Squalus' Last Survivor Dies
Carl Bryson always prided himself as a youth in being able to swim underwater on a single breath across the Saluda River in his native South Carolina. That kind of endurance was to serve him well in 1939 when he was among 33 men to survive the sinking of the newly launched USS Squalus (SS-192) off the coast of New Hampshire. The greatest submarine rescue operation in Navy history spared his life and those of his shipmates in an accident that claimed 26 others.
Bryson, who lived in retirement in New London, Connecticut, succumbed on 8 December at age 91, the last of the Squalus survivors.
Born on 30 October 1917, he served in the Henderson (AP-1), Medusa (AR-1), and Mississippi (BB-41) before transferring to submarine school in Groton, Connecticut. Later, he joined the USS R-4 (SS-81), then the Squalus in 1939 to put her into commission at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.
The submarine was on her certification dive on 23 May 1939 when a mechanical malfunction flooded the engine room, sending the boat to the floor of the Atlantic. Navy divers in a newly developed rescue bell were able to descend 240 feet to the stranded sub and bring up the survivors in five trips. Bryson was in the last group.
He participated in the salvage of the boat, which was overhauled and renamed the Sailfish in time for World War II. In 1941, Bryson became a dive instructor at the submarine Escape Training Tank in Groton at which time he trained actor Tyrone Power for the film Crash Dive. Bryson retired as chief warrant officer four after 30 years of service. From 1966 to 1979, he worked at Electric Boat in New London as planner and project head.
Carl LaVO
Sub for Sale
By 2nd owner. Historic provenance. Some water damage. Great fixer-upper for the right buyer. Call (617) 293-8700 or (401) 831-8696.
The Russian Sub Museum in Providence, Rhode Island, announced in December that rehabilitation of its premier display—the former Soviet cruise-missile submarine K-77—is beyond its capability. The sub, popularly known as Juliett 484, sank at her waterfront mooring during a severe April 2007 storm and was raised in 2008 by Army and Navy divers in a training exercise.
Rhode Island Metals Recycling, LLC, has contracted to take over the sub, move her to a new location, and eventually dismantle the vessel for scrap if no buyer steps up to purchase her intact. Detailed terms of the agreement were not announced.
The submarine, featured in the 2002 Harrison Ford film K-19: The Widowmaker, was a local attraction and educational facility from August 2002 until she sank. "We made every effort to figure out a way to restore this historic vessel and reopen her as a public attraction," said museum director Frank Lennon. "We finally concluded that after 15 months underwater, the condition of the interior is such that restoration is simply not a financially viable option for our group."
Bound to Be a Reef
The fate of the former USNS Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10) was sealed early in January when The First State Bank of the Florida Keys bought the 524-foot ship for $1.35 million at a federal auction in Virginia. The sale cleared the way for the final preparatory work to be completed to get the World War II-built transport and former missile-tracking ship to the Florida Keys where she will be sunk six miles off the coast of Key West in early 2009. She will become the second largest deliberately sunk artificial reef in the world and the third such reef in Florida waters. The 911-foot Oriskany (ex-CV-34), sunk off Pensacola in 2006, is the largest, and the ex-USS Spiegel Grove (LSD-32) rests on Dixie Shoal off the Keys.
While the reefs aid nature—a NOAA study identified 197 different species of fish thriving in the Spiegel Grove, which was sunk five years ago—the real impetus is economic. The Pensacola Convention and Visitors Bureau released a study by the University of West Florida that, for an investment of $1 million, the Oriskany generated $3.6 million to the local economy in the first year after her sinking.
National Monument Established
One of the most widespread national monuments—encompassing nine sites in three states—was created at the stroke of the President's pen on 5 December 2008. Then-President George W. Bush signed an executive order establishing the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument to be managed through the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Five of the sites are in the Pearl Harbor area: the USS Arizona Memorial and Visitor Center, the USS Utah Memorial, the USS Oklahoma Memorial, the six Chief Petty Officer Bungalows on Ford Island, and mooring quays F6, F7, and F8, which constituted part of Battleship Row. The wrecks of the Arizona (BB-39) and Utah (BB-31) are not part of the national monument but instead will be retained by the Department of Defense (through the Department of the Navy) as the final resting place for those entombed there.
Alaska is home to three sites all in the Aleutian Islands: the crash site of a Consolidated B-24D Liberator bomber on Atka Island; a Kiska Island location with remnants of Japan's occupation beginning in June 1942, and the battlefield on Attu Island, the site of the only land battle fought in North America during World War II.
The ninth site is California's Tule Lake Segregation Center National Historic Landmark and nearby Camp Tule Lake.
