Posted on 07/02/2019 9:30:41 AM PDT by AdmSmith
Wild guess on my part.
“Anyone remember the Russian nuke sub lost around 1968? US satellites picked up the sinking of it, known only to the US Military.”
It was triangulation of underwater listening devices not satellite data.
My cousin wrote a book about the incident “A Matter of Risk”.
Great read if you can find it.
Maybe the small talk just has to revolve around subs. In the fam, we had a nuc sub commander - didn't know him much, but did attend the change of command ceremony. Visitors were on the dock, and the ceremony was on sub top, facing the visitors. ALL the food was made in the sub kitchen, including a huge cake for dessert.
Back to the topic of small talk, prior to this command, there was a LOT of prior works to step "up the ladder", including working on 1 and 2 man subs. He was interested in talking about that stuff (in a non-specific way).
“The Navy guy was a true salty dog who tried to sell me Submarine duty. I could not imagine doing that work in those conditions. Drowning is a nightmare.”
Apart from incidents in shallow water like what happened on the Kursk, it’s the implosion that kills you not a drowning.
Thresher was a little different...that was deep water, and it was an implosion that killed all the crew.
It is what came to my mind, though.
That was a very sad day. I was stationed on the USS Jallao (SS-368) in New London when the USS Thresher (SSN-593) went down.
Nuclear powered versus nuclear armed me thinks. Not to say it couldn’t lay a SADM if needed . A spy boat, long range, minimum 14 mouths to feed per se....... can sit silent for months and monitor comms, coming and going traffic etc . My SWAG on the matter.
The control rods were automatically inserted by the emergency SCRAM system, but the reactor temperature rose uncontrollably. Decay heat from fission products produced during normal operation eventually heated the reactor to 800 °C (1,470 °F).
Making a drastic decision, Zateyev ordered the engineering section to fabricate a new coolant system by cutting off an air vent valve and welding a water-supplying pipe into it. This required the men to work in high radiation for extended periods. The accident released radioactive steam containing fission products that were drawn into the ship’s ventilation system and spread to other compartments of the ship. The jury-rigged cooling water system successfully reduced the temperature in the reactor.[1]
The incident irradiated the entire crew, most of the ship, and some of the ballistic missiles on board. All seven members of the engineering crew and their divisional officer died of radiation exposure within the next month. Fifteen more sailors died within the next two years.[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-19
I was a little kid living at the Naval base in Newport, RI, and I remember it.
Sad day indeed.
I am of the opinion that it is hard to feel anything but sympathy for a submarine that is dragged down to crush depth.
I understand I would feel quite differently had I been in the Merchant Marine in the North Atlantic in WWII...
And thanks for serving, blam...
K-129
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_K-129_(1960)
That is frigging horrible. Poor bastards...
Yes.
Is this why Pence got recalled? Apparently there is mass confusion and panic at the Kremlin?
Two Russian warships sailed into Norwegian Sea ahead of NATO drills
The corvettes from Russia’s Baltic Fleet trained antisubmarine warfare as a major NATO flotilla was preparing to hold an exercise in the area.
https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2019/07/two-russian-warships-sailed-norwegian-sea-ahead-nato-drills
Using a rough estimate from the picture on https://news.usni.org/2019/07/02/14-sailors-die-on-secretive-russian-nuclear-submarine it appears that it is a little less than twice the length of Rickover’s NR-1. Too bad it got trashed. Victim of someone’s “Peace Dividend”.
Sank while trying to launch a nuke. Lots of mystery around that incident!
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