Ed Walston’s comment of 22 October included his analysis of damage related to GRUNION periscopes. I am not sure how this comment might affect his analysis but he is NOT correct in at least two respects.

He attributes certain damage to the “hydraulic system / rams”. Hydraulic periscope hoists were an innovation later in the war. GRUNION and other boats of her era would have had electric motor periscope hoists. Each periscope had a motor and pulleys in the overhead of the conning tower which pulled up two cables, one either side of the periscope. I am not sure about how the motors were controlled for lowering but the periscopes went down because of their own weight. Hydraulic hoists were faster and may have had other advantages as well.

Ed indicated that the force with which the periscope would have been forced down into the boat would vary with the amount of periscope extended. Not so. The force pushing the periscope into the boat would have been a function of the cross-sectional area of the periscope barrel and the ambient sea pressure regardless of how much the scope was extended.
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Just wanted to say that we thoroughly enjoyed the “family reunion” before the presentation of October 18. My grandmother, Goldie Caroline Ferguson “Surofchek” Colson, the widow of Steven Surofchek, one of the 70 crewmen on the Grunion, was so pleased with everything. Her daughter, Mary Patricia “Surofchek” Stokes, was only three years old as we have shared before, in 1942 when the Grunion was classified as “missing.” The events that you planned were so special to our family. We actually were able to meet a relative that we had never seen before. Thank you so much for all that you have done and continue to do. The Garcia family is really neat and it was a blessing to meet them as well. Let your brother John know how much we appreciate ALL that he has done to make this possible. We will be praying for your brother Brad. Let him know that we are sorry we did not have the opportunity to meet him.
Sincerely,
Teresa S. Baker