Archive for the ‘And now for something completely different…’ Category

Veteran’s Day and the Tomb of the Unknowns

And now for something completely different... | Posted by Rebekah
Nov 11 2011

Memorial Day, (in America celebrated on the last Monday in the month of May) began as a way to honor the fallen Union and Confederate soldiers. The concept developed further in the aftermath of WWI.  While the final treaty ending WWI wasn’t signed until 24 July 1923, the fighting ended (temporarily then permanently) on 11 a.m., November 11, 1919.  On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, arms were laid down and the soldiers began the long process of returning home, and remembering the nearly 35 million souls, both civilian and military who had perished.

It became known as Armistice Day at first, and was celebrated as the end of the War to End All Wars.  The effects of WWI were long, and far reaching, even in 1919.  Discounting the events leading up to WWII, people all over the US and Europe sought a way to celebrate and commemorate their men.

The concept of a Tomb of an Unknown Soldier was also started at this time.  A British Chaplain by the name of David Railton was working in France and came across a rough wooden cross marking a grave.  The cross read “An Unknown British Soldier”, and Railton had the idea of bringing one of these unidentified boys back and burying them in Westminster Abbey, alongside the Royalty, artists, explorers, authors and other notable and distinguished personages of Britain, to stand for all the men who would never come back home.  It took a very short while for the idea to take root and get going, and on November 11, 1920, both Britain and France laid an unidentified man to rest in locations befitting the highest honors their countries could bestow. (In England, inside Westminster Abbey, in France, Under the Arc de Triumphe.)  In the British case, a set of unidentified remains were exhumed from their battlefield grave, covered with a Union Jack flag and taken to a chapel where Brigadier General Wyatt and Colonel Gell of the Graves Registration Department chose one, neither knowing anything about which remains came form which battlefield.  Those  remains not selected were respectfully reburied, but the chosen one was placed in a plain coffin and escorted with full honors to a castle in Bologne. There, the coffin was further enclosed    casket made of timbers from the Royal Palace of Hampton Court, bound with iron and a Medieval sword, selected by King George V from the Royal Collection, and a shield bearing an inscription “A British Warrior who fell in the Great War for King and Country.” He was laid to rest, after a long, ceremonial trip, in the West Nave of Westminster Abbey, where soil from each major battlefield covered his grave and 100 women who had lost their husband and all sons to the war stood in attendance, along with the Royal Family.  Today, he rests beneath a black granite stone, engraved with brass melted down from war ammunitions, and wreathed with silken poppies.

I got to see the grave a few years back when I spent an incredible five hours touring Westminster (and it wasn’t nearly long enough).  There are graves EVERYWHERE there, and despite what my parents taught me about being polite in graveyards and not deliberately walking on anyone, you can’t help it.  Except for that grave.  No one, king or commoner, Brit or foreigner, is allowed to step on it, and it’s just incredible how it sits at  the Western door to the Abbey and despite the babble of voices checking out the graves of the Tudors, Edwards the Longshanks, Oliver Cromwell, Chaucer, Dickens, and so so so so many more, that section of the church, voices just fall silent, and people so very carefully, respectfully, move around the soldier, and give him his peace.  Royal Brides, beginning with the Queen Mum, have laid their bridal bouquets there (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon lost her brother in WWI), including the most recent Royal Wedding this past April.  Foreign heads of state often lay wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, and he has been decorated with many foreign decorations in the 91 years he’s slept, including the American Medal of Honor. (The only time any of this caused a problem was when a Nazi official laid a Swastika wreath at the tomb in 1933.  A British WWI Veteran  threw it in the Thames.)

The idea soon inspired America.  Four of its warriors from different battlefields were disinterred  and brought to a city hall in Chalon-en-Champagne, where US Army Sgt. Younger laid a spray of white roses on one casket, which was returned to the USA and laid in state until Armistice Day, 1921, when he was laid to rest among the best and brightest of our honored military dead in Arlington National Cemetery.  The ceremony was attended by US President Harding, and, representing WWI ally Britain, Admiral of the Fleet Lord Beatty, who awarded the American Unknown with the highest honor Britain can bestow, the Victoria Cross, which was placed with him before burial.  The marble sarcophagus was built over top his grave in 1926.

