Military Officer - October 2008 - (Page 63) will join the fleet based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. ETERNAL PATROL But no matter how technologically advanced submarines become, they all owe their existence to the H.L. Hunley and its contemporaries. Today that storied vessel lies on its side, submerged in a tank of water in a warehouse that once was part of the Charleston Navy Yard in South Carolina. The details of its fate still a mystery, researchers continue to pore carefully over each rivet and seam, removing the concretions that have built up over time. When the silt that filled the submarine was removed, the remains of its eight crewmembers were found, (clockwise from above) The Hunley rests on the recovery barge after being brought up from the ocean floor. A funeral for the Hunley crew was held at the Confederate Monument in Charleston, S.C., in April 2004. Researchers created facial reconstructions of the eight sailors who died on the Hunley. An officer’s badge bears the submarine warfare insignia. PHOTOS: RIGHT, USN; ALL OTHERS, COURTESY FRIENDS OF THE HUNLEY still at their posts. On April 17, 2004, they were buried with full military honors at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston. As you stand at the railing, gazing down at the Hunley in its tank, the bravery of those eight men suddenly hits home. They would tell you they simply were doing their jobs, but it takes a special kind of fortitude to voluntarily go in harm’s way in an underwater tube — and all submariners are volunteers. From time to time, veterans wearing the dolphin insignia of submariners appear at the railing, observing the old boat as it undergoes restoration. “We had a network crew from CBS here a few years back, filming a tour group of World War II veterans,” says Kellen Correia, a spokesperson for the Hunley project. “One of the men began to weep a little, and it broke the camera guy up as well. After all, this is where it all started.” MO
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