The Navy’s newest nuclear submarine, the Thresher Tonight on New Hampshire Crossroads, we go to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and attend the 30th anniversary service commemorating the atomic submarine USS Thresher.

And then we go to a school where the kids are playing post office.

Well, actually, this is more serious than just play.

Hi, I'm Fritz Wetherbee, and this is New Hampshire Crossroads.

Theme Music New Hampshire Crossroads is underwritten in part by First NH Bank, serving the financial needs of individuals, corporations, and local governments throughout New Hampshire.

Clarion Somerset Hotel and Apartments of Nashua, New Hampshire, where we make living fun.

And Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire for over 50 years dedicated to providing quality health benefit protection programs for employers, employees, and individuals.

Today we're in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in Albacore Park, the home of the USS Albacore submarine.

Now, the Albacore was always a test boat.

That is, it was a boat that tested weapons systems and electronic systems, steering systems, guidance systems.

The sailors that served aboard this boat were always, in effect, test pilots.

And people who come here always say the same thing.

They always say, gee, I learned a lot today as well as having a lot of fun.

If you get some time in the summer, I'd urge you to get by.

Because if you haven't been to see the Albacore, you have a real treat in store for you.

They're open seven days a week.

We're also here at the Albacore because our first story on Crossroads is also about a submarine, a submarine that was also built over at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and a submarine that, if anything, is better known than the Albacore.

Although this boat will never, can never, be put on display.

This is the story of the USS Thresher.

Music Looking back on it now, over a distance of 30 years, it seems to have been an omen, a precursor of what was about to happen to America itself.

It was the spring of 1963.

In the spring of 1963, America was on top of the world.

We were still doing the twist.

Elvis had gotten out of the Army, and a kid named Peter Best was drummer with a group called The Beatles in Liverpool.

In Berlin, President Kennedy had said, Ich bin ein Berliner.

In South America, he and Jackie had been mobbed with flowers.

That winter, we had stared at the Russians over Cuba and the Russians blinked.

And in 1963, I doubt if the average American would have been able to locate a place called Vietnam on the map.

This was America's headiest time, and it looked to go on forever.

Two years before, at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, the United States Navy had launched the most modern submarine in the history of the world.

An atomic submarine, the USS Thresher.

The Navy's newest nuclear submarine, the Thresher, is launched at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The 278ft craft is the first of a new class of attack subs, designed to operate deeper and more silently than previous undersea craft.

The Thresher will have a crew of eight officers and 80 enlisted men.

She gets a bow-first launching, the first in 40 years, with the christening done by Mrs.

Frederick B. Warden, wife of the eighth Naval District commandant.

The Thresher’s novel of moving torpedo tubes, mounted amidships, necessitate the bow-first launching.

They'll make the craft one of the most effective fighters in the Navy's undersea fleet.

Music I'm so glad I finally found you Yes, that 1 in 1,000,000 girl And now with my lovin’ arms around you Honey, I can stand up and face the world.

Let me tell you, your love April 9th, 1963.

It's now two years since the Thresher had been launched.

For some months now, the boat had been back in drydock at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, being fitted with new electronics, air conditioning, controls.

Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that wasn't completely tested yet, but they were sailing out to do just that: tests.

Tests of the atomic power plant, the sonar, radio, the steering mechanisms, the engines.

The boat was overfull of people, 129 men in all, and not just crew.

There were 17 civilians and they were all on board to check out specific pieces of equipment.

And so, as a matter of fact, there were a number from Durham that were involved.

I forget how many, I think maybe six or something like that were from the Durham area.

In a way, it's a, it, these people were test pilots.

In a way, that could, that could be true, inasmuch as, after they finished their tests, they were still assigned to the regular patrol duty as a normal submarine would have.

But, it has been my belief all along that it had many, many sophisticated systems that were under trial and development at that time.

It's, every time you go to sea, you know, you're going at risk.

I mean, you're going out and it's called hazardous duty, and that's, that's the type of duty it is.

Shoo bee doo bop bop, bow Shoo bee doo bop, bop, bow Shoo bee doo bop, My heart is crying, crying Early morning, the second day out the North Atlantic, about 200 miles due east of Cape Cod, right where Georges Banks falls off into deep ocean.