After WWII, the Tomb was expanded.  One unidentified soldier from the European Theater and one from the Pacific Theater was exhumed, placed in identical caskets aboard the USS Canberra, where corpsmen and Medal of Honor recipient William Charette, not knowing which casket was from which theater, chose one to join his WWI brother.  A similar method was used to selected the Korean unknown from four candidates as was the Vietnam Unknown.  (In 1998, using DNA technology, the Vietnam unknown was identified and released to be buried with his family)

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded 24 hours a day, seven days a week, no matter the weather, and the assignment to guard the Tomb is considered one of the highest honors in the military. Those who complete the rigorous training never wear any insignia of their own ranks, lest they inadvertently outrank the Unknowns.

In 1954, America even founded a Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier in Philadelphia, and the Tomb of the Unknown Confederate Soldier in Biloxi Mississippi in 1981.  (Arlington National Cemetery, of course, was founded as a burial site, originally, for Union Soldiers, many of whom were also unidentified.)

Armistice Day was supposed to help us remember the war that ended all wars, but sadly, WWI ended up being a prelude.  How Armistice Day was remembered developed in many countries, but today, it is the National Day of Veterans Remembrance in many countries of the world.  It is Remembrance Day in the United Kingdom which celebrates with two minutes of national silence, and, since the US already had a “Memorial Day” it is called Veterans Day in the USA, celebrated through a variety of observances, the most famous of all has to be the laying of the wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

So today, I honor all those who have served, are serving, and will someday serve in our Armed Forces, keeping us safe and defending our freedoms with their years, training, and sometimes, their lives. May we keep reminding ourselves of history so that you may never again find yourselves in another World War.

You are Never Forgotten.

More Links:

Photos of WWI Battlefields, 90 years on

Underground tunnels discovered in WWI Battlefields

Newly uncovered WWI Diary with haunting drawings made at the front

Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier

Facts about Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Website of the Old Guard, the men who guard the Tomb of Unknown Soldier

Other photos and links to various Tombs of the Unknowns around the World

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Dive Detectives Update

And now for something completely different... | Posted by Rebekah
Mar 29 2011

You know, I just realized that I posted this on my Facebook page, my USS Flier Project Facebook page, and my newsletter to the Flier Network, but not here.  <facepalm>

Last time I updated about the Dive Detectives and their show on the discovery of Flier, YAP Films announced that the American rights had been sold to an unnamed channel to be shown at some future (unknown) date.  That was way back in October.

I’m happy to say that all the details have been hammered out.  The Dive Detectives has been purchased by the Smithsonian Channel, and will be shown Sundays at 8 pm beginning THIS Sunday.  I’ll post links and schedules below.

I’ve seen the Flier episode at the special preview held during the Flier Memorial Weekend in Muskegon, and also managed to get my hands on a full presentation of Lost A-Bombs, and I have to say, by and large, I’m really impressed.  The two divers, Mike and Warren Fletcher, were highly professional when I met them that weekend (so yes, I’m more than likely prejudiced in their favor) and more than happy to spend time answering multiple questions from the surviving families, and describing the resting place of Flier.  I’m just disappointed that right now, in my life, I don’t have television AT ALL much less access to a channel like this.  Though, I must admit, I’ve been enjoying the free full episodes Smithsonian streams.  I’m not completely deprived.  Depraved…that’s a matter of opinion.  Deprived…not so much.

Smithsonian seems to sell a number of their series and episodes, both at an online store and on iTunes, so that’s where I’m going to be shopping when the full run is over.

Dive Detectives premieres on Sunday, April 3, at 8 pm with an episode about the iconic Lake Superior wreck Edmund Fitzgerald.  The show about Flier will air on May 1, at 8 pm.  I will post details about the purchase of that episode or the whole series once it’s available/I can find it.

Excited!

The Smithsonian Channel’s page on The Dive Detectives

 

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A strange endpoint to Flier’s grounding….

And now for something completely different... | Posted by Rebekah
Mar 23 2011

Boy, when I go underground, I dig deep and never come up for air, huh? I do apologize for that…again.  Thanks for understanding.

An interesting postscript to Flier’s Midway grounding appeared when I was doing the research for this.  After the war, in the 1950′s, Midway was still a thriving base, complete with schools, housing, medical facilities, recreational facilities, ect. ect.  The one thing Midway didn’t have, however, was a well.  There is no source of fresh water in Midway, and no way to get enough through cistern means.

