Archived Story
01-21-2007: news-state
This photo provided by Diane Loe, of Raleigh, N.C., niece of Sidney Loe, shows Sidney Loe, the USS Grunion sailor from Sanish, N.D., in an undated photo. Sidney Loe was among a crew of 70 lost at sea in the summer of 1942 during World War II when the submarine USS Grunion apparently was in a confrontation with the Kano Maru, a Japanese ship. Now, the Grunion may be located through a search effort. (AP Photo/Diane Loe)
Search is on for lost submarine
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/01/21/news/state/127490.txt
MINOT (AP) - Amber Loe remembers when his older brother, Sidney, came to visit him at the foster home where he was living in LaMoure before Sidney enlisted in the Navy.
That was more than 60 years ago, and the last time Amber Loe, of Manvel, ever saw his brother. The brothers were born at Sanish in Mountrail County.
Sidney Loe was among a crew of 70 lost at sea in the summer of 1942 during World War II when the submarine USS Grunion apparently was in a confrontation with the Kano Maru, a Japanese ship.
The submarine was never heard from again. Earlier, the Grunion had been attacked by several sub chasers and sank two of them, said Bruce Abele, of Newton, Mass. His father, Lt. Cmdr. Mannert L. “Jim” Abele, 39, was the Grunion’s skipper.
Now, the Grunion may be located through a search effort.
Abele’s three sons launched the expedition to locate the wreck of the USS Grunion near Kiska Island, at the tip of the Aleutian chain near Alaska. The island was Japanese-occupied at the time of the Grunion’s encounter with the freighter.
Bruce Abele, a retired computer engineer, is the oldest of Mannert Abele’s sons and was 12 when his father disappeared. His younger brothers, Brad and John, were 9 and 5. The Abele family is financing the search for the Grunion.
“After the war, a search of both American and Japanese war records was made. There was nothing about the Grunion. It remained ‘missing in action, cause unknown,”‘ Bruce Abele said.
Through the efforts of Yutaka Iwasaki, an interpreter and World War II Japanese navy buff, the probable location of the encounter between the Grunion and the Japanese ship recently became known. The Abele brothers enlisted the help of Williamson & Associates of Seattle to do a sonar search for the submarine.
“Last August, as a result of an incredible combination of events and people, we were able to locate a target with a side-scan sonar that is almost certainly the Grunion,” Bruce Abele said.
The ocean-surveying firm, using the side-scan sonar, searched the waters near Kiska Island. There, the sonar image shows finding a vessel the same size as the Grunion and in the same location where the Grunion is believed to have gone down.
Plans are to return to the area this summer, Bruce Abele said.
“We are actively planning a return next August with a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) that will be able to handle the extreme depth, almost a mile. The objective will be to attempt to substantiate that it is the Grunion, and more important, to see if we can determine what caused its demise,” he said.
Along with the Abeles’ search for the submarine came a search for the families of crew members.
“One of the more remarkable happenings is that due to two very remarkable women, we have now located relatives for 65 out of the 70 of the crew. They have located five relatives of Sidney Loe,” Bruce Abele said.
Anna Loe, Amber’s wife, said they were first contacted this past August about the search for Sidney Loe’s relatives and told that a search of his submarine was under way.
Vickie Rodgers, one of the women searching for Grunion crew members’ relatives, contacted a Loe relative in Minneapolis who put Rodgers in contact with Amber and Anna Loe at Manvel. Rodgers, of Kentucky, has also been in contact with Amber and Anna Loe’s daughter, Diane, who lives in North Carolina.
Amber, Anna and Diane provided some details about Sidney and the Loe family.
Sidney Loe was born in Sanish in 1916. His parents, Henry and Ingeborg came from Norway around 1906 and homesteaded about five miles north of Sanish.
The Sanish community is one of the communities in western North Dakota covered with water of Lake Sakakawea.
Henry and Ingeborg had several children, but when the youngest child was born in 1927, Ingeborg died and the family split up.
“Most of the kids were put in foster homes except the three older ones,” Anna Loe said. She said the youngest child was adopted and his name was changed from Karl Loe to Vern Jacobson. Jacobson, who died in 2005, lived most of his life in Amidon and Dickinson.
Amber, 84, the third youngest of the Loe family, Mildred “Mid” Zalewski, 92, and Vivian Meehan, 81, both living in Illinois, are the only living siblings of Sidney Loe.
After Sidney enlisted in the Navy, he went to Great Lakes Naval Station, then was sent to San Diego. “I think he got on the sub and was stationed in Hawaii for a while. We have pictures of him,” Anna Loe said.
Sidney Loe, a motor machinist’s mate, second class, and others are listed on the Web site www.oneternalpatrol.com.
Two other brothers, Torgny and Elgin “Bud,” were also in the military, Anna Loe said.
At the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, is a public memorial honoring the 52 American submarines and the more than 3,500 submariners, including Sidney Loe, lost during World War II. The park is adjacent to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center.
Amber and Anna Loe have visited the submarine memorial at Pearl Harbor where Sidney’s name is listed.
The Loes have been married for nearly 61 years. For many years, Amber Loe managed Farmers Union cooperatives in several communities in eastern North Dakota.
“If they find the Grunion, I would be very interested in visiting the site,” Diane Loe said. She said other family members may also be interested.
Diane Loe said she would also be interested in attending a reunion of the crew members’ families, if such an event is held. Anna Loe said their health would determine whether they could attend such an event.
The Loe family has paid tribute to Sidney in his home area.
Sidney Loe is remembered in the Sanish Riverview Cemetery near New Town where family members have placed a marker in his memory. He also is listed on the registry for the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.