen()\">Tom<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Pittsburgh, PA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story52").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Vic Duarte<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>QMC(SS) Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Norfolk, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Holy cow, finally a shadow of truth! I always thought this for years and years. I was in the Submarine Service from 1962 till 1982. While serving my last 3 years at COMSUBLANT I had the opportunity to see a presentation showing undersea photos of Scorpion on the bottom. I'm no expert but after seeing those pictures I never could believe battery explosion or torpedo hot run. I still think it was “tit-for-tat” with the Russians.  (Them thinking we had something to do with there loss 300 miles NW of Hawaii. Anyhow I'm thoroughly enjoying the book.  Keep up the good work.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story52").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftytwoOpen()\">Vic Duarte<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>QMC(SS) Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Norfolk, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story53").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Phil Qualls<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>SSBN 598<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fredericksburg, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was a junior officer aboard the USS George Washington (SSBN 598) during the latter half of the 70's.  I was a sonar officer and went to sonar school.  Here’s an anecdotal story from a CPO instructor, my Sonar LPO on the boat: I was told that a buddy of his was on watch at the SOSUS station when the Scorpion was sunk and made a bootleg copy of the reel to reel tape that the event was recorded on. He listened to the bootleg copy and both sonar men agreed that it was a Russian torpedo that sunk the Scorpion. I am looking forward to reading your book to see what your conclusion is.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story53").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftythreeOpen()\">Phil Qualls<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>SSBN 598<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fredericksburg, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story54").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Captain Fred Terrell<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USN, Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Coupeville, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was a Commander, USN, and a submariner, on duty in the pentagon at the time when the Scorpion was lost. I was assigned to the Submarine Warfare Division (OP-31) when the Scorpion was lost.  We were told then that the Scorpion was ordered to proceed from the Straits of Gibraltar southward about 200 to 300 miles before turning westward to cross the Atlantic Ocean, instead of the normal straight line from Gibraltar to Norfolk. The idea was for Scorpion to cross the mid-Atlantic (submerged mountain) range at a location other than the normal route.  She was running deep to prevent cavitations of the propeller. The conclusion was that the boat hit a submerged mountain peak and was lost.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story54").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyfourOpen()\">Captain Fred Terrell<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USN, Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Coupeville, WA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story55").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Walter Laster<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Springdale, AR:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was an officer aboard the USS Kittiwake ASR 13. While in Rota our ship received orders in late May or early June of 1968 to begin a search for Scorpion. We followed Scorpion's track until we met eight destroyers and began searching. A short time later the destroyers left and we continued the search for about six weeks but without success. We all wondered why the destroyers were there in the first place. As I recall, two men left Scorpion before she departed Rota; One for emergency leave and another young man for health reasons. I will never forget \"Brandywine, Brandywine this is Indigo Papa, Indigo Papa do you read me\"? We made that transmission every few minutes for a very long time. Those words will forever be branded into my brain. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story55").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyfiveOpen()\">Walter Laster<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Springdale, AR</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story56").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Gary M. Trammell<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USN-Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fort Worth, TX:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have some concerns about your time-line for the Scorpion, in which you say that the Scorpion left the Med and came to the \"entrance to Rota naval base and transfers two crewmen and mail to a navy tug, and then heads out into the Atlantic\".<br><br>In May of 1968, I was attached to the U.S.S. Von Steuben (SSBN632) Blue crew as an MT1(SS).  We were in Rota, Spain at this time doing our 30-day upkeep in preparations for patrol.  While there, the U.S.S. Scorpion came along side the pier and tied up.  There was a sonar tech onboard the Von Steuben, his name was Harold Snapp, who was scheduled to leave the Von Steuben before it departed for patrol and he was to fly back to the U.S. and report to the Scorpion in the shipyard for duty.  However, instead of doing that, it was arranged for a sonar tech on the Scorpion and Petty Offer Snapp to swap positions before the Scorpion left Rota. Of course, Petty Officer Snapp never made it back to the United States.  He went down with the Scorpion.  I remember this event very well. I even walked over to the area where the Scorpion was moored to have a look at her.  A sleek looking nuclear fast attack, I thought to myself. After we were onboard the Von Steuben when we heard of the tragic loss of Scorpion, it was the talk of the boat about Petty Officer Snapp. Why was this event on Scorpion mooring in Rota not mentioned in the time line?<br><br>P.S.  Go to the web page of the U.S.S. Von Steuben and pull up the crews list of all members on all crews and you will see Petty Officer Snapp's name there with the red writing showing him \"on eternal patrol with U.S.S. Scorpion.\"</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story56").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftysixOpen()\">Gary M. Trammell<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USN-Ret.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fort Worth, TX</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story57").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Elizabeth Thumm<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Lisbon, OH:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was two years old when the Scorpion went down.  I do not remember the incident but as a child survivor my life was surrounded by others memories and recitations of the incident. My father was Raymond Morrison.  My mother always swore that the Russians had something to do with it.  When John Walker and his son were arrested she was so very angry, knowing they were traitors. Mom would take us kids to the memorial services almost every year.  It always seemed to rain on those days.  She said it rained the day they waited at the pier for the sub to come home. She had remarried in 1970, with four kids to take care of.  He was another navy man and retired in 1974.  The most ironic thing was that he was killed in 1980. He was working on a tug boat and the tug went down in the Mississippi.  Losing two husbands almost exactly the same way would have driven most women in sane.  My mother was the strongest woman I ever knew.  She passed away in September 1998, the 30th anniversary of the Scorpion going down, another ironic fact but very fitting. Anyway that is the short version of my story.  Thank you for writing this book and revealing what my mother always knew in her heart.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story57").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftysevenOpen()\">Elizabeth Thumm<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Lisbon, OH</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story58").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Mike<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served in US submarines in the Pacific fleet from 1966 till 1970.  When we learned of the loss of the Scorpion, it was commonly assumed by everyone I knew in SUBPAC that she had been sunk by the Soviets. We were depth charged on two occasions by Soviet destroyers in the North Pacific, and once each by North Korean and Japanese Self Defense Force destroyers.<br><br>Contrary to the author's suggestions, the Skipjack class submarines were really not very stealthy, due to their very strong sound signature, associated with both the turbines and with the bull gear drive system, in addition to the screw noises.  I was a sonar technician, and believe me, most nuclear submarines, up until the revolutionary drive system tested in the Tullabee, were VERY noisy. <br><br>I served on a nuclear fast attack submarine for a short stint, then on a diesel attack submarine for the rest of my service.  The diesel boats, while we had to back out of our op areas periodically to charge batteries, were very effective at close in intelligence gathering missions, in fact, more so than most nuclear attack submarines. The boat I served on was used as a test bed for the newest sonar equipment, so we did a lot of Intel ops.<br><br>The author's connection between the Walker spy ring and the taking of the Pueblo is a very likely scenario, in my opinion.<br><br>By the way, as a matter of information, when the Pueblo was taken, there were two US submarines nearby, also working Intel ops near Wonson.  We watched the seizure of the Pueblo, and putting a torpedo into her was debated. The reason we were all near Wonson was that the Russian North Pacific fleet had been forced out of its primary port of Vladivostok by heavy sea ice that winter, and forced them south.  This offered a prime opportunity to gather intelligence on their Navy near Wonson. While we all knew that North Korea did some crazy things, we never really believed that they took the Pueblo on their own.<br><br>Thanks for the research, though there will never be clear proof of the attack on the Scorpion until or unless the Sonar Gram analysis records were to surface.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story58").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftyeightOpen()\">Mike<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USA</a></span>"; 
} 
function fiftynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story59").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Donald W. Vaughn<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Mobile, AL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just finished reading <i>Scorpion Down</i> and found it to be very well written and informative. I learned some things, including confirmation of my suspicion that the Soviets were involved in the Scorpion's sinking. I was a MM1(SS) stationed aboard the USS Barb SS(N) 596 out of Pearl when the sinking occurred. I was on patrol aboard the Barb when the Soviet K-129 loss occurred and believe we were the ones following the Soviet search task force. Until now, I was not aware the Soviets tried to ram the boat (if that was us).<br><br>I would like to thank Ed Offley for his diligence in researching and writing this book. It means a lot to me that the truth has finally been told. I think we all understand why a cover-up occurred, but it is time that the truth be known. I still carry a great sadness in my heart for the loss of my brother sailors aboard the Scorpion and the K-129, but was proud to have served with them in the Silent Service.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function fiftynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story59").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"fiftynineOpen()\">Stuart Glasby<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Mobile, AL</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story60").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Stuart Glasby<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>West Chester, PA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I thoroughly enjoyed reading your very revealing book. My only regret is that everything described actually happened.<br><br>I was assigned to the IOIC on the USS America CV-66 when it was announced on the 1-MC that the USS Pueblo was captured cancelling liberty for that part of the crew on the hangar deck going ashore at GITMO, which caused quite a stir. I accompanied a Marine detail with a M-60 to the bow of the flight deck while the USCGC Hamilton (WHEC-715) hastily fired up its turbines and raced ahead of us as a sacrificial act to clear the channel of possible mines as we ponderously accelerated behind.<br><br>Five months later we were on Yankee Station when the Scorpion went down and as you surmise little did we know the Soviets had started to \"read our mail.\"<br><br>No wonder we did not have a chance to win the conflict in Vietnam. Perhaps you can elaborate where else we had a weak hand and came up short due Walker's damage to our security.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtyClose() {