So it’s freighted in on water barges.  In the 1950′s Midway was struck by yet another major storm, and a water barge grounded…pretty much in the exact same spot Flier had a little over ten years earlier.  This barge is half sunk, either its bow or stern (what’s left of it) is still above water, and the rest gently descends below the surface.  The SCUBA sites for midway describe the water barge as a wonderful place to go snorkling, see fish, take photos, provided the tides and currents are all safe enough to do so.

This Water Barge is visible from Google Earth.  Not very detailed, but it is visible:

There you have it. From what I can gather, this is the point where Flier grounded. The Wreck of the Macaw is due west of it, in the deepest part of the channel.

I’ve never been able to find a good photograph of this barge until I stumbled on an old Blog called “Midway Ranger”.  It’s over two years old now, but it’s a fascinating look at what modern Midway Island is.  Only a handful of people stay there anymore, and tourists are strictly regulated.  It’s the main nesting place for a large number of different kinds of Albatross, more commonly known in WWII as “Gooney Birds”.  Nearly three million birds can be found nesting on Midway Atoll, and judging from the photos, they’re not shy one bit!

But this Ranger posted the only photo of this water barge I’ve ever seen taken from the ground.

Actually, I think this photo is quite stunning. I'm told there are monk seals that are quite fond of that wreck too.

Actually, Midway was also hit by the tsunami that struck Japan two weeks ago.  When it hit Midway, it was only five feet high, but it still managed to swamp Spit Island (the smallest), completely cover 60% of Eastern Island, and 20% of Sand Island, the largest, and only currently inhabited island in the atoll.  There was enough warning to evacuate personnel, but the albatross population was hit hard this year.

So there we are.  If you’re interested in more, check these out:

Midway Ranger Blog (interesting look at a year in the life of a Ranger living on Midway Island.

British Article Documenting the 2011 Tsunami Damage of Midway Island

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The Day that Will Live in Infamy…but it didn’t have to.

And now for something completely different... | Posted by Rebekah
Dec 08 2010

*This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but for a number of reasons, I had to finish it a day late.  We’ll return to the Flier tomorrow (I’ve already started on the next post).  I hope you think it was worth the wait.

It was a quiet Sunday morning.  The winter storms that routinely lashed the sea northeast of Oahu were at it again, pouring rain on Kahuka Point and obscuring most of the horizon with low clouds, though right over Pearl Harbor, the sky was clear.  The fleet lay at anchor, in the neat double rows on Battleship Row, at the small Submarine Base, and even in the dry docks, having their hulls scraped and checked for the corrosion that the saltwater carved into their sides.

The sun had only just risen.  A minimum of crew was on call.  Some were sleeping off the effects of the night before.  Others were at their homes on shore, with their families, undoubtedly looking forward to a relaxing day at church and playing with their children.  A few were already stumbling into kitchens and restaurants and Mess Halls, seeking that morning cup of coffee and a bite of breakfast.

Suddenly, airplanes shot out of the clouds, strafing the ground, dropping bombs on the peaceful ships at harbor.  In moments, the harbor was in disarray, men scrambling to gain their battle stations, but it was already too late.  The ships were already damaged, some severely, both at anchor and those in the dry docks.  Nothing was spared.

The planes headed back out to sea, and there, in the midst of the storm, a small group of ships waited for their return, hiding in the rain, safe from the eyes of radar.  The planes landed safely on the two carriers.

In the Bridge of the lead carrier, the admiral listened with satisfaction to reports of the damage.  When presented with the final report, he smiled, and signed it:

Adm. Harry E. Yarnell

USS SARATOGA

Sunday, February 7, 1932

That’s right.  Pearl Harbor was first attacked on February 7, 1932, nine years before the date that will live in infamy. On December 7, 1941, we as a country pause to remember the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, and the lives lost there, but few know that the attack on Pearl had been eerily foretold nine years earlier.

See, in the beginning of the 20th century, the backbone of the Navy was the behemoth battleships and destroyers.  Aircraft Carriers and Submarines were considered little more than niche vessels which had limited uses.

But one admiral, Harry Yarnell, believed that the Navy had more to fear from an aerial attack delivered from the deck of a carrier, than from ever larger confrontations between larger and larger ships and deck guns. During the annual combined Navy war games at Pearl Harbor, he set out to prove his point.  Every year, Yarell’s ships in California would leave for Pearl, “attacking” the battleships stationed in Pearl.  (at this time the military’s main Pacific base was in San Diego, not Pearl Harbor, so Yarell had the larger fleet.)  Usually, the radio traffic between the massive fleet would be intercepted by Pearl, their battleships would leave harbor, and they would “battle” out in the open sea.

