The Search for the Grunion Blog

Mary Bentz

Sixty eight years ago today the USS Grunion left us forever. Her memory remains with us and we continue to remember and honor those 70 men who paid the ultimate price that day.

Taking place this afternoon at the Veterans Cemetery in Jacksonville, Missouri there is a memorial service for USS Grunion’s Electrician’s Mate Third Class, Ernest Glenn Hellensmith from Moberly Missouri, arranged by his niece, Becky Franke. Just a few weeks ago, one of the finest tributes to this Grunion crew member and the USS Grunion, appeared in the Moberly Monitor by Ben Herrold, and can be found at Lost Found and Remembered.

During the past year, my main focus has been honoring each of our crew, at many military web sites, including those listed below. This labor of love continues. We encourage you to visit the following sites regularly.

On Eternal Patrol

Created and managed by Charles Hinman at the USS Bowfin Museum in Honolulu, the site continues to be updated and enhanced. Just this year he has completed personal memorial pages for each of the over 4,000 men lost while serving in the U.S. Submarine Force since 1900. He is also heavily involved with the five lost submarine discoveries in the last five years.

The Navy Log

This monumental task began a few months ago. I have had the distinct honor and pleasure to be working with Ms. Nan McComber and her team in the Navy Log Department at the Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C. All 70 crew members’ logs already existed on the Navy Log., but during the past several weeks I have worked with Nan to update the crew information acquired from each of the crew member’s Service Records.

Her excellent work, her outstanding ethics and devotion to the men and women who have paid the ultimate price, is commendable. She and others in her department have worked long days, into the evenings and weekends to reach this goal. Completed just today are these updated logs for each of the crew to include Photos and Significant Duty Stations.

When the Navy Log site appears, insert USS GRUNION in the duty station and click on “Find it.”

Find your loved one’s name on the list and click on “view log” If you want to look at other crew member’s logs, use your “Back” to take you back to the complete list of crew members.

At the bottom of the page there is a reference to “Memories”. This is another part of the Navy memorial Log that I will be working on with Nan in the near future. If you have special memories that you would like for me to include, please email me at ca.par@hotmail.com and I will do my best to accommodate your wishes.

This website also presents a “Ship’s Tribute” site which provide tributes to all of the ships that served in the Pacific. Grunion’s site was just completed this week:
United States Navy Memorial

The Purple Heart Hall of Honor

The National Purple Heart Hall of Honor commemorates the extraordinary sacrifices of America’s servicemen and servicewomen who were killed or wounded in combat. The mission of the Hall of Honor is to collect and preserve the stories of Purple Heart recipients from all branches of service and across generations to ensure that all recipients are represented.

Working with Alison Manges and Bobby Montarro is a very pleasant experience and all of our men, with the exception of the officers of Grunion are now enrolled here. Grunion’s officers who as a group are not only unlisted on ABMC as Purple Heart recipients, but who were, it seems, never “put in” for the medal. We are continuing to work with Navy Casualty to have these medals awarded and forwarded to the officers’ next of kin. We will also continue to work with Navy Causality to correct all errors that we find.
The Purple Heart Hall of Honor is located at 374 Temple Hill Road, Vails Gate, New York. If you are in the area please consider a visit to this Hall of Honor in your plans. It is a wonderful place to learn about history of our brave veterans. Their displays tell a story that needs to be heard by all Americans. This facility provides a wonderful history and a memorial to those who gave of themselves.
The Roll of Honor is accessed by http://www.thepurpleheart.com/recipient/. Follow the prompts to reach the Roll of Honor.

If you know of any other Purple Heart recipients, check with Alison Manges alison.manges@oprhp.state.ny.us to verify their enrollment in the Purple Heart Hall of Honor. She will be happy to help.

WW II Registry

In the January 28, 2010 Grunion Blog Update we talked about the WWII Registry. Let me review what is available there:

The Registry is a wonderful tool that combines four distinct databases that can be searched for names of those whose service and sacrifice helped win the Second World War. Those listed are on official War and Navy Department Killed in Service rosters now held by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Also there is an opportunity for the public to enroll any and as many Registry of Remembrances as desired. Note that:

• For each of the USS Grunion crew, there is a tribute and a photograph from “The Families of the Grunion”.

• The United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. has permitted me to update each of the Grunion crew files. That was completed early spring this year.

One of the four databases in the WWII Registry, ABMC Tablets of the Missing has a link for each of our men. There is also a link on their own website. Many others and I have found it to be riddled with errors, and began contacting them last December. I have been trying to have the worst of the errors corrected, but there are a number of corrections that have not been taken care of. In seeking assistance from the Navy POW/MIA/KIA Casualty Assistance Branch in Millington, TN, and forwarding evidence to support our claims, we were able to get some relief. But errors are still there and I have no idea when to expect updates.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

With the exception of the eye witness accounts and other documentation that came from historians in Japan, most of the historical information we have about the USS Grunion has been obtained with the able assistance and guidance of personnel at the offices the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) in both Washington, DC and College Park, MD, and at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. The Personnel Records, Purple Heart Cards, Muster Rolls and Change Reports, Deck Logs, Log Books, and War Diaries provided by these facilities have made it possible to follow the Grunion’s keel-laying, her construction, her commissioning, her journey and experiences on the way to Pearl Harbor, her training in the Pacific, her first and only war patrol to the Aleutian Islands, and the background of the valiant crew of 70 sailors who were lost when the Grunion went down.

The following are to be commended for their eagerness and dedication to remembering, honoring and respecting all of our fallen Americans. The focus and goal here is to make this history accurate for not only those who want to remember now, but in coming years as new generations reach out to learn about and remember these heroes. Research matters.

National Archives and Records Administration:
• Steve Riordan, McCaffery Associates
• Pat Osborn and Nate Patch - NARA, College Park, MD
• Whitney Mahar and Christopher Secrest, National Personnel Records Center, St. Louis, MO
• Paul W. Wittmer, WWII submarine veteran and dedicated volunteer researcher in St. Louis, MO

Kenneth Terry and Rudy Gonzales of the POW/MIA/KIA Branch of the Navy Personnel Command, Casualty Assistance Division in Millington, TN are working toward having the corrections made at ABMC. They are also working to have Purple Hearts awarded to the seven of Grunion’s crew (6 officers and one enlisted man) who did not receive them.

Thank you all for making this possible.

If you have any questions, or find any errors or discrepancies in the links, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

On this day of remembrance, I would like to share this poem which was sung on the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the Camps. Dick and I were honored to be a part of the choir that sang it at Auschwitz that day.

We Remember Them
In the rising of the sun and in its going down,
We remember them.
In the blowing of the wind and in the chill of winter
We remember them.
In the opening of the buds and in the rebirth of spring,
We remember them.
In the blueness of the sky and in the warmth of summer,
We remember them.
In the rustling of the leaves and in the beauty of autumn,
We remember them.
In the beginning of the year and when it ends,
We remember them.
When we are weary and in need of strength,
We remember them.
When we are lost and sick at heart,
We remember them.
When we have joys we yearn to share,
We remember them.
So long as we live, they too shall live,
For they are now a part of us,
As we remember them.