Here it is over a mile and a half to the sea bottom.

With the Thresher is the submarine tender Skylark.

The Skylark carries a McCann diving bell.

This is a device that is able to rescue men to a depth of 850ft, but no deeper.

The Thresher’s deep water tests this morning are to take it to double that depth.

(sonar pings) At 8:00 in the morning, the Thresher begins its deep water test.

600ft, 700ft.

At 800ft, a loud noise is heard in the auxiliary machine space.

The pressurized pipe carrying salt water is leaking.

Either a valve or a weld has given way.

A fine mist sprays into the main electrical connections.

The nuclear reactor is scrambled.

There is an automatic shutdown, emergency power kicks in, battery power.

Now, because of the tremendous thrust of the nuclear-powered turbine, this boat is heavier in the water than most subs are.

Nuclear boats go up and down using their propellers more than they use their ballast.

And now, deprived of this power, the sub is sinking and the pumps, too, are powered only by the emergency batteries now, and the pumps are having trouble keeping up.

The boat now sinks to 1000ft.

1000ft is its rated depth.

It is time to use a procedure known as blowing the ship.

Emergency blow system is used in the event of a casualty.

And, basically what it does, it uses all the air.

The stored air is released at one time into the ballast tanks to enable it to blow the water out and make the submarine light and come to the surface.

Now, aboard the sub are these highly pressurized air canisters.

But the canisters have restrictor valves which limit the flow of air into the ballast space.

And some think that maybe the valves iced up.

Whatever the reason, the air cannot do its job.

The sub continues sinking.

There is not enough time to restart the nuclear reactor.

(sonar pings) At 2500ft under the ocean, the pressure is too great.

The hull of the USS Thresher gives way, and a 1500 ton torrent of water rushes in.

There is fuel oil stored in the machine room.

Under high pressure, fuel oil becomes as explosive as nitroglycerin.

And so, at a depth of 2500ft, 6000ft above the sea bottom, the USS Thresher blows apart.

(sound of explosion) Just give me another chance For our romance.

Come on and tell me that one day you’ll return The wreckage floats over a mile down and is strewn over acres of seafloor.

All are lost.

Not one body will ever be recovered.

Crying A year later, a diving bell photographs these pieces of wreckage.

The markings on this rudder prove that it was from the Thresher.

Come on, come on Now, it must be said here that what we have just presented is a speculation.

A speculation, however, based on the findings of the Atomic Energy Commission report and on John Bentley's definitive book on the Thresher.

The actual causes, however, may have been different.

But in the end, there is no doubt that the thresher was crushed by the ocean and blown apart by the compression of its fuel oil.

Because of its tremendous weight, the atomic reactor from the boat may have hit the sea bottom at a speed in excess of 100 knots.

No doubt it is buried deep in the silt.

The reactor, keep in mind, is built much, much stronger than the, than the submarine itself, so it would take much, much greater - The reactor is still on the, on the floor of the ocean?

That’s, somewhere out off - Yes, that is that is my belief.

That is.

Yes.

That's that's true.

Sooner or later we're going to have to retrieve that.

Fred P. Abrams (bell rings) Philip H. Allen (bell rings) Tilman J. Arsenault (bell rings) Now, 30 years later, on the anniversary of the tragedy, here at the Navy Yard, parents and wives and children and, yes, grandchildren have come to hear the names of the crew read aloud and a ship's bell rung in their memory.

And, to remember that day.

Personally, I remember the mass at the base gym with Cardinal Spellman officiating.

I remember vividly the floral tributes which literally covered the Squalus and the lawns on the side of Building 86.

And I remember the officers of the Shipyard in full dress, each one assigned to a bereaved family, a duty they had learned in officer's training school and suddenly it had been put in stark reality.

I heard the first news at 6:00, on the 6:00 news.

You hadn't been called?

No, I had not.

Not until 8:30 at night.

And my recollection was, that it said an unidentified submarine had gone down in the Atlantic.

And at that point I almost fainted in the doorway because deep down I knew it was that.

I knew it was the Thresher.

Previous to that, my husband had said the boat was not safe to go out on.

