The man who located the wreck of the Titanic has revealed that his mission was used as a cover up story to camouflage the military’s real objective of inspecting the wrecks of two Cold War nuclear submarines.

Dr Bob Ballard who led the team that found the wreck of the Titanic back in 1995, admitted that he was only allowed to search for the sunken luxury cruise liner after he located the wrecks of USS Thresher and USS Scorpion.

Both of the United States Navy vessels sank during the 1960s, killing more than 200 men and arousing suspicions that at least one of them, Scorpion, may have been sunk by the USSR.

Dr Ballard approached the US Navy for funding to search for the Titanic in 1982 after developing a robotic submarine to search the ocean floor. The Military responded by saying they were not willing to spend a fortune on locating the liner, but they were anxious to know how the nuclear reactors had been affected by being submerged for so long.

The oceanographer was given the funding to embark on two expeditions, one to find the wreck of Thresher in 1984 off the eastern coast of the US and another to find Scorpion in the eastern Atlantic.

After the Ballard located the two submarines he only had 12 days to find the Titanic.

“I couldn’t’t tell anybody,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on me. It was a secret mission. I felt it was a fair exchange for getting a chance to look for the Titanic.

“We handed the data to the experts. They never told us what they concluded – our job was to collect the data. I can only talk about it now because it has been declassified.”

Dr Ballard said inspecting the two submarines gave him the idea of finding a trail of debris that could lead him to the main section of the Titanic.

Thresher had imploded deep beneath the surface breaking up into thousands of pieces and Scorpion was almost completely destroyed.

“It was as though it had been put through a shredding machine. There was a long debris trail.”

USS Thresher (SSN-593) Submarine

Thresher was at the time, the US Navy’s most advanced attack submarine. She was launched on 9 July 1960, sponsored by Mrs. Frederick B. Warder (wife of the famous Pacific War skipper), and was later commissioned on 3 August 1961, with Commander Dean L. Axene in command.

Thresher sank with all her 129 crew in April 1963 while undergoing deep-diving tests after dockyard repairs.

A surface ship, Skylark, was in contact when the crew reported a high-pressure pipe supplying the nuclear reactor with cooling water had blown. The accident happened at a depth of 1000ft, causing the vessel to sink so deep that the pressure hull imploded.

The loss of the Thresher in 1963 is often considered a watershed event in the implementation of the rigorous submarine safety program SUBSAFE

USS Scorpion (SSN-589) Submarine

USS Scorpion was a Skipjack-class nuclear submarine of the United States Navy. She was the sixth ship of the U.S. Navy to carry that name and was launched on 19 December 1959, and later commissioned on 29 July 1960 with Commander Norman B. Bessac in command.

On June 5, 1968 Scorpion was declared lost with a crew of 99 onboard. There had been speculation that Scorpion was sunk by Soviet forces however Dr Ballard’s visual examination of the wreck site showed that the most likely cause of its destruction was being hit by a rogue torpedo that it had fired itself.

The Titanic

The Titanic was a luxury ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland by White Star Line. At the time of her launch she was the largest passenger steamship in the world.

During her maiden voyage on 14th April 1912, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank with the loss of 1,500 lives.

During a family member’s, who is a former Marine, recent vacation in the Richmond area, he met a family who had pulled into the same motel. They had a Marine Corps sticker on their vehicles so obviously he was interested to learn when he had served. He said that he hadn’t but that his son had and was killed in Iraq recently. He then told him about what the program below, and then told me about it. Maybe you can send some small items maybe you can’t. But this is non-political and a small way to show support. Think about it anyway. It’s nice to live in relative safety and FREEDOM! Think about those that provide that for you!

At The Least, Please Help Get This Message Out To As Many People as Possible! It is A Wonderful Way to Support Our Troops and Provide Them With A Little Comfort From Home.

Remember there are two battle fields. The one overseas and the one here at home. It seems like we have to battle the media and the cowards in congress. The American’s of the World War II era helped shaped the great lives we share today by greatly helping the outcome of the War by sacrificing a little bit of their time and little bit of their luxuries.

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Mission Statement:

We are a non profit organization. We do not support nor oppose the war. Our only interest is in supporting the brave men and women who put their lives on the line everyday to protect our great country. Their mission in Iraq is a difficult one, both physically and mentally. Our goal is to show them how grateful we our for their service and sacrifice.

