Navy to bury veteran’s remains in area where submarine sank in 1963

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The Associated Press

111215-N-VO377-017 PACIFIC OCEAN (Dec. 15, 2011) Lt. David L. Duprey salutes after committing the cremated remains of a former Sailor to the deep during a burial at sea ceremony for 44 former service members and dependants aboard the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72). Abraham Lincoln is underway on deployment to the U.S. 5th and U.S. 7th Fleet areas of responsibility and is changing homeports from Everett, Wash. to Norfolk, Va., following deployment for a periodic refueling complex overhaul. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jonathan P. Idle/Released)

GROTON, Conn. — The U.S. Navy will fulfill the wish of a veteran to be buried more than 200 miles off the New England coast where a submarine sank five decades ago.

The Day newspaper reports that a submarine from the Naval Submarine Base in Groton will transport the cremated remains of Navy Capt. Paul “Bud” Rogers to the area where the USS Thresher sank in 1963. Navy officials declined to release the burial date.

Rogers, from Wernersville, Pennsylvania, died last year at the age of 86. He was supposed to be on the Thresher on the day it sank, but was replaced at the last minute by someone with more experience.

All 129 men aboard the sub died. Navy officials have blamed a leak in the sub’s engine room.

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