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Years Later, Unearthing Answers to Submarine's Loss
The USS Grunion left Pearl Harbor on June 30, 1942, and was last heard from July 30, 1942. A group has found what it thinks is the sub's wreckage near Alaska.
(Courtesy Of Naval Historical Center)
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"My father would talk about the war, and about his brother, and wonder where he was," Bentz said. The uncertainty "just went on and on and on."
For the past year, as hope of finding the submarine grew, Bentz has been working with two other women, who also had uncles aboard the Grunion, to locate as many relatives of the crew members as possible. They have found at least one relative for each of the 70 crew members, Bentz said. "We've become affectionately known as the 'sub ladies,' " she said.
The Grunion left Pearl Harbor on June 30, 1942, with orders to proceed to the Aleutians and patrol westward toward Japan. The submarine was directed to the waters around Kiska, which shortly before had been captured by the Japanese. In mid-July, the Grunion reported sinking several Japanese patrol boats.
The sub's last message, describing a heavy enemy presence at the Kiska harbor, was received at the submarine base at Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians on July 30, 1942. Efforts to contact the submarine were unsuccessful, and search planes were unable to find signs of the Grunion. The Navy listed the submarine as missing in action, cause unknown.
In 2002, the Abeles came across a reference to a translated article that had been published in a Japanese trade magazine describing a confrontation between a U.S. submarine and an armed Japanese freighter in the waters off Kiska on July 31, 1942.
The freighter, Kano Maru, reported that it was hit by a torpedo fired by a submarine but that it had managed to sink the sub with fire from an 8cm gun when it surfaced. The article included information on the ship's position east of Kiska.
Intrigued, the Abeles researched further and hired a firm, Deep Sea Systems International, to launch an expedition to Kiska in August 2006. Sonar images of a sub-shaped silhouette were promising and led to a return expedition this year.
On Aug. 22, a remotely operated vehicle took photographs and video footage of the wreckage on a rocky slope about 1,000 feet below the surface.
The search team has found no nameplate or identifying number for the Grunion. But the wreckage's location and appearance leaves Abele with no doubt that it's the Grunion. "It's roughly the equivalent of certainty that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow," he said. "There's no question that what we found is the sub."
For many of the relatives of the Grunion's crew members, the news of the discovery resonates even after 65 years.
"I was so excited," said Marino, who was 2 when her uncle died. "My husband told me, 'You never knew this man. Calm down, you're going to have a heart attack.' I told him, 'You can't understand what it means to find out what happened.' "
Military Matters is published twice each month in the Extras. Steve Vogel may be reached atvogels@washpost.com.
