[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5061-5062]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE USS ``THRESHER'' DISASTER

  (Ms. SHEA-PORTER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. SHEA-PORTER. This week marks the 50th anniversary of a terrible 
submarine disaster. The USS Thresher, the first in a new class of subs 
designed to answer the Soviet threat in the Cold War, left the world's 
greatest shipyard, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, to conduct sea trials 
on April 10, 1963. Disaster struck, and America lost 129 of its finest 
men that day.
  I honor these men who are on eternal patrol, and I honor their 
families, their wives and their children, some of whom never met their 
dads. Their sacrifices did lead to a sub safety program.
  One of the surviving children wrote a song about his dad, and he 
said, ``A

[[Page 5062]]

man whose love is stronger than the tide that's taken you away.''
  Let's pause and remember these great men and their families.

                          ____________________