In 1932 however, Yarnell left most of his allotted ships in California with orders to maintain radio silence.  He took Aircraft Carriers SARATOGA and LEXINGTON out to sea with a small escort of three destroyers.  They traveled under radio silence, staying away from the traveled freighter lanes, and sought an area where they couldn’t be seen from the radar towers on Hawaii.  During the winter months, storms routinely happened near Oahu, and here, he hid, knowing the radar couldn’t see them, and no freighter would be near.  To top it all off, he also decided to attack on Sunday, a day he knew was the day most sailors would be off duty, and also most likely to be off-ship.

The “bombs” and “strafing” were just flares and bags of flour, but the referees of the war games judged that Yarnell had been more than successful, sinking EVERY ship in Pearl Harbor, as well as figuratively destroying every land-based plane in Oahu.  In addition, 24 hours after the attack, using what few battleships that had been at sea during the simulated attack, the Pearl Harbor team hadn‘t been able to locate Yarnell’s small fleet.  From Yarnell’s point of view, it had been a complete success, and he and his officers argued that, having proved the effectiveness of an aerial attack from a carrier, they should become more central to the plans of the military, instead of outlying support vehicles for the battleships.

But it was also an idea ahead of its time. The admirals, who believed that the battleship was still the workhorse of the navy, protested the results, insisting that if this was a real scenario, their battleships would have found the aircraft carriers and destroyed them first.

In the end, the battleship officers won, and in the years between 1932 and 1941, the military and FDR ordered the construction of another twelve battleships but only four aircraft carriers, the YORKTOWN, ENTERPRISE, WASP and HORNET.  (and only the ENTERPRISE was supposed to be assigned to the Pacific Fleet, where Yarnell feared a Japanese attack.) The Navy was growing, but the retired Yarnell feared that it was growing the wrong sectors.

What few knew, was the Japanese paid attention to this particular war game, and sent a detailed record to Tokyo about how the surprise was accomplished.  Records later showed that the Japanese War College studied this attack in 1936, coming to the following conclusion:

“in case the enemy’s main fleet is berthed at Pearl Harbor, the idea should be to open hostilities by surprise attack from the air.”

Even stranger, in the winter of 1938, Pearl Harbor was attacked AGAIN.  And like in 1932, she was attacked by American forces during the annual war games.  This time, Admiral Ernest King used the Aircraft Carrier SARATOGA (again) to launch and aerial attack to make the point that Pearl Harbor was still vulnerable to this type of attack.  Sadly, the result of his successful maneuver was the same as Yarell’s in 1932: nothing.

And in May 1940, the fleet, against the recommendation of Pacific Admiral James Richardson moved from San Diego to Pearl Harbor.  Admiral Richardson was soon relieved of duty and replaced by Husband Kimmel who also had concerns about Pearl but saw what the price for complaining was.

The stage was set, and the Japanese, believing that they would not be able to withstand the full might of the American Navy if the United States entered the Pacific conflict, decided to take out the fleet at Pearl Harbor, following the pattern set in 1932 by Admiral Yarell.  Their fleet traveled in radio silence, they traveled off the well-traveled shipping lanes of the Pacific, and they hid in the foul winter weather, and attacked just after dawn on a Sunday.

The bombs weren’t flour bags, on this, the third attack of Pearl Harbor, and 2,896 men and women died; military as well as civilians.

And the Japanese caused that which they sought to circumvent: the American entry into war.

As a strange ending to our tale, Admiral Yarnell got the last laugh, though I’m sure he never would have used that phrase.  On the morning of December 7, 1941, most of our battleships and destroyers were in port, and were damaged or sunk.  But all three aircraft carriers in the Pacific*, which the Japanese desperately sought to destroy (because they knew how useful they would be) were not in port.  The ENTERPRISE was at sea, returning from Wake Island, and held up both because of foul weather and because some of her escort had run out of fuel and needed to refuel.  The LEXINGTON was at sea, delivering Marine aircraft to Midway Atoll, and the SARATOGA, veteran of Pearl Harbor attacks, was being repaired at San Diego.  Oops, missed.  A miss that would be crucial.

