Francis Slattery
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Francis Slattery (1931–1968) was a commander in the U.S. Navy and commanded the nuclear submarine USS Scorpion (SSN-589) when it mysteriously failed to resurface in the Atlantic Ocean.
Slattery was born in West Paris, Maine on September 15, 1931. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and served in several submarines, including the USS Tunny (SS-282)[1] before his final assignment on the Scorpion.[2]
He had spent time at the Nuclear Power School and, with his experience in other submersibles, he was appointed to command the Scorpion. He then became the youngest commander of a nuclear-powered submarine at the time.[3]
Disappearance of the Scorpion
- Main article: USS Scorpion (SSN-589)
Slattery was in command of the boat during its fateful voyage to the bottom of the ocean in 1968. In the book All Hands Down, authors Kenneth Sewell and Jerome Preisler claim that the Scorpion's disappearance was the result of an attack by Soviet forces using code materials supplied by turncoat seaman John Anthony Walker and American cryptographic equipment they seized from the USS Pueblo (AGER-2). The authors claim the Soviets' motive was revenge for the loss of K-129, a Soviet submarine that sank in the Pacific Ocean earlier that year - a loss that Russian military officials had blamed on the Americans.
References
- All Hands Down by Kenneth Sewell and Jerome Preisler
- www.history.navy.mil/