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Bruce Harvey-Family
to remember
Harvey, John Wesley, LCDR.
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Contact Info
Last Address Philadelphia, PA
Date of Passing Apr 10, 1963
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Commanding Officer of USS THRESHER (SSN-593)
Most likely cause of the sinking was a failure in either a pipe, a pipe valve, or a hull weld, causing flooding near the engine room
Other Comments:
Lieutenant Commander Harvey took command of the nuclear-powered attack submarine Thresher (SSN-593) on January 18, 1963, while she was in the shipyard for overhaul. He took his "boat" to sea for the first time for post-overhaul trials. On 10 April 1963, Lieutenant Commander John W. Harvey lost his life when Thresher accidently sank during diving tests.
Training Exercise - StrikeBack '57
From Month/Year
September / 1957
To Month/Year
October / 1957
Description Exercise Strikeback was a major naval exercise of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) that took place over a ten-day period in September 1957.
As part of a series of exercises to simulate an all-out Soviet attack on NATO, Exercise Strikeback was tasked with two objectives. Its initial objective was the deployment of NATO's naval forces (designated the "Blue Fleet") against other NATO forces attempting to simulate an "enemy" navy that featured a large number of submarines (designated the "Orange Fleet"). Its other objective was to have the Blue Fleet execute carrier-based air strikes against "enemy" formations and emplacements along NATO's northern flank in Norway.
Exercise Strikeback involved over 200 warships, 650 aircraft, and 75,000 personnel from the United States Navy, the Royal Navy, the Royal Canadian Navy, the French Navy, the Royal Netherlands Navy, and the Royal Norwegian Navy. As the largest peacetime naval operation up to that time, military analyst Hanson W. Baldwin of the New York Times said Exercise Strikeback gathered "the strongest striking fleet assembled since World War II."
Operation Strikeback and the other concurrent NATO exercises held during the fall of 1957 would be the most ambitious military undertaking for the alliance to date, involving more than 250,000 men, 300 ships, and 1,500 aircraft operating from Norway to Turkey.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
September / 1957
To Month/Year
October / 1957
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories 3 September-22 October 1957, to take part in NATO's Operation Strike Back, the largest peacetime naval exercise up to that time in history. Strike Back involved some 150 ships from six countries (Canada, The Netherlands, France, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States) including nine large aircraft carriers: HMS Ark Royal, HMS Eagle, HMS Bulwark, USS Forrestal (CVA-59), USS Saratoga (CVA-60), USS Essex (CVA-9), USS Intrepid (CVA-11), USS Wasp (CVS-18) and USS Tarawa (CVS-40).