document.getElementById("story60").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyOpen()\">Stuart Glasby<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>West Chester, PA</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story61").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Clifford W. Phillips<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Waterville, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have just finished <i>Scorpion Down</i>.  Nowhere did I read that the President, the Commander-in-Chief, was ever notified of the facts.  Did the Admirals hide the information from and lie to the President?  Could these same circumstances happen again?</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story61").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyoneOpen()\">Clifford W. Phillips<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Waterville, WA</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story62").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Gary Davis<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Weeki Wachee, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was in the shipyard for overhaul of the USS Nathanael Greene in 1978 when I noticed a tattoo \"USS Scorpion\" on the forearm of one of the shipyard workers.  I asked him when he was a crew member of the Scorpion and he said \"When it went down\".  He told me that he missed the patrol because he got sick and was sent to the hospital.  I do believe his story.  So it would seem there was one surviving member of the crew.  I only wish I could remember his name.  He was an electrical test engineer at Newport News shipyard.  I wonder what they told him.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story62").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtytwoOpen()\">Gary Davis<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Weeki Wachee, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story63").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Timothy S. Pospisil, Son of EM3 Gerald S. Pospisil<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Columbus, NE:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I lost my father, EM3 Gerald S. Pospisil, on the USS Scorpion.  I was only 1.5 years old when he was lost, and the only memories I have of him are through pictures and stories from my mother and his friends.  Ed contacted me during his writing and asked me for any information I might have from my father’s letters and pictures, which I would be willing to share.  Due to other outside circumstances, I was unable to provide him with that data.  I regret that I was unable to provide this to him, as I would like as many people as possible to know about the heroism of my father and his crewmen. <br><br>I have read many books on the Scorpion, and done research on my own to help me determine what my father's fate really was.  While there are many \"conclusions,\” including the Navy's version, I have always believed deep down that the one presented in Mr. Offley's book was the most likely.<br><br>I wanted to personally thank Mr. Offley on behalf of my family, for bringing the true story to light.<br><br>While I don't always agree with what journalists write or say in today's media, it is investigative work like this that brings me back to the reality that journalists are doing their job to the best of their God given abilities.<br><br>Thanks again to the Perseus Books Group for having the courage to publish this book, and special thanks to Mr. Offley for his tireless pursuit of the truth about my father and his crewmen.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story63").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtythreeOpen()\">Timothy S. Pospisil, Son of EM3 Gerald S. Pospisil<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Columbus, NE</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story64").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">John Martinez, USN (SS) RET.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Liberty, UT:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Thanks for writing this story, in all probability, you may just be correct, as you see I was a submarine sailor in that time frame.  I retired as a Chief Petty officer and I am reading your book. Man believe me, my flashback of events and the scary events that took place under the ocean,  like out-running Russians torpedoes, counter measure release, spying on Russian missile launches, going \"ultra quite,\" the cold dame periods when ever thing was shut down and all fans off, etc.  But again the adventure of the only service at war with the Russians was and is still a reality.  I am looking forward to finishing the book, which I can’t seem to be able to put down. Every page of events is exciting and thrilling, in fact I find myself thinking ahead of events that happen to me and my crews aboard the “fast attack” subs I was on. ONCE A SUBMARINER ALWAYS A SUBMARINER; ONCE A CHIEF ALWAYS A CHIEF.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story64").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyfourOpen()\">John Martinez, USN (SS) RET.<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Liberty, UT</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story65").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Tom Davidson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Queen Creek, AZ:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was an Assistant CIC Officer on the USS Newport News (CA-148).  We returned from Viet Nam on May 3, 1967 and resumed duty as Flagship Atlantic Fleet.  When the Scorpion was reported missing, we were ordered to join the search, but that order was cancelled shortly thereafter when it was pointed out that the heavy cruiser had no sonar.<br><br>As far as I can remember, Com Second Fleet never physically joined the search, but remained embarked.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story65").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyfiveOpen()\">Tom Davidson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Queen Creek, AZ</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story66").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Patricia Gill<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Mesa, AZ:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Dear Mr. Offley,<br><br>Thank you for your research and informative book which finally gets to the truth.  I am the mother of FM Michael E. Dunn. That was such a tough time in our lives and was somewhat responsible for the breakup of our marriage. I did not go down to Norfolk to await his arrival but his girlfriend did. She said one of the \"higher ups\" had said that for us it was a personal tragedy but if the truth were known it would be a national tragedy. <br><br>Michael's last letter to us was strange, because he stated in the middle of the letter:<br><br>\"I can't tell you where I am but last night I shot a polar bear\"<br><br>Then a little later in the letter he says:<br><br>\"Last night I danced with a Hawaiian girl\"<br><br>And the last reference says:<br><br>\"The doc said I should have shot the girl and danced with the bear.\"<br><br>I mentioned this to the navy when they came to the house to inform us officially of the loss but they said he was just joking. However, I doubt it. My daughter and son in Minnesota have purchased your book and are currently reading it. My 2 sons here in AZ have also read it. Mike's dad, who was a navy man in World War 2, has my copy and will be reading it soon.<br><br>Yours truly, <br><br>Pat  </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story66").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtysixOpen()\">Patricia Gill<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Mesa, AZ</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story67").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Ken Darby<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Thompson, CT:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">When I was in Sub School in '75 an instructor told us of this story but it was the version your wife Karen heard where two high speed screws were recorded indicating self defense.  I enjoyed the book in the sense that it filled in the blanks for me.  Thank you.  May my fellow submariners rest in peace.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story67").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtysevenOpen()\">Ken Darby<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Thompson, CT</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story68").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Liz<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have to wonder about the accuracy of much of your book, as I know of at least one error that does not involve classified information and should have been easy to verify -- The David Lloyd Award for Excellence was created by the family of LCDR Lloyd, not by the Navy.<br><br>I fail to see what benefit there is -- other than financial gain for Mr. Offley -- in the publication of this book. While Mr. Offley believes what he has written, it is important to remember that it is THEORY, NOT FACT.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story68").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtyeightOpen()\">Liz<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function sixtynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story69").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Paul Hostetler<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Charlottesville, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Dear Mr. Offley<br><br>I just finished reading your latest book, <i>Scorpion Down</i>.<br><br>Thank you for that well researched and written account that includes, not only facts about Scorpion, but, so much more about the Submarine Force, in particular the nuclear part of it.<br><br>Scorpion has long been a bug in my crawl, since no one could seem to make a final determination of what happened.  I relieved YNCS(SS) William F. O'Neill, Jr., as the Leading Yeoman, Staff, Commander Submarine Squadron SIX (CSS6) on 14 June 1968.  When Scorpion was declared lost, the Squadron Secretary, LT Mel Jensen asked if I would volunteer some of my leave time to help with the increased workload generated as a result of that incident.  I complied with his request, helping out when or where needed.<br><br>Prior to that time, I was the leading Yeoman for Commander Submarine Division SIXTY-TWO (CSD 62) from 8 March 1965 to 15 September 1967.  Scorpion Shark, Ray, Skipjack, and Triton were assigned to that Division, with Triton being the Flag Ship for the Force Commander.  (Just a note about Triton, her Commanding Officer was a very senior Captain, in fact more senior than CSS6 - quite a problem since officers are very touchy feely about seniority).  In the conduction of administrative, operational readiness, and other inspections while riding available boats to maintain qualification for submarine pay, I became friendly with many of the crewmembers of all those submarines.  In Scorpion especially Wally Bishop, Leo Weinbeck, and Robert Cowan (Cowan served with me aboard USS Threadfin (SS410) in Key West, Florida).<br><br>You mentioned the speed and agility of Scorpion: no doubt the skipjack class was the fastest thing going under the ocean at that time. Shark was considered to be the fastest of all.  When one rode Shark for any length of time, you found out that you should carry some Dramamine and be prepared for a thrilling ride.  Her Commanding Officer, Command Robert \"Bob\" Kelsey, loved to give visitors a taste of \"Angles and Dangles\" as he called it.  He also boasted that sometime he was going to do a \"loop-de-loop\" with Shark.  I don't know if he every figured out how to secure all the loose gear as well as personnel when conducting such a maneuver.  Also don't know if he every accomplished this feat, but bet if anyone in the Navy could, it would be him - Totally fearless.  He died a few years ago; at that time I found out he lived near Charlottesville - if I had known I certainly would have looked him up.  In my opinion he was aces.<br><br>During my tenure with CSD62 and CSS6, I moonlighted as a bartender at the D & S Chief Petty Officers' Club (Open).  I also served in all chairs of the Advisory Committee at that club.  When Scorpion was lost you can imagine the rumors that spread at the club.  As bartender I heard them all; however, the most prevalent of the rumors was that a Russian submarine sank her. Some of the chiefs were very involved in the investigation of her loss. The CPO Club was located about a half block from the head of Pier 22.<br><br>Mr. Offley, I don't know if your book will ever make the best seller list, but if I had anything to do or say about it that would happen.