The Search for the Grunion Blog

Plans and Status of the August 2007

Search for the USS Grunion

Background:

Last August the Abele brothers initiated a search for their dad’s sub, the USS Grunion. Using side scan sonar they found a target near the tip of the Aleutian chain, almost a mile down that was about the right length and breadth and appeared to have an appendage called a prop guard characteristic of that class of subs. In addition they were able to locate the three Japanese wrecks in the area so it seems unlikely that there is confusion between wrecks.

The most important element of the find was that the target was located almost exactly where predicted by their source. That bit of information does two things.

It adds enough credibility to the hypothesis that the target is the Grunion to justify returning this summer with a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV)

It adds credibility to the entire Aiura story. (Aiura was the military captain of the freighter attacked by the Grunion) In turn that focuses attention on a couple of hypotheses as to the cause of the demise of the Grunion.

Plans and Current Status:

The plan is to use the Kale Garcia’s boat the Aquila, as last year. It is currently on the way back from the Solomon Islands and should arrive in Seattle on or before August 1st.

For the ROV we are using a Max Rover supplied by DSSI a division of Oceaneering. This ROV has broadcast quality HD video, and low light cameras. It can handle the depths that we expect.

www.deepseasystems.com

http://www.rovexchange.com/nc_interviews.php

The plan is to mobilize at Seattle then head to the Aleutians for Adak, or possibly Dutch Harbor, where the Aquila will pick up personnel. Adak is only a day away from Kiska, Dutch Harbor about three days.

Relocating the target may be a bit tricky. Although we have GPS coordinates for the ship the sonar was being towed approximately 0.6 miles behind. The problem is that the cable counter was malfunctioning so that layback distance is not accurate. To help in relocating the target We are planning to use a special high power, very narrow beam “fish finder” that should be capable of identifying a sudden change in depth

There are two objectives:

First is to substantiate that the target is the Grunion. Alan Polhemus, a very knowledgeable submariner has pointed out that a good way is to look at the characteristic of the sail. The Grunion had a faired sail in contrast to exposed shears (You have to see a photo to understand what the difference is but it should be easy to recognize.) There also may be a Builders Plaque on the front of the sail with the Grunion name on it. John Alden has pointed out that if it is a submarine (American) it has to be the Grunion since no other subs were lost in that location.

The second and more important objective is to determine what caused the demise of the Grunion. Aiura pointed out that the sub had not surfaced. Nathan Okun a navy armor piercing expert has suggested that it was very unlikely (though not impossible) that an 8 cm shell would penetrate a submerged conning tower. However there was a new (actually developed in 1925) weapon called a flat-nosed projectile that was Japan’s top secret weapon against submarines. It would not ricochet off the water and had enough power to penetrate a conning tower. It may have been used. It may be possible to determine what happened from the pattern of the shell hole.

There are three Japanese wrecks in the area, the destroyer the Arare and the sub chasers SC 25 and SC 27. In light of the contributions of Yutaka it is felt that, if possible, it would be appropriate to get some video of these three ships.

Logistics:

As of July 10th this is what the schedule looks like.

The Aquila will be back at Seattle a couple of days before August 1st. Demobilization will take about 4 days.

The ROV will be ready to ship to Seattle July 27 to 30th. It will take 4 to 6 days to ship across country. Mobilization in Seattle will take 3 to 6 days.

The trip from Seattle to Kiska 12 to 14 days.

Kiska: Worst case August 26th, Best case August 15th

On Other Fronts:

The sub ladies, Rhonda Raye, Vickie Rodgers, Mary Bentz and Laura Conley continue to search for relatives of the crew.

As of June 30, they have found relatives for 67 out of the crew of 70. In addition they have found a sister of George Drew the individual who wrote the remarkable note enclosed in Mrs Abele’s letter to next of kin. The Internet provides unparallel opportunities for family research, but use of that information requires persistence and critical thinking. Letters and phone calls to lists of potential families, to home-town newspapers, and even getting someone to go to a church in a crew-members home town to talk to people who may have known the family, have produced fascinating results. The rewards from making the first contact telephone call are indescribable.

DVDs

Joe Hunter, a Newton neighbor, has produced a DVD that does a remarkable job not only in capturing the human side of this entire effort but in honoring the crew. Almost everybody that has seen it has been very moved.

News and Networks:

There are a number of news organizations that have or are interested in covering parts of this story.

“Best Life” has an article coming out in the September issue.

“National Geographic” is going to have a story on the effort. It will be written by Donovan Webster who has written more articles for NG than anybody.

The History Channel will likely have a short segment on the search in their series “Its More Difficult in Alaska”

The Today Show personnel are actively involved in covering this phase of the effort In fact they are even sending a crew to video the mobilization that will take place in Seattle. They are particularly interested in the efforts of the sub ladies.

“Three minutes off Okinawa” is a book by Roy Anderson about the kamakazi attack on the USS Mannert L Abele a destroyer named to honor the men of the Grunion. It should be in print in a month or so. In addition Darlow Smithson Productions a English producer has created a video “Kamakazis” to be aired on Veteran’s Day on Smithsonian channel. A significant portion of it is about the USS Mannert L Abele.