He had been working seven days a week, 12 hours a day, and he, things that he had not passed were not corrected.

And I had a dream that night that the sub would go down and that I wouldn't see him again.

And in the kitchen the next morning I begged him not to go on it.

But he was committed and said that he would go, and he went, and I watched until he walked across the bridge with his little satchel.

And that's the last I saw of him.

Music Someone to care Someone to share lonely hours and the moments of despair To be loved To be loved Oh, what a feeling to be loved Music But I can say unequivocally that the men were some of the finest I ever met.

And to this day, and I did finish up 20 years in the Navy, it was one of the finest crews there ever was.

To be loved, to be loved Oh, oh, what a feeling To be loved Every time you relive it, supposedly it gets easier.

But I don't know in actuality if it does or not.

I don't think, it just, it triggers so many memories and so many what ifs, I wish I had, those types.

Truly, truly loved Oh, it still hurts.

Talking to people who are here, it still hurts.

It sure does.

It sure does.

Oh, oh Someone to kiss Someone to miss When you’re away, to hear from each day To be loved (to be loved), to be loved (to be loved) Oh, what a feeling, to be loved To be loved (to be loved), to be loved (to be loved) Oh, oh, what a feeling to be, be loved Music Now, the scenario that you saw in that story is speculation.

Nobody knows for certain what happened the morning that the Thresher sunk.

It is speculation, however, that is based on the study that the Atomic Energy Commission did on, also the photographs that were taken of the sea bottom, and of what transmissions there were, that is, radio transmissions there were between the sub tender and the sub that day.

But a lot of people disagree with that.

Some people think that it was human error, that someone left the valve open, or command error.

One thing is for certain, the sub got into a deep dive and couldn't get out of it and was crushed by the sea.

One of the sailors at the memorial service said to me it was a case of using World War Two procedures and technology on a Space Age boat.

And by the way, the Navy called submarines boats, not ships.

Our next story, we're pretty proud of.

It has been nominated for an Emmy this year.

Now, you remember when you were a kid, you probably played Post Office.

At least I did.

Well, producer Chip Neal found a school where the kids are playing Post Office, and maybe playing is the wrong word here.

These kids are pretty serious.

Music How do you devise a postal system within a school?

Well, it's not all that complicated.

You see, each wing of the school becomes a city.

Each classroom or office becomes a street, and each desk becomes a street number.

By the way, the children chose these names and the candy theme.

So where do we begin?

Well, just like the real Postal Service, it all begins by writing a letter.

Can you tell me what your, what's in your letter?

Or is that too private?

How's it going?

How far can you get in Mario World?

How are Justin, Chris, and Matt M. doing?

Channel 11 is here pointing microphones, video cameras, and stuff at us.

All those wires attached to all that equipment.

I don't want to see another video cam again.

All right, that's a good letter.

Can you tell me what you wrote her about, or is that a secret?

Well, my sister was supposed to sleepover her house, and she never she never got to because she didn't come back, because Samantha had to go someplace.

Oh.

Is your sister older or younger?

Older.

Older.

She's 11.

She's 11, and she has sleepover, so.

Okay.

Now, Cindy.

What, you haven't, you've barely started your letter, but what do you what do you think you're going to talk about?

Well, I'm just gonna - Well, she lives my neighborhood.

Yeah?

So you're going to talk about your neighborhood stuff?

And tell her when we can play together and stuff.

Oh, I see, yeah.

Set up a time to play together.

I think it's fantastic.

I find a lot of them take paper home at night and write letters, bring it in the next day and mail.

During their free time, I have children that are writing nonstop.

It might not be a letter that they're writing, but they're constantly working on some sort of writing and that only improves them in the long run.

Improves the grammar, improves the quality of letter writing, and even in all subject matter, science, math, social studies, it improves it across the board.

Music Each crew for the post office, postmaster, and and the other employees is hired for approximately a two month period.

And then a new crew comes on and the old crew, we're just about to go into that now, the old crew will will train the new crew.

And the application process is interesting because, when the child goes for an interview, that child has to think about good things to say about him or herself, positive things.

And so it really is a boost to the child's self-esteem.

Katelyn, I have noticed that on your application, you have expressed an interest in being a carrier for Wee Deliver.

