Scorpion Down: Sunk by the Soviets, Buried by the Pentagon: The Untold Story of the USS Scorpion

Overview

One Navy admiral called it "one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era." To this day, the U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident. For decades, the real story of the disaster has eluded journalists, historians, and the family members of the lost crew. But a small handful of Navy and government officials knew the truth from the very beginning: The sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion and its crew of 99 men on May 22, 1968, was an act of war. In this major work of historical reporting, Ed Offley reveals that the sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion has never been a mystery, but rather a secret buried by the U.S. government in a frantic attempt to keep the Cold War from turning into a hot war. The Soviets had torpedoed the Scorpion in reprisal for the destruction of the Soviet missile sub K-129, which the Americans had sunk in the Pacific just ten weeks earlier. But why does the U.S. Navy continue to hide the real story of what happened on that fateful day in 1968? In Scorpion Down, military reporter Ed Offley tells the true story of the U.S.S. Scorpion for the first time and dramatically recounts a little-known episode that nearly brought about World War III. And he conclusively demonstrates that the Navy's official account of the Scorpion incident-from the frantic open-ocean hunt for the wreckage to a court of inquiry's final conclusions-is nothing more than a carefully constructed series of lies.

Editorial Reviews

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.
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Author Information

Bio of Edward Offley

Edward Offley has been a military reporting specialist for newspapers and online publications since 1981, including The Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Virginia, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Stripes.com and DefenseWatch magazine. He is currently Military Reporter for The News Herald in Panama City, Florida. A graduate of the University of Virginia, Offley served in the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. He lives in Panama City Beach, Florida.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Basic Books

Filesize

7.60 MB

Number of Pages

480

eBook ISBN

9780465008841