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The Base Realignment and Closing
Commission had recommended that the New London Naval Submarine Base be
shuttered- but changed its mind a few weeks later. BRAC members were
given a top secret presentation on why this base needed to stay open,
by both American and Russian naval officers. A small Russian trawler
had a weekly deployment from New London, traveling due east 56 nautical
miles to a designated spot. A watertight container- containing oxygen
tanks, food, medicine, classic Russian novels and several gallons of
vodka- was lowered down from the trawler. On the ocean bottom was a
Delta IV-class nuclear submarine, with 23 men aboard. An electrical
accident in 1986 had left its propellers frozen and its ballast tanks
permanently flooded. The 135-member crew was alive, though, and the
Soviets began making regular oxygen and food deliveries. Since the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the Americans had allowed the deliveries
from its more convenient port. The sub's only news came from the
surface, and a decision had long ago been made to keep the men under
the impression the USSR was still going strong. This was a fiercely
patriotic group of Soviets, the American and Russian officials argued,
who might react terribly against either or both superpowers if they
heard their beloved social experiment had being cancelled. And this
small group of men had 16 functioning SS-N-23 missiles, which could
reach New York in four minutes. |
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