Military Officer - February 2007 - (Page 71)

pagesofhistory Legendary Sub Found A Russian dive team has discovered a wreck off the coast of Japan, and the Navy says it’s the legendary World War II submarine USS Wahoo, lost more than 60 years ago. N avy Cmdr. Dudley W. “Mush” Morton has been described as an “undersea ace.” Under his command, the USS Wahoo is credited with sinking 19 ships during four patrols. But then, the legendary World War II submarine went missing. Now, Adm. Gary Roughhead, USN, commander of the U.S. Paciﬁc Fleet, says the fate of the Wahoo has been discovered. A wreck found last summer by the Russian dive team “Iskra” at the bottom of La Perouse Strait, between Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido and Russia’s Sakhalin island, is the Wahoo. The divers were working with The Wahoo Project Group, an international team of experts coordinated by Bryan MacKinnon, a relative of Wahoo’s famed skipper, Commander Morton. The Gato-class USS Wahoo was launched Feb. 14, 1942, a “grim valentine” for Japanese Emperor Hirohito, and became one of the leading American submarines. The ship was last heard from Sept. 13, 1943, when it departed Midway Island en route to the Sea of Japan under strict radio silence. Radio contact was expected to be regained in late October, but no such contact was made. The Japanese military later reported that aircraft spotted the ship THIS MONTH IN HISTORY ■ On Feb. 3, 1943, Four Chaplains Day, a Catho- Oct. 11, 1943, and launched a multi-hour sea and air attack to sink the Wahoo. The Navy has no plans to salvage or enter the Wahoo wreck. Naval tradition has long held that the sea is a ﬁtting ﬁnal resting place for sailors lost at sea. P Remembering Vietnam lans are under way for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Center in Washington, D.C. The center, sited underground between the Vietnam Veterans and Lincoln memorials, will include interactive exhibits and a resource library. A collection of artifacts from among the 85,000 left at the wall over the years will be displayed. Photographs of men and women who died in Vietnam will fade in and out on a video wall on their birthdays. Legislation authorizing the 25,000square-foot center was passed in 2003, and a site was approved in August 2006. Critics claimed the impact of the memorial — honoring the war’s fallen by silence rather than explanation — would be lessened by the museum. But Jan C. Scruggs, founder and president of the Memorial Funds, says veterans support the plan and the center will help educate young visitors. More than 4.4 million people visit the memorial each year. MO FEBRUARY 2007 USS Wahoo was launched in 1942 on Valentine’s Day, just eight months after her keel was laid. lic priest, a Jewish rabbi, and two Protestant ministers gave their life jackets to other crewmembers on the sinking troop transport Dorchester and went down with the ship during World War II. PHOTO: COURTESY USN MILITARY OFFICER 71

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Military Officer - February 2007

Military Officer - February 2007 Contents From the Editor From the President Your Views MOAA Directory Rapid Fire Washington Scene Financial Forum Ask the Doctor Chapter Activities Cover Story: Building Stability Reaching Out, Reaching Up 5 Tax-Season Strategies A Capital Event MOAA Member Services Pages of History Information Exchange Advertising Index Member Books Sounding Taps MOAA Calendar Encore

Military Officer - February 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.