<br><br>I am presently working on a short 40th year remembrance of Scorpion for the \"American Submariner\" and a local paper called \"The Hook\" (to be published in May or June of 08).  I am only quoting from the Court of Inquiry, newspaper clippings (some yours), and presenting photographs with a short bio of each crewmember.  I am not quoting anything from your book, but am urging readers, especially Navy personnel, to read your fine book.<br><br>The hardest thing about the loss of Scorpion and others for submariners is that we all thought we were invincible.  One final comment: my old boss CSD 62, Commander J. O. \"Bo\" Coppedge was fond of saying \"Submarining is Keen.\"<br><br>I am proud of the fact that I was able to serve as a part of the Submarine Force and completely agree with Commander Coppedge's comment.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function sixtynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story69").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"sixtynineOpen()\">Paul Hostetler<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Charlottesville, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story70").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">John Henze<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Portland, CT:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I went to high school with Ronnie Williams. He was a year older than me, but his brother David and I were good friends, and I knew him well enough to say \"hi\" in the halls of GHS. He died just about one month before David and I graduated. We all knew it was a terrible tragedy, but we never suspected the extent of the complicity that our government was involved.<br><br>Reading your book makes me so mad and I have to wonder why this isn't front page news on the <i>New York Times</i>, or the <i>Washington Post</i>. Time doesn't heal the lies. It makes them worse. Sure, at the time we were buried in the Vietnam War, and now we have our new \"Vietnam,\" but somebody should pay for this at the highest levels available.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventyClose() {
document.getElementById("story70").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyOpen()\">John Henze<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Portland, CT</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story71").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Dale C. Brecht<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Emporia, KS:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was aboard the USS Lapon SSN661 and during my first sea duty we were told to look for signs of USS Scorpion.<br><br>We had to stay on surface because if we submerged we might be mistaken for the Scorpion.<br><br>I remember there were rough seas and our call sign or Scorpion's was \"brandywine.\"</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story71").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyoneOpen()\">Dale C. Brecht<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Emporia, KS</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story72").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Lee Gilbert<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Somers Point, NJ:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have no direct story about the Scorpion other than I have always believed that Scorpion was sunk by the Russians. <br><br>I served 9 years in the Sub service, I got out in May, 1967.  When the Scorpion was reported missing, I had a bad feeling then.  Never would I had believed such a cover up by our military.  The more I read, the angrier I got.  I had served on the Seawolf and Alexander Hamilton, both who had crew members on the Scorpion. <br><br>Mr. Offley has written an excellent story and has really opened some eyes to the way our government thinks.  There was a typo error on page 60-Seawolf was SSN575.  Sailfish was 572. <br><br>Again, I would like to thank Mr. Offley for all his hard work.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story72").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventytwoOpen()\">Lee Gilbert<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Somers Point, NJ</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story73").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Wally E. Rickard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Cherokee, AL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was a crew member on the USS Scorpion from spring, 1964 until she went into the yards at Portsmouth in 1967. I was allowed to leave the Scorpion on a \"Hardship Transfer\" to NAS Memphis, which allowed me to be closer to my home, in Cherokee AL. I am very lucky to have been absent from the Scorpion because I am certain I would have been on the Scorpion during Her Loss.<br><br>I read your book and agree with your conclusion on the loss of the Scorpion. I’ve had this opinion for the last 40 years. All the stories that came out about the Scorpion loss were unbelievable to someone who was aboard.<br><br>I made 3 \“Northern Runs\" on the Scorpion from 1964 to 1966. I was Quartermaster-of-the-Watch when the Periscope Affair occurred. Sonarman Elrod was correct about what happen but was not correct about the details- I don't know if that part of the mission has been declassified so I will stop at further details for now.<br><br>I only wish I could have had a chance to talk to Mr. Offley as he was conducting research for his book. I could have added quite a few details.<br><br>I extend my heart to the families of the crew -- MY HEART GOES OUT TO YOU. I lost a lot of GOOD shipmates and friends. I would love to talk to Mr. Offley and thank him personally for writing the book -- AND FOR TELLING THE REAL STORY OF THE USS SCORPION SSN589.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story73").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventythreeOpen()\">Wally E. Rickard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Cherokee, AL</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story74").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Ron Koch<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fenton, MO:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was a yeoman on AFS-3 Niagara Falls and the secretary for the Communications Officer during Vietnam (1969-1971). A few years later all the confidential material that I carefully updated and secured in the Communications Office was visible to John Walker when he was stationed on the ship in the Communications shack.<br><br>It is amazing how extensive the damage caused by this one person is. Like many people I hate this guy with a passion. I just saw your presentation on CSPAN and plan to get your book.<br><br>I think all of your hard work on this is a wonderful tribute to the men who perished on the Scorpion.<br><br>Thank you.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story74").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyfourOpen()\">Ron Koch<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Fenton, MO</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story75").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Robert F. Comer, CAPT USN (Ret)<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Dobson, NC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I saw Mr. Offley's presentation on C-SPAN 2 Book TV, July 28. I haven't read the book yet but was interested in his statement that the SCORPION was related to the capture of USS PUEBLO. I was a member of the Navy\'s team led by VADM Bernard Roeder, COMFIRSTFLT. I believe he was chosen for the investigation because he was then most recently Director of Naval Intelligence. I was VADM Roeder's aide and flag lieutenant. I remember that the PUEBLO\'s code equipment was immediately sent to the Soviet Union but don\'t recall anything that connected the PUEBLO and SCORPION. I will read the book but would appreciate additional information regarding the connection.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story75").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyfiveOpen()\">Robert F. Comer, CAPT USN (Ret)<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Dobson, NC</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story76").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Jim<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Ed,<br><br>I was on an SSN in the Med and working in the Nav Div while the Scorpion (also in the Med) was \"showing the Flag\" in May 1968. As you know the Scorpion was not Sub Safe. On 17 May we were told to rendezvous with the Scorpion at the Gibraltar \"channel\". A Russian sub was heading in the Atlantic towards Gibraltar. Our instructions were if she turned into the Med we had to follow and tape her. If the Russians went past Gibraltar, Scorpion was to submerge and follow. You know the rest. The old man announced her loss on the 29th. We were about 600 miles from the US coast.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story76").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventysixOpen()\">Jim<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>USA</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story77").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Dave Ogilvie<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Dover, NH:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I watched your recent Norfolk book review this evening on CSPAN2. I won\'t agree with or dispute your assumptions without actually reading the book. But, having been around SSN\'S since the beginning I would wager a slice of cold Pizza that the ship shown on the Dust Cover is a Sturgeon (637 Class) hull and not a Skipjack (585 Class) hull. Are you aware of this??</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story77").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventysevenOpen()\">Dave Ogilvie<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Dover, NH</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story78").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Pedro Azzolini<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Concord, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Just a comment: When I read <i>Scorpion Down</i>, I thought of the scenario I saw in the motion picture, <i>Fail Safe</i>. If this was a Soviet retaliation after the sinking of K129, the US Navy covered it up because it was a tit-for-tat/eye for an eye situation. This is what Henry Fonda did in that movie: OK, we sank one of yours so would you like to sink one of ours in order to avoid WW III? Done! Coincidentally, both submarines had about the same number of men aboard.<br><br>Mr. Offley, did you ever entertain such a scenario?</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story78").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventyeightOpen()\">Pedro Azzolini<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Concord, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function seventynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story79").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Patrice Hartman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Regent, ND:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My brother, Steven L. Johnson, was a crew member of the Scorpion when it was lost. I have visited Daniel Rogers to discuss my brother and Daniel\'s experience with the Scorpion sub. I have a large collection of letters from my brother during his years in the Navy from 1964 until 1968. His wife is still living, as is his daughter- born in 1968. There are also 5 grandchildren. My mother and my siblings have always had many questions and felt there are unresolved issues. We all have very vivid memories of that time and the loss we felt.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function seventynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story79").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"seventynineOpen()\">Patrice Hartman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Regent, ND</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story80").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Ed Springer<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Moncks Corner, SC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just finished reading <i>Scorpion Down</i>. When I was a junior enlisted man in Norfolk, 1971, I was told about the Scorpion. It was common knowledge that she was playing cat and mouse with a Soviet submarine in the Med. The Soviets followed her into the Atlantic and, after a confrontation, sunk the Scorpion. I relayed that a few years later to a Senior Chief who was heavily involved in the cryptology community. His response was that I wasn’t supposed to know that. I doubt the full story will ever be revealed — at least not until we\'re all dead and gone.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightyClose() {