The other crucial miss of course, was the Submarine Base at Pearl.  Not only was the Submarine Base missed, it was never planned to be hit by any wave of aircraft (even the third wave which the Japanese never launched).  By sundown on December 7, the back of the Navy was broken and the Aircraft Carrier and submarine were the best defense against the Japanese threat.

And today, they are backbone of the modern military.

Sources:

“The Real Architect of Pearl Harbor” by Capt. Jack Young, USN (ret.) , published in Naval Aviation Spring, 2005.

Short article about the 1932 attack including excerpts from Navy papers referencing the practice attack

Plus all the links above.

*The other four aircraft carriers, WASP, YORKTOWN, HORNET and RANGER, were in the Atlantic.

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Women on Submarines and Today’s Deck Log

And now for something completely different..., Memorial Ceremony, The Exhibit, Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Oct 26 2010

One of the things that most submariners I’ve met have stressed is the fact that they are all one brotherhood.  Granted, the diesel vets enjoy yanking the chains of the nuc vets every so often  “You think it’s rough?  Back in my day…”

But it’s now official: the brotherhood is about to include some sisters whose names don’t begin with “USS”.  The four boats who will carry the teams of women have been chosen, and the women themselves are currently in training.  Their identities are being withheld for now, most likely to allow them to concentrate on their training which would be a lot harder with journalists constantly taking photos and yelling questions every time they dared walk outside.

During the Flier Memorial, I enjoyed talking to two high ranking submariners both of whom are enthusiastic about the prospect of women serving on submarines.  Integrating officers will be easier to accomplish than enlisted, and indeed, right now the Navy has not announced when or if they will integrate the enlisted ranks of the submarine corp (I’m all for all-women crews, an idea floated back in 2007, allows women to serve and eliminates the need for retro-fitting the submarines themselves to accommodate integrated crew–and save us taxpayers about $100 million per sub retrofit)

For more on the subject, see my previous posts about the history of women serving in the military, and women on submarines worldwide as well as this article, released just a few days ago.  (I do try to be fair to both sides, and I myself am on the fence:  I hate, as a woman, being told I cannot do something because I am a woman, but on the other hand, if it ain’t broke…)

USS Flier today is still somewhere off the coast of New England and has no administrative remarks today  (had to use a mimeographed page…)

Finally, I have an announcement and a request.

The announcement is I’m hearing from people who  missed the memorial ceremony and are disappointed that they couldn’t get there.  Well, I put the footage at the end of the Memorial Page on this site, so you don’t have to go looking for it in the backlogs of the blog any longer.

The request: As we’re getting ready to design the exhibit, we’re looking for items that will help bring these men to life for a new generation that’s four generations removed from WWII.  If your Flier family member sent home letters or photos from their time in the Pacific theater, would you consider allowing us to use them for the exhibit or research?  I cannot promise that everything donated will be used, but the more we have to use, the better we will be able to bring these men to life.

The beauty about what we do means that we don’t even need original letters or photos–the information and images of these items will be good enough for what we’re doing.  If you want to send originals for me to scan and I will send the originals back once they’ve been digitized(one family is already choosing this option) or scanning the items yourselves and sending me jpgs or tifs (another family is doing this).  If, of course, your family would be comfortable with donating the letters, we will keep them for future researchers.  These items will help bring these men out of the shadows and making them more than photos on a wall, but men who had girlfriends, wives, dreams, cars, jokes, senses of adventure and fear, and men who did what they felt were right.

If this is something you think you or your family would be interested in, please contact me at ussflierproject@gmail.com  Thank you.

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BREAKING: DIVE DETECTIVES TO BE SHOWN IN USA!!!! (Plus: News from the Museum)

And now for something completely different..., The Exhibit, Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Oct 19 2010

We interrupt my blog post I’ve been desperately trying to put together for the last few days to announce that YES!!!!  YES! YES! YES!!!!  Dive Detectives will FINALLY be coming to the USA.  Dunno when, dunno on what station, but YAP Films announced on their site (not the Dive Detectives site if you’ve been checking there) that the series has been purchased by an American broadcaster and will be shown later this year!!!!

WOOOO   HOOOO!!!!!

And now back to that blog post I’ve been working on…

So I’ve been off the reservation for several days now.  Vacation was fun, but of course, when you bring the children, there’s a limit to the fun to be had.  I’m starting to understand the various veins and twitches I saw in my parent’s faces while growing up.  Goodbye sitting in the sun for hours blissfully reading or dozing, hello panicked dashing after children convinced that plugging a fork into an electric socket would be fun.

