Book Description
On the morning of April 10, 1963, the world's most advanced submarine was on a test dive off the New England coast when she sent a message to a support ship a thousand feet above her on the surface: experiencing minor problem . . . have positive angle . . . attempting to blow . . . Then came the sounds of air under pressure and a garbled message: . . . test depth . . . Last came the eerie sounds that experienced navy men knew from World War II: the sounds of a submarine breaking up and compartments collapsing.When she first went to sea in April of 1961, the U.S. nuclear submarine Thresher was the most advanced submarine at sea, built specifically to hunt and kill Soviet submarines. In The Death of the USS Thresher, renowned naval and intelligence consultant Norman Polmar recounts the dramatic circumstances surrounding her implosion, which killed all 129 men on board, in history's first loss of a nuclear submarine. This revised edition of Polmar's 1964 classic is based on interviews with the Thresher's first command officer, other submarine officers, and the designers of the submarine. Polmar provides recently declassified information about the submarine, and relates the loss to subsequent U.S. and Soviet nuclear submarine sinkings, as well as to the escape and rescue systems developed by the Navy in the aftermath of the disaster. The Death of the USS Thresher is a must-read for the legions of fans who enjoyed the late Peter Maas's New York Times best-seller The Terrible Hours.
Customer Reviews:
Death of USS Thresher.......2006-11-07
I would recommend this book for anyone interested in submarines. My husband is a retired submariner and loved the book.
GOOD, BUT FLAWED, OVERVIEW.......2006-03-14
This is a short overview of the disaster from a leading expert in submarine operations. The chief question, of course, was the cause of the sinking. The board of inquiry at the time and subsequent discussions have identified this as probably a failure of a silver-brazed pipe, leading to the ingress of a stream of water (high pressure at this depth) and consequent
electrical damage. The latter in turn led to reactor shutdown; with loss of propulsion, the submarine began to sink.
Attempts to blow the ballast tanks then failed because drop in temperature of released compressed air froze and clogged strainers in this system. The book mentions this scenario (although not the fact that only a fraction of the connections were inspected after the Thresher's nine-month overhaul); however, the author choses to emphasize the lengthy time required for restarting the reactor - no wonder Rickover was incensed by this account. The last two or three chapters have frequent typos and misstatements - for example, Russian subs of the last fifteen years are referred to as "Soviet."
As others have pointed out, the Navy did not follow through on its planned safety measures. But just doing the fundamentals in design and maintenance right would be significant.
The description of the exploration of the sea bed and the debris from the Thresher by the bathyscaphe Trieste (which has reached depths of up to 35,000 feet) was a worthy inclusion and a revelation to this layman.
The Thresher crew and family deserve better than this.......2006-02-03
The crew and family of the Thresher deserve a better book than this. Unfortunately there are few books that discuss the Thresher disaster, so that makes this important reading. The book tends to be repetitive with a few glaring mistakes. Most of what happened to the Thresher is classified. Those looking for answers to what truly happened will leave only half fullfilled.
Polmar toes the party line........2006-01-11
The sinking of the USS Thresher with 129 aboard in 1963 sent the Navy into a fit of paranoia and secrecy from which it's never recovered. The Court of Inquiry degenerated into a circus of buck-passing, double-speak, and anything even remotely controversial was immediately labeled "classified information." To this day, no one knows what caused the loss of the Navy's newest, most competent submarine, but subsequent investigations all but proved that she went to sea with hundreds of substandard pipe joints in the engineering spaces, one of which probably burst, triggering the disaster.
Of the two books dealing with the Thresher sinking (the other being John Bentley's "The Thresher Disaster"), Polmar's book is the calmer and less opinionated of the two, but it is also unsatisfying. Polmar toes the Navy party line for the most part, only suggesting that the sinking might have been hastened by an inadvertent reactor shutdown due to flooding from a burst seawater pipe (a conclusion that so enraged Admiral Rickover that he vowed never to have anything to do with Polmar again.)
Polmar simply lays out the timeline of Thresher's career, her last cruise, and the subsequent inquiry. He glosses over the laundry list of discrepencies that were uncovered during Thresher's workup before she sailed, and of the buck-passing and blame-shifting that occured during the inquiry.
The recent publication of Stephen Johnson's "Silent Steel", focusing on the subsequent Scorpion disaster highlights this book's real fault -- at no time do we get a picture of the human beings who were aboard Thresher as she sank to her doom. We see brief glimpses of Captain Dean Axene, Thresher's first CO, and of John Harvey, who was in command on her last dive. But they're pesented as black-and-white individuals, and of the crew we see even less.
Scandalously missing from this "revised" edition is any conversation with Lt. Raymond McCoole, reactor controls officer, who missed Thresher's final voyage through a stroke of fate. McCoole probably knew more about Thresher's fatal flaws than anyone (and he revealed some of them to author Bentley.)