document.getElementById("story80").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyOpen()\">Ed Springer<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Moncks Corner, SC</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story81").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">James T. Johnson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Hattiesburg, MS:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just finished <i>Scorpion Down</i>. It was exciting because we sub families always knew she sunk the way you described it. I put her sister ship in command in 1961, Pascagoula, MS; the USS SNOOK SSN592. I rode her until 1964. While SCORPION operated we had our men operating off Russia.<br><br>We had our Southern District sub-vets X-Mas party in your town. We will be having our party this year in the same place — you and your wife are welcome to join us. If you can, I’ll talk to those setting up the party to invite you both. Let me know.<br><br>Smooth sailing.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function eightyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story81").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyoneOpen()\">James T. Johnson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Hattiesburg, MS</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story82").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Proud Old Salt<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Orlando, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was Enlisted and an Officer Vet of the U.S. Submarine Forces from the 1950\'s-1970\'s. I served on one Diesel Boat and three Boomers.<br><br>Your story about the Scorpion incident is pretty close but your SOSUS recording data falls short and your Torpedo interaction needs some cleaning up.<br><br>The cover-up prematurely and painfully ended my career.<br><br>The published Truth reassures my honesty, truth, and ethics. It also gives me back my honor, pride, and self-worth.<br><br>Thank You Ed. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story82").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightytwoOpen()\">Proud Old Salt<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Orlando, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story83").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">James A. McElligott<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>NYC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Dear Sirs:<br><br>I would like to contact Ed Offley, the author of <i>Scorpion Down</i>.<br><br>I am looking for information relative to the Compass Island Log entries made by the Quartermaster of the Watch from June 7-14 and June 16-21 (page 273). Was Mr. Offley able to get actual copies of those entries? If so, would it be possible to get copies of them or be given the information on how to obtain copies of the log?<br><br>At the time the Scorpion sank, I was temporarily assigned to the USS Compass Island EAG 153 as a Quartermaster of the Watch.<br><br>When the Scorpion went down, a member of the Compass Island crew informed me that one of the QM\'s on the Scorpion was QM 2 (SS) Julius Johnson from the Nathan Hale\'s Gold Crew. I didn\'t know PO Johnson because we had limited contact during the four day change of command when the Blue Crew took over operation of the boat from the Gold Crew.<br><br>Over the years I have often thought of PO Johnson when asked about my submarine service and especially when the conversation turned to the loss of the Scorpion. PO Johnson was my counterpart on the Gold Crew and I always thought that the situation could have been a lot different. God bless PO Johnson and the rest of the Scorpion\'s crew.<br><br>On a lighter note, the reason I would like the information concerning the Compass Island Log Entries in the book on page 273 is because I was turning 22 years old on June 21, and I had the mid watch on June 21, 1968. Before making the official midnight log entry I wrote out the entry on a separate piece of paper and then chose the letters that I wanted to use carefully for a special message within the log entry. I chose to use large letters to differentiate them from the rest of the entry and wished myself a Happy Birthday. I don\'t remember the entire message that I had written within the entry but it was a lengthy Happy Birthday.<br><br>When I was reading <i>Scorpion Down</i> and got to that section it brought back memories of what I had done 39 years ago. I also wondered if any of the researchers or Mr. Offley picked up the message within the entry.<br><br>I would really like to hear from Mr. Offley or anyone connected with the research or publisher who would have access to those log entries.<br><br>Keep an up bubble.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story83").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightythreeOpen()\">James A. McElligott<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>NYC</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story84").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">RB Hemming<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Claremont, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served aboard USS Greenlet (ASR-10) from June 1964 to August 1967.  We were the \"submarine rescue\" ship for SubRon 7 (Submarine Squadron 7).  Among our tasks was Prospective Commanding Officer (PCO) training for nukes & diesels.  We were the target and the PCO would try to hit us with a dummy torpedo.  In turn, we almost always illuminated the sub\'s periscope with our forward searchlight.<br><br>ASR (Auxiliary, Submarine Rescue Ship) carried about the same number crew as a sub— 98 officers and men.  When sub sailors got \"too short\" (close to the end of their tour,) they were detailed either to Greenlet or to our sister ship in Pearl Harbor, USS Coucal (ASR-8).  We often had Sonar Men from Subs on board. Many times there were Petty Officers, detailed to Second Division, designated strikers, or Seamen who passed the Sonarman Third Class test, waiting for a \"billet\". <br><br>I used to sit in the Ship Fitter\'s Shop amidships and listen to several Sonarmen tell \"sea stories\" about their tours on nukes or fast attack diesel subs in the Pacific, out of Pearl (Harbor Submarine Base). I heard two stories I’d like to share.<br><br>The first story was told by a Sonarman about how the sub encountered a Russian sub outside of Pearl, by the \"Russian Trawler\" that sat outside of Pearl, \"listening\".  The speculation was that there would be several Russian subs attached to the \"trawlers\" and they would be broken off by Russian HQ and sent to \"tail\" the US sub out of Pearl.  Sonar quickly detected the \"tail\" and went silently down, coming up behind the Soviet sub. The US sub got in the \"baffle\" (the dead area, funnel/cone shaped, that extends about one thousand yards or so after the Soviet sub\'s screw, centered on the hub of the screws.  The cavitations and wake noise of the Soviet sub\'s screws prevented the soviet sub from detecting a \"tail.\" The US Sub drivers (captains) were masters at this trick of the trade. The US Sub followed the Soviet Sub all the way across the Pacific and broke off near Hong Kong, when it lost track due to ships exiting Hong Kong Harbor. It was probably headed to Hanoi at the time. <br><br>The second story was more boisterous. In Greenlet we noted that a nuke fast attack sub had come into Pearl Sub Base late at night. The next morning, having duty all weekend, I went up on deck and saw 15 foot high screens erected around the berth just inboard of us on the Sub Piers, by the periscope shop.  There were armed guards, Marines with rifles surrounding the berth on the pier, and the entire area was restricted. No one could enter the area without a security badge.  This condition existed about a week.<br><br>Months later, the same Sonarman told us the story in the SF shop about that sub. It had been in the Barents Sea entering the White Sea and was engaged in an underwater cable tap. Years later, I found out that CIA/NSA had regularly sent in US subs to tap Soviet underwater cables. The sub had been on the bottom and had to surface in an emergency blow.  The sub had entangled its sailplanes with the Soviet cable. They were within a few thousand yards of the beach. The Soviet destroyer types spotted the blow and immediately fired up their engines and made preparations for getting underway, battle stations emergency. The Soviets came charging out of their berths and the crew began disentangling the Soviet cable— probably a protective device the Soviets put on the undersea cable the last time they found a tap-- no doubt informed by Walker the Traitor. One crewman lost an arm in the fiasco, the sub went to the bottom, and the Soviet Destroyers started depth charging the area. <br><br>The Soviets blew off the sail and the US sub had to seal off that area of the boat.  Eventually a US nuke SSBN that had been lurking out in the Barents Sea sailed on the surface and started opening its Missile Doors, starting its \"launch\" sequence. Apparently the Soviets got the message and went back into port, \"dragging their tails like whipped dogs\".  The sub without the sail went back across the Arctic Ocean on the surface, back to Pearl— escorted all the way. It could not submerge because the Periscope was gone.  There was no radio either. Eventually it got to Sub-Base at Pearl.  It apparently couldn’t go to Holy Loch or Rota Spain, because of the Soviet \"trawler\" surveillance presence there. It couldn’t go to New London or Norfolk either.  Pearl was the most secure place. It slipped into Pearl in the dead of night; some ship must have distracted the Soviet Trawlers or ran them off. <br><br>The last story is about the US Sub. I can\'t remember whether it was a diesel fast attack or a nuke that had a LOX (liquid oxygen fire) at Pearl Harbor Sub Base. The ship was taking on torpedoes and apparently there was a leak. The LOX hit some grease and there was a horrendous LOX fire.  The sub OOD had to sink the boat at the pier to put out the fire before the fresh load of torpedoes went up.  It carried nuke warhead torpedoes.<br><br>That class of boat had the torpedo storage amidships, not in the torpedo rooms probably because of the nuke warheads. Those of us at Pearl knew what happened but I have never documented the LOX fire since then. You have a lot more digging to do. You might want to join Classmates and look for shipmates in the Submarine Service.<br><br>Some of the ones that came aboard Greenlet were not happy campers; they were \"lifers\" who were getting out of the Navy. They were not happy about what they had seen and done.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story84").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyfourOpen()\">RB Hemming<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Claremont, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story85").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Wayne B. Land<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Maple Falls, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was a 3rd class radioman stationed aboard the USS PETREL ASR 14. We were dispatched from Charleston to the vicinity of the Azores where we participated in searching for the Scorpion. I logged what was thought at the time to be the last distress call from Brandywine (call sign of the Scorpion). I was also privy to the photos taken by the drone and developed on USS Mizar. When we arrived on station our ship did not have the correct charts for that area. I was in possession of an undersea map from National Geographic and it was seized by the captain. The initial search was plotted on my undersea map.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story85").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyfiveOpen()\">Wayne B. Land<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Maple Falls, WA</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story86").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Charles Petterson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Persia, IA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I would like to thank you for your tenacity in following this story for so many years. <br><br>In early December, 1967, RM1 (SS) Ray Denny transferred from the pre-com crew of Lapon to Scorpion, because \"Lapon will be gone ALL the time.\"  On May 26, 1968, EM1 (SS) Phil Beasley of the Lapon gathered the duty section electricians to inspect and prepare the shore power cables at the berth Scorpion was to occupy the following day. Beasley was a former Scorpion sailor and knew many of the crewmembers. Preparing the shore power cables for another boat\'s electricians was not required, nor assigned: it was an act of consideration for fellow submariners that would give the incoming crew\'s electricians the chance to see their families a few minutes sooner.<br><br>The loss of the Scorpion and subsequent surface searchers were the darkest days of my life. An outsider will never understand the sadness that engulfed Pier 22 during that period. The situation was personal for every sailor on every boat. You would be hard pressed to find a crewmember who did not know someone on the Scorpion.<br><br>Barbara Beasley met with one of the Scorpion wives while Lapon was on the search mission.  The wife hoped and believed that the Scorpion had been given a last minute secret mission and would show up in a month or so and the missing report was just a cover-up. (You see, the *notion* that the Navy *might* do such a thing as falsely report a boat missing was credible to some family members.)<br><br>There are facts missing from your book imperative to your theory which I realize may not be available. It is the lack of these facts that keep me from endorsing your book as the most probable way things happened. Having said that, I have no problem with the situation being buried and remaining buried forever.  