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Scorpion
Down, Ed Offley,
Basic Books, 2007
Review
by Tom
Tankersley
Most
Americans today have
never heard of the
U.S.S. Scorpion (SSN
590); but to a very
small part of the
population –
submariners of the
U.S. Navy who served
during the Cold War
– the Scorpion has
been a source of
rumor and mystery
for almost forty
years.
American
nuclear submarines
don’t just
disappear, but for
many people that’s
what happened to the
Scorpion.
On
Monday, May 27th,
(Memorial Day) 1968
wives, children,
girlfriends, and
shipmates stood on a
windswept, rainy
pier at Norfolk
Naval Station
waiting for the
Scorpion to arrive
from a four month
Mediterranean
cruise.
What they
didn’t know was
the Scorpion and her
crew would never
arrive.
No
explanation would be
forthcoming from the
Navy, then or now.
The
author makes a
plausible case that
the Soviets
(that’s Soviet
Union, U.S.S.R. for
those whose history
begins post-1990)
sank the Scorpion in
the eastern
Atlantic, southwest
of the Azores on May
22nd, 1968.
The author
connects the seizure
of the U.S.S. Pueblo
(an intelligence
surveillance ship)
by the North Koreans
on January 23rd,
1968 and the Walker
family spy network,
with the Soviets’
ability to find,
track, and sink the
Scorpion in May,
1968.
There
were numerous
incidents in which
real lives were lost
to very real combat
during the Cold War.
As a former
crew member of a
sister-ship to the
Scorpion, the U.S.S.
Sculpin (SSN 590), I
find the author’s
case compelling and
convincing.
Neither
government has
anything to gain by
disclosing all that
is known about the
loss of the
Scorpion, so we will
probably never get
full disclosure.
Mr. Offley
has invested many
years of research
toward getting an
answer, and I
believe he has found
enough evidence for
us to know why the
Scorpion never came
home.
To
more fully
appreciate how the
Soviets were
suddenly able to
find and track the
Scorpion read
Breaking the Ring,
by John Barron.
Barron gives
a full accounting of
the Walker family
spy network.
The Walkers
sold out their
country and their
shipmates for a
handful of cash.
No parole
board should ever
consider the Walker
case without meeting
with family members
of the Scorpion’s
crew – or at least
with an old Cold War
submariner or two…
Read both
books, in either
order, to learn
about real heroes
and real traitors.
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Our
book review
guidelines
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by Hind's
Community
College.
Lorelei
Books would
like to
extend our
thanks to Peggy
Brent,
District
Chairperson
of English
and Modern
Foreign
Language, as
well as to the
staff of The
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their many
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