This would be a lot of reading of envelopes and numbers and sorting them in order by number, by classroom.

And, that won't be a problem for you?

No.

Okay.

Does that seem like something that would be interesting for you to do for the next seven weeks?

Yeah, it seems fun, looks fun.

Well, thank you very much for coming, Katelyn.

And tomorrow afternoon we'll be posting the positions and who got them on the board right above the Wee Deliver poster.

Thank you very much for coming.

Bye.

Music Now, tell me what a postmaster does?

Supervises everybody.

Make sure they do everything they're supposed to be doing.

They don't fool around.

Now, is this a good group?

Yeah.

Yeah?

Tell me what the job of a sorter is.

You, when a mail comes in and it's canceled, then we take it and.

Then take it and put it in a different city.

You’re both nixie clerks.

Now that's a term I have not, I don't, I've never heard of a nixie clerk.

What does a nixie clerk do?

Well, there's, if the - If the, stamps, if the letter is wrong, like, was the wrong street.

Yeah?

Or, if it, there’s no, if there's no address or if it just has the name, we stamp it back and it says Return To Sender.

And then they don't, and then they have to fix it, or whatever, put it in a new envelope and send it back.

So your job is to get the letters that aren't addressed right.

We choose one.

Or you decide which ones are not addressed right?

Right.

And you nix them.

Yeah.

And that's why they call you a nixie clerk.

Right.

Music Ginny Scott is a postal training technician who is responsible, along with her partner, Scott Baker, for nurturing the Wee Deliver program in the Seacoast area.

And by the way, she does the Wee Deliver program along with her regular job at the Post Office.

It's good PR, of course, of course that goes without saying.

But it is with the program, the Stamp Out Literacy program.

And also we are educating our future customers the correct way to address the mail for automation, which is, automation is our future.

What is the correct way to address the mail?

Okay, one of the things that you have to do is all capital letters, no punctuation.

Punctuation drives these optical readers crazy.

The Post Office has been extremely cooperative and supplied us with the, the extras that have made it nice.

The mail bags, the mail hats, the mail boxes.

So it's cost us nothing.

What's your address?

Caught ya!

That's right.

One Sugar Baby's Lane.

There.

That's your address.

That's my address.

That's right.

One little girl, had had been in the school only a short time when we started Wee Deliver, and she wrote me a letter saying that she was having a difficult time making friends.

And did I have any thoughts on how she might make friends and have more people to play with on the playground?

So I wrote her a response, and she wrote me back a response.

And I think we had 3 or 4 letters that passed between us, and the last one said, it worked.

Your suggestions were good, and I found a few friends and I really like it at Maplewood, so that was probably the nicest.

Music Wee Deliver as part of the US Postal Services’ Help Stamp Out Illiteracy program.

About 100 schools in the state of New Hampshire participated.

And if you'd like more information, just get in touch with your local Post Office.

Again, the program is called Wee Deliver and it is spelled W-E-E Deliver.

Well, thank you for joining us.

Next week, you're going to have to rent your tuxedo or dust off your prom gown, because we are going up to Pinkham Notch to the Balsams to attend Colebrook Academy's prom.

Wow.

Until then, for New Hampshire Crossroads, I'm Fritz Wetherbee.

Oh, the Thresher the finest atomic ship that ever dived for sea Each man on board was a volunteer Was there because he chose to be Ev’ry man jack on board was a hero Ev’ry man jack on board there was brave Ev’ry man jack on board was a hero Each man risked a watery grave Oh, their wives and sweethearts came down to port their last goodbyes to say Each tried her best to be tearless They promised to meet there someday Ev’ry man jack on board was a hero Ev’ry man jack on board there was brave Ev’ry man jack on board New Hampshire Crossroads is underwritten in part New Hampshire Crossroads is underwritten in part New Hampshire Crossroads is underwritten in part by First NH Bank, serving the financial needs of individuals, corporations and local governments throughout New Hampshire.

Clarion Somerset Hotel and Apartments of Nashua, New Hampshire, where we make living fun.

And Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Hampshire.

For over 50 years, dedicated to providing quality health benefit protection programs for employers, employees, and individuals.

Theme Music