Free Republic

An old soldier from out of the past stepped carefully aboard the World War II submarine Pampanito at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf to relive a day he can never forget.His name is Harold Martin. They used to call him "Curley" after his thick blond hair back when he was an Australian soldier, back when he was a prisoner of the Japanese, working as a slave laborer on the infamous ''railway of death" in the jungles of Thailand.It was his fair hair that saved Martin and 72 of his comrades who had been left to die in the South China Sea...

San Francisco's most lethal tourist attraction is getting ready for a makeover. The Pampanito, a World War II-era submarine that sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others, has been sitting for too long in the harsh salt water of San Francisco Bay. The boat has algae and all sorts of tiny sea critters living on her hull, along with the rust, chipped paint and general disrepair that come with age. To spruce up the old warship and keep it as a floating tourist attraction at Fisherman's Wharf, the Maritime National Historical Park Association will take the Pampanito to Alameda...