To borrow from your quote of Trost to Hucthhausen, \"....since I am not a submariner I could never know the reasons behind the silence on the subject.\"<br><br>There is so much about Cold War submarine operations that is unknown, not just to the general public or nosey reporters, but even to some of the first hand participants.  That is the way it should be -- after all, it is the SILENT Service.<br><br>Chuck Petterson<br>Former MM1(SS)<br>Plankowner, SSN 661<br>President, USS Lapon Association</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story86").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightysixOpen()\">Charles Petterson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Persia, IA</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story87").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Tom Heerman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Salt Lake City, UT:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I don’t know if this is important but while attending South Seattle Community College I was in class with a man who had recently been in the US Navy.  He mentioned he’d transferred to the USS Narwhal shortly after the Scorpion was sunk. He also said his boat (Narwhal) received some kind of award before he transferred aboard. I believe it was a Presidential Citation for some event. Nobody would talk about it except for its link to the Scorpion incident. It\'s been about 30 years since he told me this but it has stuck in my memory as unusual.  If Mr. Offley reads this message I would be interested if he found any connection with the Scorpion and retaliation of some kind by the Narwhal.<br><br>Thanks,<br>Tom Heerman</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story87").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightysevenOpen()\">Tom Heerman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Salt Lake City, UT</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story88").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Joe Hawksworth<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Clovis, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Sorry that I have no experience about the Scorpion but I just finished your book!!! I lost three nights sleep but it was well worth it. My only question is about Robert Ballad. You briefly mentioned that he took some photos. Did those pictures end up under the Navy’s tight security also? Please tell me if you have written any other books.  Great story and it was told dang near perfectly!!!<br><br>Thanks for all your efforts!!!</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story88").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightyeightOpen()\">Joe Hawksworth<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Clovis, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function eightynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story89").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Donald Summers<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Statesville, NC:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">May 27, 1968 CBS Evening News with Harry Reasoner . . .<br><br>\"The Navy reports that the submarine Scorpion is overdue at Norfolk, VA\"<br><br>I will remember that news report until my days finish on this earth. My youngest brother YN3 Richard N. Summers was onboard the Scorpion when the Soviets sank it.<br><br>Thanks John Walker, you miserable KGB mole. That traitor should be hanged until dead. You and your son have no right to still be living on my tax dollars. I hope you spend your spiritual lives in Hell forever.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function eightynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story89").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"eightynineOpen()\">Donald Summers<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Statesville, NC</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story90").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Curtis V. Rodriguez<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Jose, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Dear Mr. Offley,<br><br>I enjoyed your great book. It was really quite sobering. It tells the truth about how these men lost their lives in combat. They should be honored for that. Their families should have been told. <br><br>I picked up your book after hearing a part of your interview on KSFO one morning. Having no naval background, it struck me as curious that patrol aircraft surveillance of the Soviet Navy ships in the Canary Islands area were curtailed from May 19 to 21 (page 400). If you are tracking Soviet vessels that may be under U.S. submarine surveillance, is that a common practice?  What would a reason be for curtailing surveillance?  If it was not a common practice, there are still so many possible reasons for doing so.  Many imaginable scenarios range from the mundane (procedures justifiable for certain conditions) to the insane (we\'ll look the other way and see if you can take down one of our subs. But we know that you can\'t).<br><br>Thank you for this fascinating book. Some advice I gleaned from your book, \"Stay off any Soviet vessel with a 1 and 9 on it\" (K-19, K129, K219, those niner subs are killers).<br><br>Respectfully,<br>Curtis V. Rodriguez</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetyClose() {
document.getElementById("story90").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyOpen()\">Curtis V. Rodriguez<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Jose, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story91").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">J. Wallace Kelley<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Tallahassee, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">As a hospital corpsman at the Naval Station Branch Clinic in Charleston SC in 1982, I heard two of the SSBN corpsman discussing the Scorpion sinking.  At that time I had never heard of the Scorpion.  They agreed that she was sunk by a Soviet submarine.  I have closely followed the Scorpion story and mystery since that time.  Mr. Offley's book seems to confirm the conversation I overheard in 1982.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story91").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyoneOpen()\">J. Wallace Kelley<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Tallahassee, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story92").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">James Hart<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Palm Bay, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was onboard the USS Ozark MCS-2 from November 1965 to Sept 1968, when I was discharged. I was a plank owner and was an ETR3 on the nucleus crew prior to commissioning. <br /><br />I was rather shocked when we were chosen to go look for the Scorpion in June of 1968. I was wondering when a book revealing what really happened would be written. <br /><br />I have always wondered why we wasted our time covering up the truth. I always thought the word \"truth\" in our Constitution meant something. <br /><br />Thanks for writing the book. I enjoyed it.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />James E. Hart<br />Palm Bay, FL</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story92").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetytwoOpen()\">James Hart<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Palm Bay, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story93").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Louis P. Llorca<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Lindenhurst, IL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Mr. Slattery was my DIVO on the USS TUNNY (SSG 282) 1957-1959.  I still have his signature on my qual card.  I've read the book and am certainly glad that someone finally took the time and effort to put it all together because I was told by a 1C PO visiting the reserve center in Chicago that the Scorpion had been torpedoed by a Russian sub shortly after the event. BRAVO ZULU.<br />FAIR WINDS AND FOLLOWING SEAS.<br /><br />Regards,<br />Louis P. Llorca, ETCS (SS,CC), USNR RET</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story93").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetythreeOpen()\">Louis P. Llorca<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Lindenhurst, IL</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story94").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Richard Oliver<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Westchester, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served aboard Redfish 395 and Blackfin 322 from 1948 through 1952. During the three-plus years in Yokosuka, Japan we made four 90-day patrols around Sakhalin Island and Vladivostok.  It wasn't until I read <i>Scorpion Down</i> that I really understood what we were doing there.<br /><br />One night we followed a small pack of very small submarines from the Straits of Sakhalin to just a mile or so off Vladivostok.  A Russian destroyer detected us when we were too shallow to dive.  We were at battle stations when luckily the destroyer disappeared.  We were immediately ordered to return to Yokuska where our skipper was replaced upon arrival. We never saw him again. As an Engineman 3rd on diesel boats, had I not read your book I would still believe what we were told: that we were monitoring Russian commercial shipping through the Straits of Sakhalin--the only unfrozen route to the Pacific Ocean.  Thank you for a great read and a believable explanation for 4 years of my life.<br /><br/>Sincerely,<br/>Richard Oliver</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story94").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyfourOpen()\">Richard Oliver<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Westchester, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetyfiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story95").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">M.D. Chaiser<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Valrico, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Hello Ed, <br />I read your book and it was magnificent. I totally agree that the Soviets sank the Scorpion, but I do have something to add that alters how I see it happening.<br /><br />I spent nearly 14 years in the Navy all in ASW. I know how to read the LGR (Lofar Gram Recorder) paper recordings and was aware of the tape depicting the death of the Scorpion and her crew.<br /><br />The more I think about it the more it doesn’t add up. I talked to two old sub buddies, and they think something is not right either. I do think that Scorpion was sunk during an encounter with the Echo, but I now think it was an ACCIDENT.  It all fits, and here’s why.<br /><br />The Scorpion was doing harassment surveillance on the Echo; that’s essentially standard operating procedure for our boats. As the book says there were \"crazy Ivans\" and stop and be quiet stuff--all normal stuff. The book seems to believe from the \"not seen by too many eyes\" wreckage that a torpedo was fired that struck in the vicinity of the control room, that the SOSUS tape says there was and explosion that blackened the paper, and that there was only one set of blade counts. That could only happen if the fish hit the sub in the propulsion system directly, and that part of the sub was imploded, not hit by a fish. In addition, the conning tower wreckage shows the diving planes in a dive angle not a rise angle. Both my guys said that the Scorpion would have \"bolted\" for the surface upon hearing a fish in the water. They both said that US subs have the tubes loaded all the time, so why was there no return fire? There was certainly time to do so. The answer is actually simple. The Soviet rammed the US boat, probably by accident.<br /><br />It explains the dive planes, it explains the Echo under repairs under the tarp, and it explains no return fire.<br /><br />The SOSUS tape has to be a fake. The structural damage assessment of the Scorpion showed the propulsion section blasted the thrust bulkhead into the next compartment forward; this occurred about 91 seconds after the first explosive event. The Scorpion’s propulsion was still active until that time, yet the SOSUS tape shows no blade counts after the big bang.  Doesn’t quite add up, does it?<br /><br />Structural analysis on sunken wrecks can be very accurate, and there would be no reason to fake that part. But faking a LGR signal is easy, and there would be a lot of reasons to do that.  They should have waited until they got the wreck site report before faking the tape. Woops.<br /><br />Now it all fits. Now it all makes sense.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyfiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetyfiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story95").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyfiveOpen()\">M.D. Chaiser<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Valrico, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetysixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story96").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Ross McRonald, MD<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Boynton Beach, FL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Ed,<br /><br />I read your book.  Very interesting and a great job.  <br /><br />I was the medical officer on SSBN 643 Bancroft (Blue) when the Scorpion went down.  Sandy Levey, the CO, was very concerned.  The next day or so--can't exactly remember--we got a message from Norfolk telling us that a Whiskey or Echo class with a crushed sail was tracking through our area.  We were around the Artic circle near Norway.  A day or so later we heard it coming by.  I remember sitting on the sonar stacks as she passed us.<br /><br />Of course we all speculated that it had something to do with the Scorpion.  <br /><br />About five months later the Bancroft was sent to home port in Charleston and COMSUBLANT and his entourage rode us for three days of sea trials.  He briefed us on the incident--can't remember much but he bristled when asked about the Soviet with the crushed sail. I do remember his emphatic denial that it had anything to do with the Scorpion.<br /><br />Not much, but I thought you might be interested.<br /><br />Keep up the great work.<br /><br />Ross McRonald</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetysixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetysixClose() {
