Scorpion Down / Family (NRC)

Last week, my Dad's parents turned 85 and 83.

They're my "Gom and Papa". (When I was little, I couldn't say "Grandma" and started saying, "Gom".) To Waverly, they are her "Old Papa and Great Gom".

You're probably thinking that there is a bit of disrespect to my grandfather. Nah. It is a term of endearment to him. He eats it up when one of the girls, including my two nieces, call him "Old Papa". Sometimes the "Old" gets exaggerated! :)

When Waverly was born, it was decided that she would call my Mom "Gom" and my Dad "Pappy". The "Pappy" comes from the fact that my great grandfather was known as "Pap Walk". Like my grandfather, my Dad swells up with pride being called "Pappy" by the girls.

And, of course, I do hearing Waverly call me "Daddy".

My Dad, who turned 61 earlier this year, was able to be back home (Central Pennsylvania) with them this past week. He and I have had our share of bumps in the road. I think many fathers and sons do, and even to this day we do some. However, not to the same extent that we once did.

My Dad's pretty opionated and it is probably where I get some of my passion from.

As I've stated before in these parts, my father is a Marine. (No such thing as an ex-Marine.) He enlisted in the Corps and served from 1966 to 1968. He did not get called to go to Vietnam and served at Camp Pendleton in San Diego, California until he left the service to continue to raise me and later, my sister, Holly.

My Dad blindcopied me on a letter that he sent to the Editor of the Altoona Mirror, which is the largest newspaper in the county (Blair) where I'm from. I encourage you to read it, if you have a few moments. When I read it, I think it explains some of the passion that I have about certain things, but it is a story that I didn't know.

Thanks for the taking the time to read it in advance.

Neil:

As editor of probably the largest daily newspaper in Blair County, The Altoona Mirror, I wanted to draw your attention to the upcoming 40th anniversary of the loss of the nuclear submarine, the USS Scorpion.

On May 22, 1968, the US Scorpion was lost near the Azores in the North Atlantic and with it began one of the largest US Navy cover-ups in the history of this country that still goes on today.

On board the USS Scorpion was a Tyrone high school classmate and friend of mine. Because of the way they chose to seat us in classes in those days (in alphabetical order) we were close to one another throughout all of our school years in a small town because our last names began with a W. His name was Robert Westley Watson, who we all knew as Bobby.

Sometime after graduating from high school Bobby enlisted in the Navy and I enlisted in the Marine Corps. Toward the end of our enlistments we were heavily engaged in Vietnam and still involved in the Cold War with the Soviet Union. On June 5, 1968, I enjoyed my separation from the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton in Southern California and a happy reunion with my family and friends and return to a normal life in the small town of Tyrone. (It was) the night before Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles a few miles to the north of Camp Pendleton.

Approximately two weeks prior to that, Bobby too ended his tour of duty with the Navy with his tragic death on board the the USS Scorpion. It must have been a horrible death, deep in the bowels of a nuclear powered submarine at one time the class of the USS Navy's submarine fleet.

The Scorpion was due to return home to its base at the Norfolk Naval Station on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27, 1968. Family, friends, and loved ones were there to greet the returning crew. Bobby was engaged to be married to his local sweetheart on his return from this particular mission. She too was a Tyrone Area High School graduate who graduated in 1966 along with my sister and with the girl who has now been my wife for the past 41 years. For days the Navy told the families there were delays and they had not had any communication with the Scorpion, which they did not consider to be abnormal and besides the weather was terrible which may have been a cause for the delay. This turned out to be one of the first lies the Navy told everyone because history later recorded that they were in fact in touch with the Scorpion daily up until its sinking on May 22nd and in fact were able to trace the actual demise of the Scorpion through underwater sonar signals.

Several years ago there was a lot of coverage about the USS Scorpion on one of the previous anniversaries of its sinking and disappearance. I don't remember just which one but there was extensive coverage in the Altoona Mirror and The Tyrone Daily Herald that was sent to me by my parents. Amazingly even then more of the truth was unknown and unreported.

Now, thanks to recently declassified documents more truths are known and have become public through a new book entitled, appropriately, "Scorpion Down." The author, Ed Offley, has been a military reporting specialists for newspapers and online publications since 1981, including the Ledger-Star in Norfolk, Virginia, Seattle Post- Intelligencer, Stripes.com and Defense Watch magazine. He is currently a reporter for the News Herald in Panama City, Florida.

I just purchased the book this past weekend on my way home from one of my numerous trips to Altoona/Tipton/Tyrone to visit with my parents and watch some Curve baseball games. I'm not the prolific reader that most are but would suspect that you probably are given your current work.

Neil the rest of this story needs to be reported as it keeps unfolding as the 40th anniversary of this tragedy approaches this Memorial Day holiday that is fast approaching.

While Bobby was only one of 99 crewmen that died aboard the USS Scorpion in the service of their country he is the only one that I am aware of from Blair County or Central Pennsylvania and the story needs to be told over and over and investigated as often as necessary as more documentation becomes unclassified and until the Department of the Navy and our government gives the American pubic and the families of these men the truth that they deserved. There is now evidence and documented conversations, on the record, from now retired Navy personnel to support the fact that the USS Scorpion was sunk by the Soviet Union during a Cold War confrontation that came extremely close to being responsible for the start of World War III.

I urge you to read the book and once again report the current findings as well as honor the 40th Anniversary of this tragedy and Naval cover-up. We owe it to these men and we from Blair County owe it to Bobby Watson. Unlike me, for Bobby there was no reunion with family and friends, no marriage to his high school sweetheart, no children or the grandchildren that I now enjoy.

Again I urge you to study, read, investigate and report on this like nothing else that you have ever covered or written about before. It's about many, but it's also a story about a Tyrone military hero who was never recognized for that heroism and it's about Bobby Watson who was my classmate and friend.

Neil, thanks in advance for your thoughts and consideration.

Will Walk