One wonders how much Polmar was pressured to keep this work "sanitized" to avoid Navy embarassment. Or perhaps he simply wanted to avoid alienating his contacts. Either way, it's only half the story. Bentley's work is overwrought and comes to some dubious conclusions, but the Navy's culpability in the sinking is laid bare. Not so with Polmar's work, which, though informative, is ultimately a disappointment.
Amazon.com
Little is known--and less has been published--about American submarine espionage during the Cold War. These submerged sentinels silently monitored the Soviet Union's harbors, shadowed its subs, watched its missile tests, eavesdropped on its conversations, and even retrieved top-secret debris from the bottom of the sea. In an engaging mix of first-rate journalism and historical narrative, Sherry Sontag, Christopher Drew, and Annette Lawrence Drew describe what went on.
"Most of the stories in Blind Man's Bluff have never been told publicly," they write, "and none have ever been told in this level of detail." Among their revelations is the most complete accounting to date of the 1968 disappearance of the U.S.S. Scorpion; the story of how the Navy located a live hydrogen bomb lost by the Air Force; and a plot by the CIA and Howard Hughes to steal a Soviet sub. The most interesting chapter reveals how an American sub secretly tapped Soviet communications cables beneath the waves. Blind Man's Bluff is a compelling book about the courage, ingenuity, and patriotism of America's underwater spies. --John J. Miller
Book Description
The dramatic history of America's highly clandestine, dangerous, and sometimes deadly submarine espionage missions is a real-life Hunt for Red October.
Customer Reviews:
Blind Man's Bluff.......2007-10-02
I worked alongside the members of the submarine service and can testify that their deeds were harrowing, critical to national security, and seldom appreciated. I applaud the authors (despite a little downplaying of the true nature of the HORSE COW Bar in Vallejo, California) for their tenacity in digging out the truth, their wisdom in choosing to leave out some interesting stories they doubtless heard, and their honesty in portraying the whispered role of the "silent service". My heartfelt thanks to all concerned!
G. L. Spears
Finally the Silent Service has a voice.......2007-08-15
I ordered "Blind Man's Bluff" because of a friends reccomendation. I retired from the Navy in 1992 and during my active duty time, I served on three submarines. This book brought back many memories and emotions. I want to thank Sherry Sontag for telling our story. As I read the book, I felt like I was back on my boat. I began to remember some of my deployments and my shipmates. The times at sea, the boredom and the panic. I would reccommend this book to anyone who has an intrest in submarines or submariners. I especially reccommend this book to the families of submarine crews. Finally you get a picture into our lives on the boats. For years, I could not tell my family what I did, now they can read for themselves. Please read this book and get to know some of the heros of the Silent Service.
Finally!.......2007-08-08
After years of not being allowed to tell friends or familty about what we did on submarines, this book lays out some of the missions. Now I can tell my family "Just read the book."
Well Researched and Written.......2007-06-12
As a former submariner, I have mixed feelings about this book. I am still not convinced it should be publicly available, but the book is well-researched and written.
I particularly like that there is none of the Tom Clancy hype - no supermen here - just ordinary guys doing their jobs under difficult and dangerous conditions.
The authors portray more 2nd guessing among the crew than I ever personally encountered. "Is it worth it?" is a useless question when you are doing what is necessary. Now that the first Cold War is over, I think it is easy to forget that the outcome (the West winning) was neither obvious or inevitable. I am convinced that it is only because of sacrifices like the ones portrayed in this book that we enjoy the security that we do (yes, we are much safer today, war on terror and all, than we ever were in the 50's - mid 80's)
Parts of the book were illuminating to me. I've had friends who served on all the subs discussed, but submariners don't discuss these things even amongst ourselves. The description of being stuck in the mud on the bottom of a Russian harbor is riveting and perhaps the most frightening thing I have ever read. Submarine disasters usually happen in an instant, but the really nasty ones take hours and days and maybe even weeks...
So, as I mentioned, I don't know that the book should have been written. I personally applaud the men who turned the authors over to the NIS. But, now that it has apparently been cleared for publication, I highly recommend it.
Blind Man's Bluff (Book Review).......2007-06-06
Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sherry Sontag & Cristopher Drew
The book is basically about submarine espionage undertaken by the United States Navy during the Cold War. I initially thought it had a relatively boring topic, after all, what is so exciting about submarines undertaking espionage missions, which I initially thought just involved listening or gathering signal data?
But I bought it anyway, because I felt it should be well-written since it was a New York Times bestseller. So no matter how boring the topic may be, it should still be good read, because the authors know how to spin a good yarn.
Well, it turned out I was wrong about submarine espionage being boring. Yes, they do gather signal intelligence, basically listening for signals in the USSR, most of time during weapons launch, & following other subs.