document.getElementById("story96").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetysixOpen()\">Ross McRonald, MD<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Boynton Beach, FL</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetysevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story97").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Ron MacInnes<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sunnyvale, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I remember when I heard about the Scorpion. I was in Qui Nhon, South Vietnam. I just got off guard duty, about 1:00 am, and visited the shithouse before heading off to my barracks for a few hours of sleep. Picked up a copy of the <i>Stars and Stripes</i> newspaper and immediately went to the back page. There was a story about the missing sub. The first words I noticed were Broomall, PA, the town next to my hometown of Newtown Square. Then I noticed a name I recognized, Bob Violetti, my older brother John's best friend at Marple-Newtown High School. They shared an apartment before joining the military. John and Bob wrote each other but my brother didn't keep any of Bob's letters. He does remember getting a letter from Bob shortly after the sub was declared missing. Bob talked about Russian ships in the area, but wasn't concerned they would be a problem. <br /><br />I kept the <i>Stars and Stripes</i> article and another written a few days later. I'm sure you have both but if you don't I would be glad to send a copy. <br /><br />I read your book and enjoyed it. My Mom is reading it now because she was obviously a friend of Bob’s too. John will be visiting us this summer and he's looking forward to reading the real story of what happened to his best friend.<br /><br />Ron</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetysevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetysevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story97").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetysevenOpen()\">Ron MacInnes<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sunnyvale, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetyeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story98").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Craig S. Batson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Spring, TX:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I just finished reading your book and I couldn't put it down.  You convinced me that the story I was told on my first deployment on the USS Brownson DD868 was true.<br /><br />During my first unrep in the after engine room, I was standing generator watch when the MM1 in charge told us young sailors the story of the Scorpion.  This was September 1969.  He said he'd been on a Boomer (George Washington?) and had heard the Russians had sunk the Scorpion.  It sounded like an old wives’ tale told to impress young sailors.<br /><br />When I saw your paperback it brought back the memories of that night. I now have no doubt that your story is true. The question now is why is it still classified?  What can possibly be gained by hiding the truth?<br /><br />Thanks again for the 30-plus years you spent bringing out the truth.<br /><br />Craig Batson EM-3</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetyeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story98").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetyeightOpen()\">Craig S. Batson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Spring, TX</a></span>"; 
} 
function ninetynineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story99").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Joe Bailey<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Atlanta, GA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">My brother, Michael J. Bailey, was on the Scorpion when it sank. He was a radioman 1st class and supposedly he sent the last radio message. It was his 21st birthday. <br /><br />My mother always swore by the story of the Russians sinking the sub because she had dreamt it. <br /><br />My uncle, Donald Nault, was on the Thresher when it sank, also on his birthday--his 31st. <br /><br />Needless to say, Momma wouldn’t let me join the Submariners...</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetynineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function ninetynineClose() {
document.getElementById("story99").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"ninetynineOpen()\">Joe Bailey<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Atlanta, GA</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneooOpen() {
document.getElementById("story100").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Paul Duke<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Tehachapi, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Mr. Offley,<br /><br />Great book and story.  I have a question--during the 1986 survey of the wreck site how many pictures did Dr. Ballard and his crew take?  I have seen the ones on the Naval Historical Sites--he obviously had JASON the tethered robot on hand to get close to the fwd bay where the rescue buoy is.  Did he take any pictures inside the fwd and aft hull sections?  It would be interesting to see them. I would think Ballard would have taken hundreds of pictures of the entire site, since he was under US Navy command (Reserve) at the time.<br /><br />Thanks and good day,<br />Paul</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneooClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneooClose() {
document.getElementById("story100").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneooOpen()\">Paul Duke<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Tehachapi, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneooneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story101").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">William Hilow<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Francisco, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Amazing book. Even while stationed in Groton in 1979 there was never word of a Soviet card. This is a great read. Better than my X-Box 360. Brother, that’s saying lots!</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneooneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneooneClose() {
document.getElementById("story101").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneooneOpen()\">William Hilow<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>San Francisco, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneooClose() {
document.getElementById("story100").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneooOpen()\">Paul Duke<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Tehachapi, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneotwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story102").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Wilbur Walk<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Spring, TX:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I recently asked the Altoona Mirror in Altoona, PA to do an article on the 40th anniversary to recognize a high school classmate, Robert \"Bobby\" Watson, who served and died upon the Scorpion.<br /><br />Your book and another entitled <i>All Hands Down</i> have somehow all of these years later engulfed me with this story and the horrible cover-up.<br /><br />Because we were typically seated in class in alphabetical order, I literally spent first grade to our senior year sitting beside, in front of, or behind Bobby Watson.  We both graduated from Tyrone Area High School, Class of 1964.  It is not a big town, and everybody knew everybody else.<br /><br />Do you know if the government has ever provided updates to the families about what you have discovered in your research?  I suspect the answer is probably no!<br /><br />How do you know or learn when certain government documents have been declassified and released for public knowledge? Is there anything that anyone else can do to some day have the truth revealed?<br /><br />I know that Bobby Watson was on my mind when I was separated from active duty from the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on June 5, 1968, about two weeks after he was separated from duty aboard the USS Scorpion. He is still on my mind because of your book, and I thank you for that. We were not close friends, but we were friends and I hope someday the truth will be known.<br /><br />Thank you for reviving this for me.<br /><br />Will Walk</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneotwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneotwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story102").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneotwoOpen()\">Wilbur Walk<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Spring, TX</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneothreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story103").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Stephen Ischay<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Chardon, OH:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">To the Author:<br /><br />I just finished reading <i>Scorpion Down</i> and wanted to share with you what a great read I found the book to be.  I will be sure to urge my submariner friends to read this book as most of us were led to believe the U.S. Navy account of the USS Scorpion's demise (hot run in the torpedo room) as we passed through Basic Enlisted Submarine School and ultimately life on a submarine.<br /><br />The Navy is steeped in traditions, many of which are considered hazing these days, and the pinning of the Dolphins is one that submariners take extreme pride in--followed closely by \"tacking\" them on, and in some cases (mine included) \"drinking\" them.  Your recount of COB Bishop's son being pinned with his father's Dolphins brought me close to tears.  I have been out of the Navy for over 10 years now, but I still closely relate to my time served and proudly display my Dolphins on a license plate frame.  I was given the Dolphins of a friend when I qualified in submarines, and should the day come that one of his sons qualifies in submarines I will see to it that he is pinned with his father's Dolphins.<br /><br />What I found most interesting about the book was how applicable it was to my time served in the mid and late 90's.  The Cold War was, and I am sure still is, very much intact during my service.  I served on a Trident out of Sub Base Bangor (I had friends on the Alaska at the time of your wife's visit and was stationed at Sub Base Bangor at the same time) and found myself in the throws of the Cold War as we left for sea early one patrol.  We had removed all indications of hull identity several days before we left port, were instructed not to wear our command ball caps, escorted out to sea by a fast attack and a spec ops boat, and formally briefed by the CO regarding an Akula class sub lurking in the waters of the Puget Sound once we were submerged.  <br /><br />Luckily I was young and naive about the situation or I would probably have been very concerned about the events that preceded us going to sea.  Not very often are orders given to bang on the bilge walls of a submarine with wrenches and hammers.  Interestingly enough I heard plenty of rumors about the mission of the spec op boat and events that took place escorting us to sea.<br /><br />Thank you again for a great read about an event that touches every submariner's life.  It would be great to think that one day in our lifetime we might realize the confirmed events that took the USS Scorpion to Eternal Patrol.<br /><br />Very respectfully,<br />Stephen P. Ischay<br />USN ET3(SS)<br /></p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneothreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function oneothreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story103").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneothreeOpen()\">Stephen Ischay<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Chardon, OH</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneofourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story104").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Tom Hill<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Los Alamos, NM:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Absolutely fascinating read. It makes a pretty convincing case for a Soviet sinking of the Scorpion. A lot of the evidence for the case comes from (not-so) \"common\" USN sailors who were carrying out the work and knew to some degree what was going on. I guess I'm a bit surprised that there was not more evidence from the Soviet Navy brought forth by some of their \"common\" sailors that were involved on their side.<br /><br />No connection w/ Scorpion other than one summer spent at Mare Island working on several of the boats in 1963 (Snook, Boone, Jackson, Kamahamea).</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneofourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneofourClose() {