A Marine Legend Passes
Lieutenant General Victor H. "Brute" Krulak, U.S. Marine Corps (Retired), celebrated for his leadership in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and for his authoritative book on the Marines, First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps (Naval Institute Press, 1984), died 29 December 2008 at Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, California. He was 95. Born in Denver on 7 January 1913, his career spanned three decades in which he displayed bravery during combat and brilliance as a tactician and organizer of troops.
He wrote much of the language for the National Security Act of 1947 and for the 1952 amendment that made the Marine Corps the only branch of the U.S. military whose manpower minimums are set by law. As commanding general of Fleet Marine Force Pacific he made 54 trips to Vietnam. When his ideas clashed with those of his superiors, he was proved correct in virtually all cases. He disagreed with Army General William C. Westmoreland over the mining of Haiphong Harbor, reliance on small-unit actions in South Vietnam to win the support of the populace, and the decision to establish an outpost at Khe Sanh, which resulted in one of the bloodiest sieges of the war.
After his retirement, Krulak began a second career as an executive for Copley newspapers and as a columnist. He entered his second retirement in 1977 but continued to write. His 1984 book, First to Fight, is on the official reading list for Marines and has been said to carry the DNA of the organization that prides itself on being the worst enemy that a foe of the United States can imagine.
In a 2007 speech to the Marine Corps Association, Defense Secretary Robert Gates praised Krulak for "overcoming conventional wisdom and bureaucratic obstacles thrown in one's path."
Cold War Prize Competition
For a fifth year, the John A. Adams Center at the Virginia Military Institute will award prizes for the best unpublished papers dealing with the United States military in the Cold War era (1945-91). Any aspect of the Cold War is eligible, with papers on war planning, intelligence, logistics, and mobilization especially welcome. Essays that relate aspects of the Korean War and Vietnam to the larger Cold War are also open for consideration.
Prizes will include a $2,000 cash award for first place, $1,000 for second, $500 for third, and plaques for each.
Entries should be submitted to the Adams Center at VMI by 15 June 2009. The center will, over the summer, evaluate all papers and announce its top three winners early in the fall of 2009. The Journal of Military History will consider the award winners for publication.
For more information, contact Professor Malcolm Muir Jr., at [email protected] or (540) 464-7447/7338.
Writers Honored
The Military Writers Society of America in December announced the names of its 2008 award winners.
The Founder's Award was presented to Mike Sager for Wounded Warriors: Those for Whom the War Never Ends (Da Capo Press, 2008), and the President's Award went to Hodge Wood for Chum Water (River Road Press, 2007). Both Military non-fiction winners were Naval Institute Press authors. Merrill Bartlett and Jack Sweetmans earned the gold medal for Leathernecks, and Jay Stout received the silver for Slaughter at Goliad. Retired Marines, the late Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons and Colonel Joseph Alexander, received the gold award in the Marine Corps category for their Through the Wheat (Naval Institute Press, 2008), while Earl Gorman accepted the silver for Fire Mission (Red Desert Press, 2008). In the Navy category only a gold medal was awarded, to Stephen Phillips for Proximity (Xlibris Corporation, 2007).
A Pair of Museum Visionaries Pass Away
Rear Admiral Charles D. Grojean, U.S. Navy (Retired), a leader in the movement to preserve and teach the history of World War II and to honor the veterans of that conflict, died 8 December 2008 at his home in San Antonio, Texas. He was 85.
As executive director of the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, Admiral Grojean guided the growth and development of the National Museum of the Pacific War from a small three-floor museum in the historic Nimitz Hotel in downtown Fredericksburg, Texas, to an institution of national prominence. He led a capital expansion project that saw the completed renovation of the Admiral Nimitz Museum in 2007, raised $16.5 million for the expansion of the George H. W. Bush Gallery, and created an endowment for the National Museum of the Pacific War. The facility that he envisioned, scheduled to open in December 2009, includes a new complex of exhibits on the history of World War II in the Pacific.
Meanwhile, on Christmas Day 2008, Colin Saunders White, the director of the Royal Naval Museum in Portsmouth, England since 2006, died of cancer at the age of 57. Mr. White was born 28 August 1951 and educated at Southampton University and King's College, London. He had worked at the Royal Naval Museum beginning in 1975, becoming deputy director and head of museum services in 1995. White was one of England's leading experts on the life and achievements of Britain's Vice Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson. He directed the museum's series of Trafalgar 200 events in 2005, and his The Nelson Companion (Bramley Books, 1995) is a bestseller in its third edition.
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Society of Antiquaries, White was vice president of the Navy Records Society. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in literature by the University of Portsmouth, where he was visiting professor in maritime history. White had the distinction of being among the very few—if there are others—to have been promoted in one step from ordinary seaman to honorary captain in the Royal Navy Reserve.
In his honor, the First Sea Lord directed that flags on all HM Ships in Portsmouth, including HMS Victory, lower their flags to half-mast during his funeral.