Thresher Documents ordered released

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Navy to begin releasing unclassified documents in relation to the USS Thresher, the nuclear submarine that imploded 57 years ago, taking the lives of 129, and forever changing submarine safety.

It was the country's worst nuclear submarine disaster in history when Thresher (SSN-593) did not surface while conducting deep dive exercises 220 miles off Cape Cod on April 10, 1963. The vessel imploded, and its shattered hull remains more than 8,000 feet underwater today.

Thresher was built and commissioned at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1961. Approximately two dozen families of the men lost aboard the submarine still live in New Hampshire, and a number of other families reside in Maine.

The 129 deaths sent shock waves through the Seacoast community, and left families without husbands, fathers, sons and brothers. It also catalyzed modern day submarine safety, which today takes the form of the SUBSAFE program. Since the program's inception, just one submarine has been lost, the USS Scorpion in 1968.

Last July, retired Navy Capt. James Bryant, a former Thresher-class submarine commander who served 23 years on active duty, sued the Navy for release of the investigative documents. On Feb. 10, U.S. District Court Judge Trevor McFadden ordered the Navy to begin reviewing 300 pages of documents per month starting in April, with rolling productions of the documents to begin before May 15, every 60 days.