The story was written so well you learn a LOT about soviet subs, underwater sea technology, etc.
Aside from signal intelligence, the USN subs also undertook even more daring missions: Tapping Soviet submarine cables (which is probably one of the best intelligence coups ever), & retrieving submarine & missile parts from the depths of the ocean.
If you are interested in military naval topics, then this book is a M-U-S-T read. You learn just SO much about submarine military technology in general just by reading it.
Book Highlights:
- Stories of the first signal intelligence gathering missions into the USSR.
- How American submarine commanders had to develop new tactics & procedures on tailing the then newer, more stealthier & more capable nuclear ballistic missile submarines of the Yankee-class.
- Secret programs to develop unmanned deep sea submersibles to locate Soviet missiles that splashed down to the sea during live-fire testing, & located sunk Soviet missile submarines.
- Additional & more accurate details on the recovery of an Echo-class submarine that sunk in the Pacific by the CIA using the "Glomar Explorer".
- How the program to tap Soviet undersea telephone line cables got underway, & resulted in perhaps one of the best intelligence coups of all time.
- Details on submarine disasters all throughout the Cold War.
Book Description
Red Wassenich, who coined of the phrase "Keep Austin Weird," is tour guide to the weirder side of Austin, Texas, through this endlessly entertaining text and over 180 color photos of colorful places, people, and doings in the state's capital city. Tour the Cathedral of Junk, a three-story, sixty-ton behemoth made with hubcaps, TVs, and over 700 bicycles. Meet Leslie, the cross-dressing, semi-homeless perennial mayoral candidate. Party at the Spamarama, Austin's premier weird cook-off, known for its Spam-filled dishes from "gourmet" and "insane" recipes. Keep your eyes peeled for cruising art cars or take a Segway tour of downtown. Shop in South 1st Street's weird businesses, including Roadhouse Relics and Unemployed Democrats. Sports fans must see Austin's Roller Derby, starring the Texas Rollergirls, and bowl at the Dart Bowl, where bowling kitsch is king. For the adventurous, there is no better guide to Austin!
Customer Reviews:
An essential guide........2007-04-24
If you're new to Austin, thinking about visiting, or even if you've lived there for a while and are interested in what all the "Keep Austin Weird" fuss is about, this is an essential guide, and a lavishly illustrated one. If you're looking for a synopsis and photographs about the weird/unique things of Austin- you'll find it here- from the Annual Spamarama to eccentric political candidates to the Texas Chili Parlor to Satan's Cheerleaders. To my knowledge, this is the only book on Austin of its kind, and so is an essential resource for those who are thinking about visiting the city or native Austinites who want to learn more about it.
Book Description
Nineteen poems by William Meredith comprise the first signature of this unique journal. The balance of this elegant book are alternating blank and lined pages for recording your own inspirational drawings and writings. Two books in one, an inspiring poetry book by an award-winning poet and a private journal. The Navy subjects and themes resonate with many Americans who have served or are currently deployed.
Book Description
An intensive Buddhist practice for purification and the accumulation of positive energy.
Customer Reviews:
Purify!.......2000-05-24
I have experienced a Nyung Na fasting retreat using this book. It was GRUELLING, and afterwards I felt FANTASTIC! The prayers and prostrations along with the fasting is a beautiful ritual that softens the heart. Buddhist ritual all has a subtle purpose and effect on the mind, this one is no exception. This retreat leaves a person feeling cleansed.
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Bull Threshers and Bindlestiffs: Harvesting and Threshing on the North American Plains
Thomas D. Isern
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0700604685 |
Book Description
Bull Threshers and Bindlestiffs is a panorama on a continental canvas: the Great Plains of North America, stretching from Texas to Alberta. Onto this surface the author lays the large features of regional practice in the harvesting and threshing of wheat during the days before the combined harvester--harvesting with binder and header, threshing with bull thresher and steam engine. Into the picture he places the key figures who accomplished the task of gathering the grain--the farm men and women, the custom threshermen, and the bindlestiffs, or itinerant laborers. Affectionately he sketches the small details of folklife that comprised the everyday work and culture of the wheat belt--building shocks, loading racks, constructing stacks, pitching bundles into the separator, hauling water to the engine, drinking deep from the crockery water jug.
Bull Threshers and Bindlestiffs is a profusely illustrated study of a complex, vigorous regional culture concerned with the production of wheat--a culture that centered around the annual harvest and declined with the advent of the combine. This is an examination of the interaction of culture, environment, and technology with import for the fields of agricultural history and regional history. More than that, with its grassroots research, its descriptions of tools and customs, and its lavish illustrations, it is a re-creation of a proud phase of regional life previously captured only in yellowed albumen photographs.
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Threshers at Work
Hans Halberstadt
Manufacturer: Motorbooks International
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ASIN: 0760301336 |
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