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

Offley, Ed

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0465051855 ISBN 13: 9780465051854

Publisher: Basic Books, 2007

Synopsis

One Navy admiral called it “one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era.” The U.S. Navy officially describes it an inexplicable accident. For decades, the real story of the disaster eluded journalists, historians, and the family members of the lost crew. But a small handful of Navy and government officials knew the truth: The sinking of the U.S.S. Scorpion on May 22, 1968, was an act of war. In Scorpion Down, military reporter Ed Offley reveals that the true cause of the Scorpion’s sinking was buried by the U.S. government in an attempt to keep the Cold War from turning hot. For five months, the families of the Scorpion crew waited while the Navy searched feverishly for the missing submarine. For the first time, Offley reveals that entire search was cover-up, devised to conceal that fact that the Scorpion had been torpedoed by the Soviets. In this gripping and controversial book, Offley takes the reader inside the shadowy world of the Cold War military, where rival superpowers fought secret battles far below the surface of the sea.

About this title

From the Author:

Ed 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.

From the Back Cover:

The loss of the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion on Memorial Day, May 27, 1968, has been commemorated by an American admiral as "one of the greatest unsolved sea mysteries of our era." After the sub failed to return to port following a routine three-month Mediterranean deployment, a frantic search ensued. Nine days later the Navy announced that the submarine and the ninety-nine crewmen on board were presumed lost.

In this stunning work of investigative journalism, Ed Offley reveals that the U.S. Navy knew from the very beginning that the Scorpion had been sunk by the Soviets. He tells the dramatic story of a secret battle that could have brought about World War III, and he conclusively demonstrates that the Navy's official story about 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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0465051855
• ISBN 13: 9780465051854
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 482