Things are quite dynamic. The plan is to frequently update a status report that can be accessed on the sidebar on this home page

This website has been put together by Newman Lanier and has played a major part in this entire effort. Last year, during peak periods it was getting about 6000 hits per day from all over the world.

Bruce Abele

mbabele at 999info.net

Jun 21, 2007 6:41 pm US/Eastern

WBZ-TV: Brothers Close To Solving WWII Submarine Mystery

http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_172154157.html

http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_172154157.html

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

 

You are invited to a free public screening of “The Search for the U.S.S. Grunion” at the Newton History Museum on Wednesday July 18 at 7:30 pm. Come and meet Bruce Abele and the show’s producer Joe Hunter.

On July 30, 1942, the U.S.S. Grunion, with a crew of 70 men, was lost off Kiska Island in the Aleutians. Later that year, Kay Abele, widow of the submarine’s captain, moved to Newton with their three sons. For the Abeles and the families of other crew members, the circumstances of the loss remained unknown until a chance posting on the Internet in 2002 began to unlock the mystery. In 2006, after four years of intensive research, Captain Abele’s sons went looking for their father. This is their story. You are invited to a free public screening of “The Search for the U.S.S. Grunion” at the Newton History Museum on Wednesday July 18 at 7:30 pm. Come and meet Bruce Abele and the show’s producer Joe Hunter.

The Search for the U.S.S. Grunion
In June and July, a video presentation, “The Search for the U.S.S. Grunion” will be shown on NewTV, Blue Channel (Comcast Ch. 10, RCN Ch. 15, Verizon Ch. 34) Mondays at 10 am, Tuesdays at 2 pm, and Saturdays at 12 noon. On July 30, 1942, the U.S.S. Grunion, with a crew of 70 men, was lost off Kiska Island in the Aleutians. Later that year, Kay Abele, widow of the submarine’s captain, moved to Newton with their three sons. For the Abeles and the other crew families, the circumstances of the loss remained unknown until a chance posting on the Internet in 2002 began to unlock the mystery. In 2006, after four years of intensive research, Captain Abele’s sons went looking for their father. This is their story. The video will also receive a free special showing on July 18 at the Newton History Museum.

Five Days in May: USS Scorpion Lost — National Review Online
May 23, 2007 | By Jack Yoest
http://www.charmaineyoest.com/uploads/scorpion_yoest.gif

Five Days in May: The loss of the USS Scorpion.

By Jack Yoest

Yolanda Mazzuchi was about the prettiest girl in our school class. Our dads were in the Navy, often gone for months at a time. And they would be welcomed home at dockside with cheers and homemade signs. These
USS Scorpion gatherings at the D&S Piers at the Naval Base in Norfolk, Virginia, were a regular part of our lives growing up. Families often took children out of school to celebrate a ship’s homecoming.

At 1 in the afternoon on Monday, May 27, 1968, at the height of the Cold War the USS Scorpion was due in port.

Yolanda didn’t know it then, but her dad was already dead.

The families gathered on Pier 22 and huddled together in the wind and rain. And looked out over the storm, over white-capped waves.

They waited for the USS Scorpion without any word for five days.

Women for millennia have waited by the sea for their men to return. In bygone eras, a hand-railed walkway was built along the rooftop of sailors’ homes. So that the wives and mothers, and daughters and sons could look out for returning ships. Sometimes the boats didn’t come back. But the women and children would still watch and pray and hope.

In those days, like Penelope, they often waited for months, even decades.

Frank Patsy Mazzuchi, QMSC, a senior chief quartermaster, was looking for a berth teaching at nearby Fort Eustis. The chief and his Navy wife traveled to the Pentagon to work out a deal on his next duty station. The Navy assignment desk persuaded Chief Mazzuchi to take a last submarine tour in the Mediterranean.

The senior, experienced chief was needed on the USS Scorpion: A capstone to his career before retiring. He would make the last voyage. Then shore duty with normal hours, normal life. Instead, the capstone became a headstone.

The submarine “silent service” is an elite, intimate sea-duty. The Scorpion was not a big vessel for her day with 99 men in tight quarters. She was 31-feet wide, powered by a nuclear reactor and armed with two nuclear-tipped torpedoes.

The Scorpion carried Russian-speaking experts for espionage to fight Soviet subs in the Cold War. The Scorpion had just finished its three-month deployment in the Med and was headed home when new orders arrived. The nuclear sub was diverted from its trip home to the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa for a spying mission on Soviet ships.

A high-speed run to the Soviet fleet. Then silence. It is believed that an accidental internal explosion doomed the boat. Questions remain on maintenance.

Without closure.

She was overdue in Norfolk on 27 May and probably sank on 22 May. The Navy declared the sub “presumed lost” on 2 June, 1968.

Finally, in October of that year, the Scorpion’s final resting place was discovered some two miles beneath the surface, west of the Azores. The sub became a coffin to the 99. She will not be raised.