Our mission is to send some of the comforts of home to those who so diligently watch over and protect us.

We appreciate all the supply donations you have to offer. Please click here to learn more about where to send them. http://www.adamconboymemorialfund.org/

(Click Here To Read More…)

Going through my Emails to help organize files and eliminate unnecessary files, I found a Flash presentation that I enjoyed very much. I did not post it on this Blog yet, but I am sure many have seen it already. However, for those who have not yet seen it I wanted to make sure I post it. It is a poetic presentation of pictures and sayings of a memorial service honoring Marines that made the ultimate sacrifice during the Iraq War. Click the image below to launch the Flash presentation in a new window:

It’s been said that one picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is this one worth? Priceless! This photo of Christian Golcznski shows so much courage in such a young man. Unfortunately, photos like this one are absent in most daily news and media programs today. As a military brat of two Marines, this story especially hit home.

Marine Staff Sgt. Marcus “Marc” Golczynski, was killed in Iraq on March 27. At his funeral in April, Daily News Journal photographer Aaron Thompson captured Marc Golczynski’s teary-eyed son, 8-year-old Christian, accepting a U.S. flag from his father’s casket.

Click Photo to Enlarge

This amazing picture has drawn a lot of comments from readers of the Nashville paper, The Tennessean. Below is two:

Dear Tennessean:

The Tennessean’s April 5 photograph of young Christian Golczynski accepting the American flag from Marine Lt. Col. Ric Thompson is one of the most moving and emotion provoking images I have ever seen.

My wife and I attended funeral services for Christian’s father, Staff Sergeant Marcus Golczynski, on April 4, along with our six year-old son, dozens of Marines, and several hundred others who came to pay tribute to this fallen hero.

As one would expect, many of your readers were touched by this incredible picture. Staff Sergeant Golczynski had previously served one full tour in Iraq. Shortly before his death on March 27 he wrote to his family that he had volunteered to do this a second time due to our deep desire to finish the job we started. In his letter he said, “We fight and sometimes die so that our families don’t have to.” Tragically, Staff Sergeant Golczynski had only two weeks remaining on his second tour. We look at the photograph of Christian every day. It is displayed prominently in our home. Our hearts ache for Christian and for all those who have lost loved ones in this controversial conflict.

Our nation is at a historical crossroads. Do we call an end to the struggle in Iraq or press on? Staff Sergeant Golczynski eloquently told his son how he felt about not giving up. Perhaps there is a lesson for all of us in this man’s life and the choices he made. He was undeniably a man of tremendous courage and conviction. America must now choose whether to complete the job.

When looking at the face of Christian Golczynski I am reminded that doing what is right is not always easy and doing what is easy is not always right. Christian’s dad knew that too.

James Drescher

Franklin, TN

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Staff Sergeant Golczynski had previously served one full tour in Iraq . Shortly before his death on March 27 he wrote to his family that he had volunteered to do this a second time due to our deep desire to finish the job we started. In his letter he said, “We fight and sometimes die so that our families don’t have to.” Tragically, Staff Sergeant Golczynski had only two weeks remaining on his second tour. Our hearts ache for Christian and for all those who have lost loved ones in this controversial conflict.

Our nation is at a historical crossroads. Do we call an end to the struggle in Iraq or press on? Staff Sergeant Golczynski eloquently told his son how he felt about not giving up. Perhaps there is a lesson for all of us in this man’s life and the choices he made. He was undeniably a man of tremendous courage and conviction. America must now choose whether to complete the job.

When looking at the face of Christian Golczynski we are reminded that doing what is right is not always easy and doing what is easy is not always right. Christian’s dad knew that too.

Our country is free right now due to the heroes who gave the ultimate sacrifices when their country called them to action. Many great wars ago or even the most recent ones, it never mattered to the men and women in uniform when the call was made. What mattered was the honor and devotion to our great country. We should never let our guard down to anyone who wishes to take from us our most prized possession; freedom. Many have fought and died for that one goal, to defend our country, one nation, under God and never allowing our freedom to cease to exists.

Say a prayer this memorial day, for all those who have served or are serving our great country. Say a prayer for those who will never come home and to their families who also have gave the ultimate sacrifice for us all.

God Bless America!!!