Oh well, it was a fun time.   Back to some updates…

The interview with James Alls is, if all goes according to plan, this weekend in New Castle, Indiana, the hometown of Flier Chief Kenneth Gwinn. Gwinn’s parents owned a diner that I hope is still in business.  If you have a question you’d like to ask Mr. Alls, be sure to comment or e-mail me at ussflierproject@gmail.com  I can’t promise we’ll get to it, but I’ll sure try.  I’ve already got questions about how the Flier was decorated, if they had any pets, did some sailors think Flier was unlucky (survivor Earl Baumgart later claimed he thought she was from day one), if they had any Crossing of the Line Ceremonies,  and on.  If you’re curious about anything, be sure to ask.  I will be filming, audio recording the session and if he gives permission, will be posting excerpts here and on YouTube.

The museum is (tentatively) hoping to open the exhibit this summer. Everything, of course, depends on money, time and schedule, but winter is our best time to build something like this: we’re less busy.

Now, since the Flier story is almost over, I thought we could do something interesting on here for the next while.  I’ll be delving into the stories of some of the Lost Submarines, but in addition, courtesy of Lt. Liddell, his son Kirk, and the National Archives, I have the complete Deck Logs and War Patrol Logs of the USS Flier (of course, the ones about the second patrol were lost in the sinking.)  They’re an interesting read, and I thought we’d start here on the 18th and 19th of October: the day Flier was commissioned into service, and started taking on food.  (There’s an eye opener!)

This is the record of Flier's first day as a Naval boat. The names of all the commissioning crew are written here: Officers first, by rank, the Enlisted alphabetically by last name.It's amazing how many of these men would still be around in ten months for the second patrol, and which ones wouldn't be. There is a second page for this day, but all it says is: "2200: (hours, or 10 pm): Finished Fueling. Received 50,138 gallons on board." You can click on the image to get a MUCH larger one if you're curious about reading it.

This is the record for the following day, when they started to take on stores while still testing systems at the dock. That's a lot of food, and that list will only get longer, not to mention all the stuff they'll unofficially get their hands on if the Fliers were like some of the other boats I've been told about! Then, as newest boat in the fleet, she was toured by some of the top commanders, including Admiral Daubin. (See Entry for 1300 hours). Interesting, since eleven months from this date, he would be investigating the same CO that's giving the tour of Flier, over the loss of this same boat and crew.

Tomorrow, I’ll post the photos taken of the Commissioning parties.  If you see someone you recognize in them, comment or e-mail, that’s what we’re trying to do, identify people, and tell this story.

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Five days on a British Submarine

And now for something completely different... | Posted by Rebekah
Oct 10 2010

The Flier story is drawing to a close here, but we’ll carry on for a while yet–the war has a year left to go through, the Redfin is still on patrol, and there are a number of Lost Submarines that have incredible stories as well as others.  So keep reading, there’s more to the stories.  While I’ll always be the Flier Project, any submariner will tell you that they are one large family, a band of brothers (and now, sisters too) serving on sister boats, so all these stories are, in a real way, related to the Flier.

Today, I found a great article in a British newspaper.  The Trident Submarines are the British equivalent of the classic Ohio Submarines in the US Fleet, and a journalist was given permission to ride aboard the HMS Talent on patrol for five days, as they escorted a convoy through the Suez Canal.  He specifically mentions Ramadan, which means this article was researched during late August through early September.   Despite the fact that the Talent is over 20 years old, the journalist believed that they were still supremely equipped to be top warships of the British military.

I saw a lot of similarities between this article and what I hear from American Submarine Forces.  They are still the Silent Service in many, many ways, watching in places where they shouldn’t be, helping with surface strikes but unable to take the credit for it.  In many cases, their family members still cannot know where they are.  I met one veteran once that said during his six month deployment, he was allowed to tell his wife where their midway port of call would be, and she would fly there to be with him, but how he got there, and where he would go between this visit and home, he couldn’t tell her.  His wife confessed she’d been in Japan, Australia, Brazil, several ports in Europe, and more.  It was one way that they could have mini “vacations” together, especially since contact between those times is still, today, so sporadic.  E-mails can only be sent and received when the submarine is at or near the surface, phone calls are even more rare.