Yolanda says, “Before he left, we had a big argument and I told him that I wished he would go to sea and never come back.”

And he never did. Those departing words haunted her for years. “It took a very long time to get over that remark,” she says.

Her son, the grandson Chief Mazzuchi never saw, joined the Navy. He serves now on the USS Washington in the Caribbean. And doesn’t write as often as he should.

But Yolanda has already forgiven him. As she is sure her father had forgiven her for a little girl’s thoughtless final words.

She says, “In fact, it was not until my children became teenagers that I understood that my father forgave me as quickly as I said it.”

Forgiveness and loss; sorrow and hope and sacrifice. Even today, the Cold War long past, the warriors remain on eternal patrol and the Widow’s Walk continues on Navy Pier. Tracing the steps of those who waited in vain for five days in May, so many years ago.

Penelope and Telemachus, awaiting the return of Odysseus.

Jack Yoest, is president of Management Training of DC, LLC and a former Army Captain. His father served on the submarine Bonefish in WWII and in the Navy for 30 years.

###
Thank you (foot)notes:

The article originally appeared in National Review Online.

See USS Bonefish, Lost June 18, 1945 originally published in the Virginian Pilot.

USS Scorpion (SSN 589)

Spectre of the Scorpion

Local author exposes Cold War cover-up And see the correction.

Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion

IJN Asashio-class destroyer

I draw ARARE possible view. It is from the sonar image that obatined last summer.

Almost canal of Mars. The grids are 5m square.

Destroyer ARARE:
Sunk by USS Growler SS215, Lcdr. Howard W. Gilmore, on Jul. 5, 1942.
Gilmore was KIA on Feb. 7, 1943 at Solomon. The last word was ‘ Take her down’.
Growler was lost on Dec. 8, 1944 during her wolf pack attacking oiler BAN-EI MARU. ”

Arare (霰) was a Asashio-class destroyer of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Her name means “Hail“. On 5 July 1942, Arare and two other destroyers were torpedoed by USS Growler (SS-215) seven miles east of Kiska Harbor ( 52°0′N, 177°40′E). They were anchored waiting for the fog to clear out. Struck amidships, Arare blew up and sank. 42 survivors were rescued by boats from crippled Shiranuhi . Among the survivors was the Arare’s captain, Cdr. Ogata Tomoe.

日本② 朝潮級駆逐艦(10/10)

キスカ Kiska. Sonar image of the Arare on the seafloor at Kiska. Yutaka’s artist rendering of the Arare.

★—————————- グローラー (Growler) アメリカ ガトー級潜水艦(4/195+10)SS215 19計画承認されエレクトリック･ボート/グロートン(コネティカット)造船所で41.11/22進水42.3/20竣工 7/5キスカ島沖で駆逐艦霰を撃沈し同霞､不知火を撃破9/4尖閣諸島西方で給兵艦樫野を撃沈 44.9/12海南島沖で駆逐艦敷波､海防艦平戸を撃沈11/7-8フィリピン､ルソン島マニラ沖でタンカー万栄丸を攻撃中､護衛の駆逐艦時雨､海防艦千振､第19号海防艦の攻撃を受けて沈没.

Growler Cmdr. Howard W. Gilmore

グローラー U.S.S. Growler 215

IJN Asashio class destroyer Asashio, like the Arare.

★

IJN Arare: Tabular Record of Movement http://www.combinedfleet.com/arare_t.htm
ASASHIO Class Notes by Allyn Nevitt: http://www.combinedfleet.com/asashi_n.htm

Advanced Japanese Destroyers of World War II http://www.friesian.com/destroy.htm

Chapter 6: The Aleutian Campaign http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/AAF/USSBS/PTO-Campaigns/USSBS-PTO-6.html

Gato class subs ( in Japanese ) http://hush.gooside.com/name/g/Ga/Gato/Gato.html#anchor1743217

icons of the Japanese Navy warships in WW2 http://www.sam.hi-ho.ne.jp/t_fukuda/moto_i/sozai/irasuto/e_sen_ku.htm

Japanese destroyer Asagumo a Asashio-class destroyer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Asagumo_(1938)

NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive Growler http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08215.htm

On Eternal Patrol - USS Growler (SS-215) http://www.oneternalpatrol.com/uss-growler-215.htm

USS GROWLER November 8, 1944 - 86 Men Lost http://www.csp.navy.mil/ww2boats/growler.htm

The Kangroo Express http://www.submarinesailor.com/boats/ss215growler/

I.J.N. ARARE (July 5, 1942)

Destructor de la Armada Imperial Japonesa que formaba parte del grupo de batalla de portaaviones del Almirante Nagamo el 7 de diciembre de 1941 en el ataque a Pearl Harbor. El Arare fue hundido por un submarino americano, el USS Growler siete millas aproximadas al esta de la Bahía de Kiska. El torpedo impactó en el centro del buque causando que el destructor explotara y se hundiera. Un total de 104 hombres de su tripulación murieron, pero su capitán, Cdr. Ogata Tomoe, sobrevivio.