document.getElementById("story104").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneofourOpen()\">Tom Hill<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Los Alamos, NM</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneofiveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story105").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Michael Robins<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>St. Joseph, MO:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">While I do not have a story, I just completed the book and found it quite good.  In fact, I used examples from the book in one of my classes.<br /><br />I do wish Mr. Offley would write a book concerning the US program of spying on the USSR and what happened to those who were captured or killed.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneofiveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneofiveClose() {
document.getElementById("story105").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneofiveOpen()\">Michael Robins<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>St. Joseph, MO</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneosixOpen() {
document.getElementById("story106").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Arnold Fishman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Skokie, IL:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Ed,<br /><br />Fantastic bit of research and tenacity to connect the dots over such a long time. Great book. I wanted to echo one of the letters about the \"Fail Safe\" scenario. The Scorpion sinking is the same scenario and with the same number of men on board...something stinks here. This sounds terrible, but it is totally conceivable that those who pull the strings intentionally sent the sub into harm’s way knowing what was waiting for it. We have unfortunately had too many examples of the military covering up the truth in order to save face.  It also has strong resemblance to the 1965 Cold War movie <i>Bedford Incident</i>. Great job and keep up the good research.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneosixClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneosixClose() {
document.getElementById("story106").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneosixOpen()\">Arnold Fishman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Skokie, IL</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneosevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story107").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Pete Stingley<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Reedsport, OR:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served aboard the USS George Washington SSBN 598 which was supposed to be the original Scorpion until the idea arose to convert the Skipjack boat into a “boomer.” The next ship on the ways was renamed Scorpion and eventually launched as the 589.<br /><br />While reading Ed Offley's book recently, I noticed one glaring mistake. The USS Shasta AE-33 could not have possibly been involved in the search for the Scorpion. It was not laid down until 1969 and not launched until 1971. I also served aboard that ship prior to entering nuclear power school at Mare Island, CA in 1972.<br /><br />While at sub damage control school in Pearl Harbor in 1974, I overheard a Senior Chief remark to a group of students that it was \"well known\" that a Soviet boat was in the area when the Scorpion went down. He heard I was reporting to the Washington and mentioned the Scorpion/Washington connection along with the odd comment that it was unlucky to rename a boat--an old maritime suspicion.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneosevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneosevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story107").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneosevenOpen()\">Pete Stingley<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Reedsport, OR</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneoeightOpen() {
document.getElementById("story108").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Peter Lorenz<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Coronado, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was on the 603. We were out of Charleston, SC at the time. We knew the story then. It's about time somebody finally told it.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneoeightClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneoeightClose() {
document.getElementById("story108").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneoeightOpen()\">Peter Lorenz<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Coronado, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneonineOpen() {
document.getElementById("story109").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Timothy Rieman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Little Falls, NY:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I am a veteran (160th SOAG 1983-88). I recently joined an American Legion Post in my hometown and was told part of the story of the Scorpion from a crewman who was on the Compass Island during the incident. I believe he was an electronics tech. He recalled being on deck to work on an antennae and seeing the Soviet jets \"buzzing\" the Compass Island. <br /><br />I can't wait to read the book.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneonineClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneonineClose() {
document.getElementById("story109").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneonineOpen()\">Timothy Rieman<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Little Falls, NY</a></span>"; 
} 
function onetenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story110").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Bob Ingersoll<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Chestertown, MD:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">In 1968, I was serving as an ADJ 3 with VP-10 in Bermuda. In May or early June I was sent on a three-plane (P-3) detachment to the Azores, where we were flying sub-tracking duty on Russian subs coming down from the North Sea and out of the Med across the Atlantic. We were one of the early squadrons searching for a “missing sub,” at least that is what we were told as I don't think we (the enlisted crews) were given any hint of the sub's name.  We received the Meritorious Unit Commendation for our work in that search, and though we were awarded the medal and a note in our service records permitting us to wear it, to my knowledge we were never given a certificate describing any of the events surrounding its award. <br /><br />It was not until months later that we found out that the sub was the Scorpion, and that our crews had been instrumental in locating the wreckage. <br /><br />In the intervening years I have come to distrust both the DoD and the Navy’s reporting of events in areas where I had specific knowledge that what they reported was not truthful. Now I'm not even sure that we were anything other than just along for the search. Is there any existing documentation of Patrol Squadron 10 even joining in the search, or are only surface ships mentioned?<br /><br />Bob Ingersoll,<br />VP-10, 1967-71</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onetenClose() {
document.getElementById("story110").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetenOpen()\">Bob Ingersoll<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Chestertown, MD</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneelevenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story111").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Frank Torres<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Poulsbo, WA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served on board USS Chivo SS341 when we went to search for the Scorpion.  We also had a skeleton crew, and the trip to the Azores was pure hell as the weather was very rough and we were on port and starboard watches. As watch standers in the forward torpedo room, we had to sit in the watertight door opening to stay out of the way of the bodies flying by. We stopped at the Azores to refuel and take on stores.  Mercifully, the trip back to Charleston was very smooth; the seas had calmed down to almost flat.<br /><br />I was a good friend of Bill Elrod, having had him and his wife Julie at my home.  I was also a good friend of TM1 Yarbrough. I believe he was on board Skipjack, and was shanghied to the Scorpion, for the Med cruise.  He always told me how much he hated the nukes. We were both diesel boat sailors, through and through. Having served on nine diesels and three nuke fast attacks during my 30-year career in the submarine force, it's sad to realize that when push comes to shove, our own government would hang us out to dry when we sacrificed so much for our country.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneelevenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneelevenClose() {
document.getElementById("story111").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneelevenOpen()\">Frank Torres<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Poulsbo, WA</a></span>"; 
} 
function onetwelveOpen() {
document.getElementById("story112").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">William D. Stovall<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sumner, GA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">When the Scorpion went down I was aboard the USS Holland AS32 assigned to a Special Unit. I knew that she was lost due to a Russian sub. I had Top Secret Clearance, upgraded from Secret. I had come from COMSUBFLOTTWO after I left F. S. KEY SSBN 657 Blue (Plank Owner).</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwelveClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onetwelveClose() {
document.getElementById("story112").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwelveOpen()\">William D. Stovall<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Sumner, GA  </a></span>"; 
} 
function onethirteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story113").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Christopher J. Pauli<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Brookline, MA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">What a crock of SHIT!<br/>Right down there with The Da Vinci Code!<br />For a dollar to upset the families of these great Cold War heroes, a pox upon your house and all who live in it!<br /><br />Christopher J Pauli / USS Nautilus - A Gang and shipmate of Captain Slatery!</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onethirteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onethirteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story113").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onethirteenOpen()\">Christopher J. Pauli<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Brookline, MA</a></span>"; 
} 
function onefourteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story114").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Richard Singer<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Howard, CO:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Ed,<br /><br />Your book <i>Scorpion Down</i> really upset me while I was reading it. When I finished I came to the conclusion that if the book was correct, rather than starting WW-III, the sacrifice of the 99 men may be worth the loss.<br /><br />I decided to get the book Silent Steel by Stephen Johnson and compare it to your book. According to Johnson, the Scorpion was a disaster waiting to happen. The shipyard periods for the Scorpion were cut short and the SUBSAFE certification was not implemented. Numerous problems on the submarine materialized after sailing from the shipyard period in 1967: massive hydraulic leaks, communication problems with the antenna coupler and antennas, etc. <br /><br />I sailed on Merchant Marine tanker ships for the better part of 18 years and I spent two and a half years on the Glomar Explorer and two years U.S. Navy 1959~1961. I can tell you if the skipper of any of these tankers had problems to be seaworthy they would not have left the dock.<br /><br />My deepest thoughts are with those 99 men aboard the Scorpion, as well as with the Soviet K129 with her 98 men on Eternal Patrol.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onefourteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onefourteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story114").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onefourteenOpen()\">Richard Singer<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Howard, CO</a></span>"; 
