The news of the Grayback’s discovery off Okinawa reawakened his family’s stored grief
 | | A sonar image of the U.S.S. Grayback lying at a depth of 1,427 feet off the coast of Okinawa, Japan. Tim Taylor and his team at the Lost 52 Project located the wreck using an autonomous underwater vehicle to gather sonar data from a few hundred feet above the seafloor.Tim Taylor/Lost 52 Project |
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On the night before Veterans Day this year, I published a story about a United States Navy submarine recently discovered on the seafloor, 75 years after it sunk during World War II. And to my surprise, the discovery of the U.S.S. Grayback became the most-read article on The New York Times’ website the following day. |
Even more surprising was the number of people who left comments saying that they had lost a family member on that submarine. One commenter was John Sellers, whose uncle John Moore was the Grayback’s commanding officer. |
In my family, he was always called June,” Sellers told me over the weekend. “Mom wanted me to be born exactly one year after he passed.” Sellers’ mother, Frances, took her older brother’s death incredibly hard, and spoke reverentially about him whenever the subject came up. Though she died without ever knowing exactly when his submarine sank, her timing was not far-off: Sellers was born Mar. 1, 1945; John Moore died on Feb. 27, 1944. |
The news of the Grayback’s discovery in more than 1,400 feet of water off Okinawa reawakened his family’s stored grief. “I bawled like a baby,” Sellers said when he got the news. “I had no idea all that was pent-up.” |
It hit Marshall George hard, too. George emailed me to say that his uncle, whom he was named after, was on the Grayback when it sank. “I was somewhat overwhelmed by the mix of unexpected emotions,” George said of the moment he got news that the submarine had been found. “A portrait of Uncle Marshall had hung in our hallway in my childhood home,” he wrote. “But I rarely looked at it or considered that it was the man for whom I was named.” |
George, who was born 20 years after his father’s older brother Marshall was lost on the Grayback, said he regrets not taking the time to learn more about his uncle from the family members who knew him — all of whom are now gone, too. |
While I never thought this story would find surviving family members, I am so happy it did. Rick Nichols, whose father transferred off the Grayback before the submarine’s final patrol, wrote to say, “The discovery closes a chapter on my father’s World War II service.” Charles O’Meara, who said he remembers his father talking about “his kid brother on eternal patrol,” said that finding the final resting place of his uncle Thomas Francis O’Meara “helps to provide some closure to the surviving family members.” |
This week of Thanksgiving, I am thankful for those who search for Americans still missing in action. The Lost 52 Project, a private group that hopes to account for all of the 52 United States Navy submarines lost in World War II, found the Grayback in June, and is making plans for their next expedition. Hopefully by this time next year there will be even more families who can find peace of mind from learning the location of their loved ones’ final resting place. |
John Ismay is a staff writer who covers armed conflict for The New York Times Magazine. He can be reached at john.ismay@nytimes.com. |
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