SANFORD — April 10, 1963 was a routine school day for Carol Abrams Norton and her brother Jim. Growing up in Kittery, the children of Fred Philip “Phil” and Shirley Abrams, the youngsters learned to swim in the salt water behind their home and the family enjoyed clambakes on the beach. It was an idyllic childhood, Norton said Friday.
Her parents had been sweethearts, courting all the while Phil was serving overseas during World War II.
After the war, they married and Phil took a civilian job at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. He worked his way up to inspector and often went on sea trials, though, his daughter said, he didn’t like them, and he didn’t like deep water.
Then dawned April 10, 1963.
“It was a routine school day. Dad was aboard the USS Thresher. After school, Jim and I were playing basketball. We saw Mama walking, almost in slow motion. She was trembling. She could hardly put one foot in front of the other.
“The words she spoke did not seem real ”¦ there had to be some mistake ”¦ surely this was just a bad nightmare,” said Norton, now of Milton, N.H.
It wasn’t ”“ it was all too real. The Thresher, known as the most advanced attack submarine of its time, was lost during deep diving tests 220 miles east of Cape Cod, with a crew of 129 Navy men and civilians aboard.
Along with Phil Abrams and the others was a Sanford man, Robert Dan Prescott, a 28-year-old Marine engineer. He was the younger son of Ithel and Florence Prescott, according to census information, and he had an older brother named Paul. While he was in high school in Sanford, he was involved with 4-H and other agriculture-related pastimes.
On Friday night, AMVETS Post No. 3 in Sanford marked the 50th anniversary of the loss of the Thresher and its crew. Norton was among a trio of guest speakers, which included retired Navy Vice Admiral George Emery, who was named commander of the Submarine Allied Command Atlantic by then-President Bill Clinton in August 1993, and retired Navy veteran and submariner Peter Joy.
The USS Thresher, built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard and based in Connecticut, was out for a routine deep-diving test when it ran into trouble in April 1963. The Navy believes the failure of a brazed weld allowed sea water to spray onto an electrical panel, causing an emergency shutdown of the sub’s nuclear reactor, according to the Associated Press. The ballast system also failed, preventing the sub from surfacing. Filling with water, Thresher descended deeper and deeper until it disintegrated under the crushing force of the ocean. Its remnants rest on the ocean floor at a depth of 8,500 feet.
AMVETS Post 3 Commander Cathy Markland said it is important to mark the 50th anniversary of the loss of the 129 men who served aboard the Thresher.
“Any one of us could be asked to do something similar” in the service of the country, said Markland, who served a two-year hitch as an Army nurse.
Markland recalls the day the news came of the loss of the Thresher. She was in sixth grade at Alfred Grammar School, and said she remembers her teacher had tears rolling down his face, as someone he knew had perished.
“A lot of people in York County knew someone who died that day,” she said.
Emery, a senior at the U.S. Naval Academy, said he didn’t know Prescott, the Sanford man who died, but knew his father, who had been Emery’s science teacher at Sanford High School. Upon hearing the news, Emery and his classmates wondered if they’d made a mistake in their decision to join the submarine force ”“ but none faltered, he said, and went on to graduate.
Friday evening’s ceremony included vocal tributes including “An American Soldier” by the G.I. Dames and “Some Gave All” by Bill Dore and Bruce Girard.
The color guard of AMVETS Post 6 in New Gloucester posted the colors.
A plaque designed and crafted by retired U.S. Coast Guardsman Paul Lunetta was unveiled.
Lunetta, for whom woodworking is a hobby, said he wasn’t given any instructions when he was asked to make a plaque, but knew right away what he wanted to do.
The plaque is austere, with graceful lines. It is a model of the Thresher, mounted on wood.
“Plain and simple,” said Lunetta.
Norton described her father as a hard worker, a man with integrity and discipline who taught by example.
“Dad and Mama taught us to appreciate what we had, love nature, try to help others, make the family proud of us, stand up for what was right and be respectful to everyone,” she said.
Her mother, Shirley, died in 2011, and in the months prior to her death, she asked her daughter to read the love letters Phil Abrams had sent her from overseas so many years before.
His loss is deeply felt, 50 years on.
“While the pain, sadness and agony have never left us, our memories have sustained us,” said Norton.
— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, Ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.
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