} 
function onefifteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story115").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Eric Edwards<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Cape May, NJ:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I served 12 years in the Royal Navy, the last seven and a half in the Submarine Service aboard diesel electric boats from 1959 to 1967.  I remember my boat AENEAS exercising with the Scorpion off of Portland, UK in a subs-to-subs exercise in the early sixties. The Scorpion, from what I remember, was a very noisy boat and easy for us to pick up on sonar. <br /><br />The book's timeline of events and heretofore unknown disclosures by the author certainly make a strong case for his argument that the Soviets sank her. I served on a RN boat that did a mystery tour (that’s what we called our Russian Coast ventures) and can attest to the fact that things used to get quite testy with the Soviet Navy.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onefifteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onefifteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story115").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onefifteenOpen()\">Eric Edwards<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Cape May, NJ</a></span>"; 
} 
function onesixteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story116").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">David R. Gillingham, CDR (MC) USNR (Ret.)<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Palm Desert, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was the medical officer aboard USS Thomas A. Edison (SSBN 610) (1965-66) and was never aware of being followed leaving port from Holy Loch.  Did Mr. Offley ever attempt to contact any crew member of the Soviet sub that sank the Scorpion?<br /><br />Terrific book - many thanks.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onesixteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onesixteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story116").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onesixteenOpen()\">David R. Gillingham, CDR (MC) USNR (Ret.)<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Palm Desert, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneseventeenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story117").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Kirk Wyss<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Morristown, TN:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">This is secondhand stuff...<br /><br />I was a freshman at Georgia Tech about 1961 when I roomed briefly with a former reactor operator (MM1 or EM1) named George. I can't even remember his last name, but he had served on the SSBN George Washington and then on the Scorpion under Beesac. He had many a tale of games Beesac would play with US ASW units (don't recall any Russian stories). When Beesac visited the Tech NROTC unit he and George went out for dinner. George became part of the Tech reactor program about 62-63, I believe, since he was a rare certified operator.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneseventeenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneseventeenClose() {
document.getElementById("story117").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneseventeenOpen()\">Kirk Wyss<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Morristown, TN</a></span>"; 
} 
function oneeighteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story118").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Karl K. Eriksen<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Cottage Grove, MN:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I have not purchased the book yet, but I will! <br /><br />I served aboard the USS Sarsfield DD-837 as a radioman when the ship was called upon to help in the search for the submarine.  The USS Sarsfield was an anti-submarine destroyer and had the latest in sonar technology at that time.  <br /><br />When I looked through the book today, I noticed my ship was listed and then wondered if you had contacted anyone from my ship concerning the search. There is a USS Sarsfield Association-- a group of guys who served aboard the USS Sarsfield(contact Emory at theretiredman@comcast.net for a list of people who may also have been there with me on that fruitless search). There may be others on the ship that might have more knowledge about our operation.<br /><br />My interest in the sub?  I joined the Navy to be on submarines, but was turned down since I wore glasses, which was a requirement that was later done away with.  Bummer!  <br /><br />I received five more books on submarines as 2007 Christmas presents if that tells you anything about me.  </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneeighteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function oneeighteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story118").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"oneeighteenOpen()\">Karl K. Eriksen<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Cottage Grove, MN</a></span>"; 
} 
function onenineteenOpen() {
document.getElementById("story119").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">John Michalak<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Chardon, OH:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was on a North Atlantic patrol aboard the George Washington (SSBN 598 Gold Crew) at the time the announcement that the Scorpion was missing was given over the 1MC. The incident has haunted me to this day because when the announcement was made I was on watch in the Lower Level Machinery Space sitting in front on the Steam Generator Feed Station Control Panel. My eyes immediately focused on a brass tag attached to a lower corner of the panel and what do you think it read? USS SCORPION (SSN 589).<br /><br />I was surprised that you did not mention that the George Washington was the original Scorpion. We still had many weeks to go on our patrol, and needless to say it was excruciating for all onboard. There were a number of other pieces of equipment that bore the Scorpion's tags which made it difficult to go on watch. In addition, many of the crew members knew fellow submariners who went down with the Scorpion. Personally, I had trained at the S1C facility at Windsor Locks, Conn. in 1965 and knew the Chief Engineer at the time, Bill Harwi. After the loss of the Scorpion, I completed an additional 4 patrols aboard the Washington that were always haunting to me.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onenineteenClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onenineteenClose() {
document.getElementById("story119").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onenineteenOpen()\">John Michalak<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Chardon, OH</a></span>"; 
} 
function onetwentyOpen() {
document.getElementById("story120").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Walter Thompson, CSM retired Army<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Conway, AR:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was a master Sergeant in Army-guided missiles at the time we were raised from green alert to yellow alert. We were not told why we stayed on yellow for about 2 weeks then were back down to green; this must have been the time the cover-up was planned. All we knew at the time was that a submarine was lost or destroyed at sea. </p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentyClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onetwentyClose() {
document.getElementById("story120").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentyOpen()\">Walter Thompson, CSM retired Army<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Conway, AR</a></span>"; 
} 
function onetwentyoneOpen() {
document.getElementById("story121").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Darl Anderson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Virginia Beach, VA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Excellent book-—it is the most accurate account I have ever read. When the Scorpion went down, I was living next to Capt. Earnie Chuilli who at that time was COMPHIBRON6. He was the commandant of PHIBRON6, a group of amphibious ships that had just completed a MED cruise. His squadron was exiting the MED en route to Norfolk along with the Scorpion and a boomer when they realized they were being shadowed by an Echo2. The Scorpion was ordered to divert the Echo2 so the boomer could go out patrol without a shadow. The Scorpion was to rejoin the squadron after its mission and then to proceed independently to Norfolk.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentyoneClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onetwentyoneClose() {
document.getElementById("story121").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentyoneOpen()\">Darl Anderson<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Virginia Beach, VA</a></span>"; 
} 
function onetwentytwoOpen() {
document.getElementById("story122").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Charles T. Smith, CAPT, SC, USN (Ret.)<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Eureka, CA:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Dear Mr. Offley,<br /><br />I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your book and the very interesting way you connected a lot of dots that heretofore had not been related.  One question however: you did not delve into the collision damage on the USS Swordfish(SSN-579). Was it a dead end?  It would seem that if it did collide with the K-129, it further cement the retribution action of the Soviets.<br /><br />As a related matter not having anything to do with the Scorpion, Jerry Whitworth was the leading communications Chief on the USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3), when I was Supply Officer - 1977-79.<br /><br />Great book and thanks.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentytwoClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onetwentytwoClose() {
document.getElementById("story122").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentytwoOpen()\">Charles T. Smith, CAPT, SC, USN (Ret.)<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Eureka, CA</a></span>"; 
} 
function onetwentythreeOpen() {
document.getElementById("story123").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Barbara Quinnell<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>New Milford, CT:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">Mr. Offley,<br /><br />Your book was very interesting.<br /><br />I grew up in Cape Canaveral, adjacent to Port Canaveral, where nuclear subs docked frequently (on the Gov't side of the port).<br /><br />One day sometime in the winter of 1967-68 (unsure of exact date), the Scorpion docked on the public side of the port and allowed local residents to tour the sub. I have a photo of the sub showing its number, 589, that I would be happy to share with you.  I remember my feelings of sadness when I heard of its sinking, as we assumed many of the sailors we had met on our tour went down with the sub. Looking back on this, it seems odd to me that they allowed us to tour this nuclear attack sub.  Your thoughts???<br /><br />Also, until I read your book it never occurred to me that all those polaris subs (James Madison, etc.) that visited the port were probably being followed by Soviet subs!! Thanks.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br />Barbara (Burk) Quinnell</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentythreeClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
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function onetwentythreeClose() {
document.getElementById("story123").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentythreeOpen()\">Barbara Quinnell<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>New Milford, CT</a></span>"; 
}
function onetwentyfourOpen() {
document.getElementById("story124").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\">Dave Vennard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Morristown, NJ:</span><p class=\"bodytext\">I was OPS Officer on the USS Skill MSO 471 and we did indeed, along with USS Sagacity, search for the Scorpion.  We searched for approximately 1.5 days and discovered a lot of debris.  At the time the Captain said it was nothing, but it contained much more than food garbage like shower togs, bits of clothing etc.<br /><br />As an interesting side note, I had lunch on the Scorpion in Naples harbor before she set sail.</p><table width=\"100%\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\"><tr><td align=\"left\"><hr width=\"460\" align=\"left\"></td><td align=\"center\"><span class=\"bodytext\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentyfourClose()\">[ x ] close</a></span></td></tr></table>"; 
} 
function onetwentyfourClose() {
document.getElementById("story124").innerHTML="<span class=\"stories\"><a href=\"#\" onMouseDown=\"onetwentyfourOpen()\">Dave Vennard<font color=\"#666666\"> | </font>Morristown, NJ</a></span>"; 
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