Book details

  • Genre:history
  • Sub-genre:Military / Naval
  • Language:English
  • Pages:96
  • Paperback ISBN:9798317847562

Solving the Mysteries of K-129

The Submarine Sought by the CIA's Project AZORIAN

By Mike Clancy

Overview


Project AZORIAN was a CIA project to covertly recover the sunken Soviet ballistic missile submarine, K-129. The K-129 went down with all hands approximately 1,600 miles northwest of Hawaii on 11 March 1968 at a location that was unknown to the Soviets. However, the U.S. Navy was able to find and photograph the K-129, more than 3 miles down on the ocean floor. This enabled a covert operation to recover the submarine, along with materials of great intelligence value, using a remarkable ship built specifically for this task, the Glomar Explorer. Project AZORIAN has been the subject of about a dozen books and several documentary films, and it is not the intention of this eBook to retell the story. Rather, it will focus on solving the two biggest remaining mysteries of AZORIAN: (1) What was the root-cause of the catastrophe that destroyed the K-129? (2) What is the exact but, but never before publicly released, location of the K-129 wreck site?
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Description


Project AZORIAN was a CIA project to covertly recover the sunken Soviet ballistic missile submarine, K-129. The K-129 went down with all hands approximately 1,600 miles northwest of Hawaii on 11 March 1968 at a location that was unknown to the Soviets. However, using underwater surveillance technology, the U.S. Navy was able to determine where the submarine sank within about 6 miles. Subsequently, the U.S. Navy submarine Halibut was able to find and photograph the K-129, more than 3 miles down on the ocean floor. This enabled a covert operation to recover the submarine along with materials of great intelligence value. This recovery operation was launched in June of 1974 using a remarkable ship built specifically for this task, the Glomar Explorer. AZORIAN has been the subject of about a dozen books and several documentary films. The early books and documentaries are loaded with disinformation, likely fed to authors and producers by the CIA and the U.S. Navy in an attempt to hide the location of the K-129 wreck site, obscure the capabilities of the Navy's undersea surveillance technology, and create uncertainty about what was recovered from the submarine. Recently published books, however, provide a much more complete and accurate description of Project AZORIAN. In any case, it is not the intention of this eBook to retell the detailed story of Project AZORIAN. Rather, it will focus on solving the two biggest remaining mysteries of AZORIAN: (1) What was the root-cause of the catastrophe that destroyed the K-129? (2) What is the exact but, but never before publicly released, location of the K-129 wreck site? Based on extensive open-source research and conversations with several individuals directly involved in the K-129 recovery operation, this eBook will answer these questions definitively while presenting a sequence of events leading up to the K-129 catastrophe that is consistent with all available evidence.
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About The Author


Mike Clancy earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology in 1973, graduating first in his class, and a Master of Science Degree in Meteorology from the University of Miami in 1975. He worked for Science Applications International Corporation in the late '70s and the Naval Research Lab in the early '80s. He joined the U.S. Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center (FNMOC) in Monterey in 1983 and was selected as Technical and Scientific Director of FNMOC, the top civilian position in the organization, in 2005. Over the course of his career, Mr. Clancy authored over 100 publications in meteorology, oceanography and information technology, and received over 50 professional awards, including the Navy's highest civilian award. He retired from Federal Service in 2011 and was inducted into the FNMOC Hall of Fame in 2015. Mr. Clancy is a founding member of the Monterey Bay Defense Alliance (MBDA) and has worked part time for the City of Monterey in support of MBDA. He has served as a reporter and columnist for local newspapers, Cedar Street Times and Pacific Grove Press, and co-hosted a political talk show on KSQD FM 90.7 radio in Santa Cruz. For the past several years Mr. Clancy has served on the Question Review Team for the annual Leon Panetta Lecture Series. Mr. Clancy appears as a supporting actor in an independent feature film, A Long Road to Tao, which won the Audience Choice Award at the Las Cruces International Film Festival in 2024 and the Grand Prize at the Marina Del Rey Film International Festival in 2025. This film is now streaming on several platforms, including Amazon Prime Video. Mr. Clancy is a frequent lecturer on climate change and a former Chair of the Monterey County Chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby.
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