April 10, 1963 -“Experiencing minor difficulty. Have positive up angle. Attempting to blow.”

“Experiencing minor difficulty. Have positive up angle. Attempting to blow.”

I wasn’t quite nine years old when the USS Thresher went down for its final dive on April 10, 1963.

I am sure I remember the news but I am also sure the significance of the tragedy did not reach all the way inside of my boyhood psyche.

That would not come until I went to submarine school in January 1973 and learned much more about the event and its aftermath. Being in New London at the submarine base, you can almost feel the ghosts of all those who perished in submarines. I would feel it again when I went on my first dive on the USS George Washington later that year.

A shipmate of mine reminded me today that the anniversary is coming up tomorrow. I went back into the archives on the Library of Congress site and read…