This article also drove home a point that I’m starting to hear more often: the fact that since the submarine service, due to its very nature is top secret and cannot be publicly talked about, is starting to suffer from a lack of public notice and potential restrictions in budget.  Right now, unless the rules change, the US Fleet will start to retire more boats than they can build, and this in a time when India, Iran, North Korea, are starting to build or purchase submarines for themselves.    It’s a little scary out there, and these men deserve to not be forgotten.

The article was extremely well written, and gives a great flavor for what the world of these boats really is like.

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More Dive Detectives

And now for something completely different... | Posted by Rebekah
Oct 05 2010

Sadly, this is not the episode that most of us have been waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for.

But if you are interested in the whole Dive Detective Series, like I am, you’ll be interested to know that the first episode was posted online in various places a couple of days ago.  Since these episodes also seem to originate from a Nat Geo website, this appears to be legit (I wouldn’t want to post an illegal copy and rip the Dive Detectives and YAP Films off.

Since this does appear to be legit, I thought I would post this episode, which concerns the A-Bombs and the assembly island Tinian.  It was quite interesting, and I hope you all enjoy it.  My only caution is that it takes a while to download (at least it did for me, it might have more to do with my particular connection or FireFox throwing a tantrum, who knows?)  So it might behoove you to get it started, then pause it for an hour then play it all the way through.  That’s what worked best for me.

http://www.runningshows.com/dive-detectives-season-1-episode-1-episode-1

In the meantime, I’ll keep scouring the web for news about the Dive Detectives going on-air properly somewhere in the US, and of course, if these episodes go on sale in some form and/or are streaming on the web.  I actually like this series, despite the fact I’ve only seen two of the six episodes, and hope they get renewed and shown in the US.  Surely the History channel can cancel a few dozen replays of Modern Marvels: The Brick/Beaver/Corrosion and Decomp/Eggs/The Potato (SERIOUSLY?!) to fit these six episodes in.  Or maybe the American Nat Geo channel can bump three days of Drug shows (I’m looking at the lineup right now.  Sunday the 17th is showing Four hours of shows about Cocaine, Meth Marijuana and Cocaine–yes a repeat, and the very next day they’re showing the same three shows arranged in the order of Marijuana, Cocaine, Heroin (ooooh, a new show!) and another showing of Marijuana.  Sigh.

Hey Cable channels!  If you’re that hard up for programming, I know a good, short series that you can show!

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Tony Curtis and the Flier Investigation Continues

And now for something completely different..., Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Oct 04 2010

Before we resume the Flier investigation I thought I would take a moment to remember Tony Curtis, legendary Hollywood actor, who passed recently, and whose funeral was held today in Las Vegas.

Why remember Tony Curtis in this blog, about a lost WWII submarine?  Well, Curtis was involved in the US Submarine Force, in a way.  At 17, he was assigned as a member of the crew of the Submarine Tender Proteus, stationed, at the time our story takes place, in Guam.  He was a Submarine Relief crewmember, which meant every time a submarine tied up to the side of his Tender and her official crew vanished for two weeks R&R, the relief crew would become temporary members of that submarine and do all the dirty work that needed to get done, inside and out: scraping barnacles, fixing systems, running tests, upgrading equipment, anything and everything that needed to get done in order for the submarine to be ready for her tests when the crew returned.  It was an important, if labor intensive job.

Curtis, as a member of Proteus, also witnessed history.  Proteus was the Submarine Tender in Tokyo Bay the day the Japanese surrendered on the Missouri.  He apparently watched the ceremony from the signal bridge, a place he would have been familiar with since he was a signalman.

He was a great actor (Some Like It Hot is one of my personal favorite movies) and will be missed, but if you want to read an interesting interview about his time on Tenders during WWII,click here. It’s a great interview from the site Tender Tales, all about the unsung (and now, vanished) heroes of the Submarine Force, the men and ships of the Submarine Tender.

Back to our story.

Two men down, now a Motor Mac was up.  Earl Baumgart was one of the plankowners of Flier, (a sailor who was assigned to a ship from her first day in service) who always believed that she was jinxed.  I saw a letter from him written in 1996, talking about how she never felt right to him and he knew from the first that she wasn’t going to make it.  Short of leaving the Submarine Force altogether, there wasn’t much he could do about it, but I wonder why he thought that.  Did something happen during the launch? Or the Commissioning?  Was it Midway?

