Scorpion Down

The sinking of the nuclear submarine USS SCORPION in 1968, and the death of all 99 crewmen, was for years regarded as a strange and tragic mystery. Now military reporter Offley reveals that there never was a mystery--just a cover-up in the classic style. On that fateful day, the Cold War threatened to escalate, and the American people have been kept in the dark until now. The avuncular-sounding Richard Ferrone guides us along a journey of discovery as Offley painfully navigates through decades of hints and rumors, false leads and doublespeak. Truly, in SCORPION DOWN the demands of the dead to be heard and remembered are answered with dignity and respect. B.D.J. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine

April 30, 2007
The U.S.S. Scorpion SSN 589, a 99-man fast attack submarine, sank 400 miles southwest of the Azores on May 22, 1968, a time during the Cold War when the Soviet Navy was expanding and becoming more aggressive. The Navy's top secret court of inquiry, however, theorized that the Scorpion was sunk by its own hot-running torpedo, not an enemy vessel. In this thorough post-mortem, military beat reporter Offley challenges the Navy's official report-including details like when the wreckage was found and what the sub's mission had been-with a succinct charge: "It was all a lie." Offley believes the Scorpion was sunk by the Soviets, in retaliation for the loss of one of their subs two months prior. Using the U.S.S. Pueblo incident of January, 1968, in which key cryptography gear was lost, Offley connects the dots between the Navy, the John Walker spy ring, and Soviet intelligence to conclude that the Russians had access to all of the Navy's most secret communications, allowing them to ambush the Scorpion. Most of Offley's argument, while compelling, is based solely on interviews with former Navy personnel, and a lack of factual evidence weakens it. Still, this well-told narrative history holds much appeal for naval historians and conspiracy buffs.

Starred review from September 15, 2007
On May 22, 1968, the Skipjack-class fast attack nuclear submarine "USS Scorpion" sank 12,000 feet to the abyssal plain of the Atlantic Ocean, a few hundred miles south of the Azores. "Scorpion" had been engaged in secret operations against the Soviets for nearly a decade. Military historian and journalist Offley, at the time a newspaperman in Norfolk, VA, interviewed various family members and naval officers and wrote several articles about the tragedy. A number of aspects of the event intrigued Offley, and he kept a close eye on the oddly sparse accounts that appeared over a period of years. The intricacies of the search-and-rescue operationlater search aloneare nicely detailed. For much of the later text, the author analyzes all the proposed causes for the sinkingpoor maintenance, the detonation of one of "Scorpion"s own torpedoes either inside or outside the boat, a malfunction of the rather large batteries on board leading to a minor explosion that breached the hull, or a blunder that caused the "Scorpion" to exceed crush depth (between 1000 and 2000 feet). For various reasons, Offley dismisses all of them and argues convincingly that Cold War tensions led to the deliberate sinking by the Soviets and that both the Soviets and Washington hushed it up. Richard Ferrone is a terrific reader; his gravelly voice fairly crackles with intensity throughout, injecting a cant-put-it-down element into this very well-written text. A first-class audiobook; highly recommended.Don Wismer, Cary Memorial Lib., Wayne, ME

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