Release of USS Thresher Documents Delayed by COVID-19 Office Closures
By: Ben Werner
May 22, 2020 3:01 PM
The Navy is sitting on roughly 600 pages of documents related to the USS Thresher (SSN-593) sinking that a federal judge ordered released, unable to comply because the office charged with processing their release is shuttered due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Following a February court hearing in U.S. District Court, a judge ordered the Navy’s Undersea Warfare Division (OPNAV N97) to start handing Thresher-related records to retired Navy Capt. James Bryant, a former Thresher-class submarine commander. He has for years researched Thresher’s sinking.
The Navy has rebuffed his requests by Bryant to review Thresher-related documents – the vast majority of which the Navy declassified in 2012. In July, Bryant sued the Navy to honor his Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to review hundreds of Thresher-related documents.
https://news.usni.org/2020/05/22/release-of-uss-thresher-documents-delayed-by-covid-19-office-closures
