U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire on Thursday told family members of the sailors killed in the deadliest submarine disaster in the nation’s history that they did not die in vain and their sacrifice will be memorialized.
Shaheen delivered the keynote address at the dedication of a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery honoring the crew about the USS Thresher. U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire said the monument will serve as a lasting tribute.
Built at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, the first-in-class Thresher was the world’s most advanced fast attack submarine when it was commissioned. But a malfunction during a deep-sea drive off Cape Cod on April 10, 1963, claimed the lives of all 129 aboard.
A 129-foot flagpole memorial in Kittery also pays tribute to the sailors.
“The loss of these men and their shipmates inspired the creation and implementation of the most comprehensive naval submarine safety program in the world, the Submarine Safety and Quality Assurance Program,” Shaheen said in prepared remarks. She said the program “has helped ensure that Navy crews are able to operate with maximum protection. … Submariners are safer because of the sacrifices made by the men on the Thresher.”
The stone marker will be on a walkway that runs between the cemetery’s welcome center and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Memorial.
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