Baumgart reported to the Courtroom for his interrogation, and the initial questions were the same as the other men faced: Name, Rank, present duty station (“attached to USS Flier”), location the night Flier went down (“After Starboard Lookout”), had he adapted his eyes for night lookout duty, (yes), what was the visibility, (“Overcast, not too visible”) and so on.

Baumgart really wasn’t on the hot seat, nor could he offer much about the cause of Flier’s sinking, though he was asked whether he saw the same light Miller mentioned seeing that night, but he hadn’t.  Considering that Miller was looking over Flier’s bow, and Baumgart the stern, this isn’t that odd.

The opposition declined to cross-examine Baumgart and he left the room.

Next up was Art Howell, the Radio Technician.  Now, I was quite interested in the Flier crew list when I was writing this book because I noticed that she didn’t carry any radarmen or sonarmen aboard.  Come to find out, these titles were not generally used during this part of WWII because these men, if captured, might be tortured for information about the specs of the Sonar and Radar systems of their submarines.  By keeping their job rating something like “Radio Technician” or “Radioman” it helped them blend into the background, because the Japanese and Allied radios were essentially the same.  So Howell, despite his rating, was frequently on the Radar and Sonar systems of Flier, though his efforts on Palawan proved that he really could fix a radio using anything but coconuts if necessary.

The night Flier sank, he was her Radar Operator for navigational pruposes.  With an overcast sky, this was vital, since one of the ways they could make sure Flier didn’t stray out of her path was to keep a radar eye on the peaks of the surrounding mountains to triangulate Flier’s position and keep her on track.

On Radar, Howell had seen the lighthouse that Miller saw with his eyes on lookout two decks above.  There were no ship’s contacts, no other people around, and Howell fed information continuously to navigation as it came in.  The Radar was working efficiently as well, so the trouble was not with their equipment.

Seconds before the Flier exploded, Howell fed the last coordinates to Liddell at the maptable.  Since the investigation was being held almost exactly one month following Flier’s sinking, it’s understandable that Howell didn’t remember precise coordinates, but he did say that the nearest last was between 5,000-7,000 yards away, and the large island dead ahead (Balabac) was between 14,000 and 18,000 yards away.  Considering Flier was found right in that area, I guess Howell had a good memory.

But now it’s late, and I have a horrible urge to find a copy of Operation Petticoat somewhere.  I’ve always wanted to see it, and now, it seems really appropriate, considering Curtis’s passing.

Tomorrow:  Dello-Russo’s testimony and Liddell along with the conclusion.

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Thomas Bohn

And now for something completely different..., Where was Flier 66 years ago today? | Posted by Rebekah
Sep 12 2010

Today, the Fliers who were dropped in Kalgoorlie are boarding another plane headed back to Fremantle.  The Investigation starts tomorrow.

But on a slightly separate note, I’ve had the honor of helping a Flier family the past few weeks, and thought I’d share the story.

Near the time of the memorial, the niece of Electrician’s Mate Thomas Bohn of Easton Pennsylvania, contacted me, telling me about her relation Bohn, and they couldn’t make it to the memorial service.  Since they couldn’t travel to Michigan, they were working on putting the money together to set a stone memorializing Bohn near his parent’s graves in the hometown cemetery.  While the headstone was provided by the government (there’s something I don’t mind paying for with my taxes!) it was going to cost a pretty penny to simply purchase the granite and set it.

Thoma Bohn, age 18 on August 13, 1944. His family knew him for ever as "Uncle Sonny". As it turned out, over the course of asking questions of his only remaining sibling, he wasn't altogether fond of the nickname!

We started working back and forth and together, wrote and submitted a series of press releases to the local papers and television stations telling the story of Bohn and his family’s efforts to memorialize him.  It has lead to an outpouring of funds so Bohn will not only be able to have his headstone set in place, but possibly also a scholarship fund for a student at his alma mater Wilson High School.

It has been a fun time to work with another family, and been great to see these men receiving their memorials that has been so long in waiting, and been amazing to help these people discover these relatives that they never knew, and learn more in turn.  Just asking these questions and listening to the stories has lead to more stories come to light that otherwise might have remained hidden.

THIS is what I find so rewarding about what I do.

To read the articles about this process, see below!

The first article that appeared about Thomas Bohn

And the follow up article from two days later

The article that appeared this morning

The News Station Report. (I originally posted the video link here, but it kept playing automatically, so I removed it. You can see it right here. I think it’s really really good.)

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