Good Afternoon All & Happy Veterans’ Day!
Many thanks go to all of our veterans for the sacrifices made in defense of freedom. All gave some…some gave all. A couple of weeks ago, a 75-year-old mystery was solved, and the families of 80 American sailors lost at sea will now have closure: the submarine, the USS Grayback has finally been found off the coast of Okinawa. My friend, Len Ward, sent me the article about the Grayback earlier this morning…
The Grayback was thought to have gone down in the open ocean 100 miles east-southeast of Okinawa. But the Navy had unknowingly relied on a flawed translation of Japanese war records that got one digit wrong in the latitude and longitude of the spot where the Grayback had probably met its end. The error went undetected until last year, when an amateur researcher, Yutaka Iwasaki, was going through the wartime records of the Imperial Japanese Navy base at Sasebo. The files included daily reports received by radio from the naval air base at Naha, Okinawa—and the entry for Feb. 27, 1944 contained a promising lead…
The report for that day said that a Nakajima B5N carrier-based bomber had dropped a 500-pound bomb on a surfaced submarine, striking just aft of the conning tower. The sub exploded and sank immediately, and there were no survivors. “In that radio record, there is a longitude and a latitude of the attack, very clearly,” Iwasaki said. And it did not match what was in the 1949 Navy history, not by a hundred miles.
Iwasaki’s work brought him to the attention of Tim Taylor, an undersea explorer who has set out to find the wrecks of every American submarine lost in the war….He set up the privately funded Lost 52 Project to track down the lost submarines, relying on technology that had become available in the past 10 to 15 years.
With the right coorindates, Taylor and his team were able to find the Grayback in 1,400 feet of water. “We were elated,” Taylor said. “But it’s also sobering, bacause we just found 80 men.” Taylor and his crew held a ceremony to remember the sailors lost aboard the ship and called out their names one by one….one of those names was John Patrick King.
His nephew, John Bihn, of Wantagh, New York, is named after him. Bihn, who was born three years after the Grayback went down, remembers him as a constant presence in his maternal grandparents’ home, where a black-and-white photo of the submarine hung in the living room near a black frame holding King’s Purple Heart medal and citation. But in his family, the subject of his uncle’s death was “too sad to ask about,” Bihn said. “My mother would cry very often if you spoke to her about it.”
With no body to bury, Bihn’s grandparents, Patrick & Catherine King, memorialized their son on their own headstone. Under their names, Binh said, they had engraved, “John Patrick King “Lost In Action.'”
Bihn got a text message from his sister Katherine Taylor (no relation to Tim Taylor who found the Grayback) two weeks ago, saying the Grayback had been found. She had gotten the news from Tim Taylor’s wife. “I was dumbfounded,” he said. “I just could not believe it.” “I wish my parents were alive to see this, because it would certainly make them very happy,” he added.
In a video taken by the vehicle that surveyed the wreck, Binh said, the camera tilted upward at one point to show the conning tower, and a plaque reading “USS Grayback” was plain to see.
It’s like someone wiped it clean,” Bihn said. It’s like it wanted to be found.”
Here’s to the sailors of the USS Grayback and all those who have served our nation in defense freedom! Let us never forget and always remember…
Speaking of remembrances, here’s to our dear friend in Australia, Peter Hayward, who celebrates his birthday today! He shares a birthday with a favorite actor of mine, Leonardo DeCaprio of “Inception” movie fame, who is 45 today! And Happy Birthday to family member, Lindsay (McIntosh) Ewan, wife, mother & first responder extraordinaire, who celebrates her birthday tomorrow (November 12th)!
Here is the fact for the day:
On this day in 1921, the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier was dedicated by President Warren G. Harding at Arlington Cemetery. This site should be on everyone’s bucket list, for sure!
Here is the word for the day:
“Grandiloquent”: “A lofty, colorful style of speaking intended to impress”….”Being vain or pompous in an overbearing style.” It could be said that we suffer from “grandiloquent” speeches, particularly from current politicians, don’t you think?
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“When you put on something that you really like, you feel like you are that person or the person you want to be.”
—Ralph Lauren, American fashion designer
“Way over yonder is a place that I know…Where I can find shelter from hunger and cold
And the sweet-tastin’ good life is so easily found…Way over yonder, that’s where I’m bound.
I know when I get there, the first thing I’ll see is the sun shining golden, shining right down on me
Then trouble’s goinna lose me, worry leave me behind…And I’ll stand up proudly in a true peace of mind.”
—Carole King, “Way Over Yonder,” from the album “Tapestry” (1971)
Here’s to a great Monday and lots of love always!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)