When a Kraken Attacked the United States Navy: The Mysterious Story of the USS Stein
The USS Stein , a Knox Class destroyer of the United States Navy, was on a special operations mission in the Pacific Ocean sometime in the summer of 1978. Named after Marine Corps Corporal Tony Stein of Dayton, Ohio who posthumously received the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery in combat during the Battle of Iwo Jima in February 1945, the USS Stein was first launched in December of 1970 and immediately assumed a prominent place among ships in the United States Pacific Fleet. The Stein was unique among vessels at the time because it was equipped with the most state of the art sonar equipment in the world and it was deployed by the Navy to listen for the tell-tale sonar signatures of Soviet nuclear submarines at the height of the Cold War. Somewhere on its mission between Mexico and El Salvador the USS Stein had a terrifying encounter. Unexpectedly, the ship was felt to rock from side to side and almost instantaneously the ship’s highly advanced sonar equipme...