Free Republic

The crew of the California (and their families, the commander would hasten to add) make these sacrifices because they believe in the submarine’s role in protecting the United States. “We will be called upon to execute the full spectrum of both peacetime and wartime missions, ranging from intelligence collection to kinetic warfare,” states the leadership principles Commander Sager distributed to his officers.

Howard Ortega joined the Navy in 1943 and went to war aboard the submarine USS Lagarto. He never returned, and the fate of Ortega and 86 crewmates remained a mystery for six decades until divers found the sub 150 miles off the coast of Thailand. mms://216.139.229.126/11-10-06usslagarto.wmv

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...