Originally Posted by
brianb
I don't quite understand. Why won't they recover the crew? Is it to expensive or are there not enough assets to effect a recovery? I thought the military left nobody behind.
Undersea salvage operations are extremely expensive, especially in open ocean, and are usually only undertaken if if needed to recover sensitive material (ex nuclear weapons) or to determine the cause of the accident and save lives in the future. The cause is probably obvious in this case.
Some US military units have a tradition of not leaving anyone behind but that's not an absolute.