Sherrill Heads Memorial Services
Diocesan Press Service. May 8, 1963 [X-11]
NEW YORK, --- The Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill, retired Presiding Bishop and former chairman of the General Army and Navy Chaplains Commission, led the Protestant memorial services for the 129 victims of the lost submarine THRESHER at the naval shipyard in Portsmouth, N. H., recently.
In his remarks, Bishop Sherrill said that "From the point of view of the Nation, these men have given their lives for home and country as much as if they had been at Pearl Harbor, the Coral Sea or the events of actual war. They were performing a service in keeping the peace of the world and making it impossible for aggressors to destroy our freedom."
In a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, The Hon. Fred Korth, Presiding Bishop Lichtenberger, spoke for the whole Church as follows: "We have all been saddened by the news of the loss of the submarine Thresher. I would like to take this occasion to send you my deep sympathy on behalf of the people of this Church. The sacrifice of the lives of 129 persons aboard is of a magnitude to remind the rest of us that we remain in their debt. There is no service where greater dedication is demanded and given than in today's Navy. You who have this high calling, and especially the families of THRESHER, are in our prayers now."