Posted on 08/18/2006 4:55:24 AM PDT by llevrok
There was no distress call, no indication of enemy depth charges exploding or bulkheads breached, just a dead silence that stretched from a few days into 60 years.
The USS Grunion disappeared in July 1942, leaving 70 American families grieving and the three sons of skipper Mannert L. "Jim" Abele without a father. Abele's boys -- who were 5, 9 and 12 and lived in Newton, Mass., when their father disappeared -- grew up and built their own lives. But they dwelt on the fate of their father.
At 2 a.m. Wednesday, a grainy sonar picture e-mailed via satellite appeared in Bruce Abele's in-box, appearing to show what they had searched for for much of their adult lives: the outline of an oblong object believed to be the Grunion deep in frigid Alaskan waters.
If the discovery is confirmed, it would signify a triumph of luck and perseverance, and put to rest a quest for clues that has spanned decades.
"It's big, very big," 76-year-old Bruce Abele, the eldest of the three sons, said Wednesday. "This mystery has been a part of my consciousness for as long as I can remember."
The Grunion, one of the Gato-class attack submarines commissioned early in World War II, was on its maiden operational voyage when it disappeared while patrolling the seas between Alaska's tip and Japan, according to a Navy Web site.
The submarine made several transmissions in July 1942, reporting that it had sunk three Japanese destroyers. On July 30, it reported heavy anti-submarine activity nearby and said it had 10 remaining torpedoes. It was never heard from again. Warplanes searching for wreckage never found anything.
For years, the sons -- Bruce, Brad and John, who is the founder of Boston Scientific Corp. -- have pored over Navy documents and any shipping records of the area they could locate, and contacted others interested in the Grunion's fate. John Abele, a billionaire, has paid for much of the search.
The brutal seas around the Aleutian Islands are widely considered some of the most dangerous in the world, with winds that can howl at 100 mph, waves taller than a house, and ocean depths of 1,800 feet and greater. Any search mission would have to know where to look, as a long scouting voyage would be dangerous and expensive.
A break came in 2002, when a Japanese man, Yutaka Iwasaki, posted a translation of an article in an obscure Japanese shipping journal on one of several Web sites dedicated to the Grunion.
The article, written by a military officer on board an armed Japanese merchant ship, the Kano Maru, described an exchange of cannon fire and torpedoes with a U.S. submarine in an area where the Grunion would have been patrolling.
Iwasaki's involvement changed everything, John Abele said Wednesday. Not only did the brothers have a place to look for their father's submarine, but they also had newfound friends from the other side of the war.
They were so inspired by the cooperation they received from Iwasaki and others in Japan that they decided to expand the search to find two Japanese sub-chasers, SC-25 and SC-27, that the Grunion sank, along with the Arare, a Japanese destroyer that went down in the same area.
"This has been a very emotional thing for a lot of us," John Abele said.
After four years of research, the brothers finally decided they could make a good enough guess at locations to start looking, with John Abele deciding to fund the search himself.
After a discussion with renowned Titanic explorer Robert Ballard, who declined to take on the exploration, the brothers hired a Seattle ocean surveying firm, Williams and Associates. They also chartered a crab fishing boat, the Aquila, skippered by Kale Garcia, a seasoned veteran of the dangerous waters.
The family is represented on the boat by Peter Lowney, a former Newton resident and crab boat crewman who is chronicling the search with a pair of high-resolution video cameras and sending back frequent updates.
The search, with sonar equipment capable of returning high-quality images, began two weeks ago. The boat traversed a grid, seeing nothing but sonar images of the ocean floor.
Then they saw on the screen a smooth, oblong object with features that could be a tower and periscope mast.
With no other submarines they know of reported sunk in the area, they concluded it must be the Grunion.
John Abele said that the brothers will fly to Alaska next week on his private jet to tour the area and meet with the survey crew. They said they will probably return to the site next year and send an unmanned, remote-control device beneath the waves to get a closer look at the object and take pictures.
Jack Green, a historian at the Naval Historical Center in Washington, D.C., said Wednesday that the Navy has been aware of the Abeles' quest for the Grunion. Green said the Navy rarely helps with such searches and is unlikely to aid in theirs unless the brothers provide more proof than a sonar image.
"But this is very, very exciting," he said. "We'll be very excited to see what they come up with."
While photographs could finally solve the puzzle of what actually happened to the Grunion, John Abele said the brothers' motivations are much more personal.
"We're doing this as much from a desire for connection with my father as to learn the answer to a mystery," he said
God continue to save the souls at rest.
bump
I served on a United States submarine. It is a fate you always think about while you are at sea. God Bless them all.
This story has "movie" written all over it.
U.S.S. Grunion - Still on Patrol.
If I were Bush I would order the Navy to go out and investigate the site for God sakes. The Navy should be more then willing to bring closure to the loss of their own boat and crew from battle.
This is just pathetic of the US Navy.
People actually were on a Grunion hunt! Rest in Peace, brave sailors.
Anyone taking the mainstream media's facts - as printed - is extremely pathetic.
"...are the one who's pathetic..." should read; "is the one who's pathetic..."
"Lord God, our power evermore,
Whose arm doth reach the ocean floor,
Dive with our men beneath the sea;
Traverse the depths protectively.
O hear us when we pray, and keep
Them safe from peril in the deep."
We are in the era of "Do more with less", so our Naval resources have alot more to worry about first. They may help with recovery, but it is important that this needs to be verified first. SONAR images are usually pretty reliable, but remember that it still could be just about anything down there. Let's not condemn our U.S. Navy until it is prudent to. Also keep in mind the logistical hazards of the location and the dangers to those involved in any recovery.
The Navy can't go tearing-around every time a private citizen makes sonar contact with some wreckage. And (attempting not to be morbid) there is no reason to attempt the recovery of the bodies, as they are considered to be at rest (unlike those of, say, a soldier in the field).
A Marine would risk a hail of fire to go back in search of fellow lost Marines. A dirty shame the Navy does not feel the same way.
FYI, that's a big one.
It was SteelCurtain_SSN720 who sugested recovery, not I. I merely questioned why the Navy would not attempt to verify the site as being the wreckage of the sub.
Burial at sea has been a naval custom (originally from necessity) since just about...FOREVER!
2. A dirty shame the Navy does not feel the same way. You have no knowledge of what they are doing now, or what they did when she first disappeared.
3. Not trying to get into a pi$$ing match here, but YOUR arguement about Marines is moot until all POW/MIA's have been accounted for. After all, isn't that the only thing they have on their plate right now? /sarc off
Have you ever heard of the term "operational need?" The Navy budget has been cut drastically. Army, Marines, and Air Force are getting the Lion's share of the budget these days. I would rather the Navy put the money into keeping today's sailors alive and into successful missions today and tomorrow. We already know that the Grunion went down with all hands. The sons of the crew are searching now, which seems very appropriate. I'm glad they have been successful.
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