My uncle Gene was on the "Scamp", SS277, when it was sunk late in 1944 off the coast of Japan. Records available after the war indicate that his sub was spotted from the air just south of Tokyo Harbor on November 11th, 1944, and depth charged from the air and sunk. But when I was growing up, and until just recently, we only knew that the Scamp was lost at sea, and the approximate date, based on their last communication.
Gene had just been promoted from Ensign to LT j.g.and he was the sub's Gunner. He had been back home on leave prior to his last deployment, while his sub was being refitted and essentially rebuilt after severe depth charge damage in the South Pacific. He had also previously served on the Stingray, SS 186, before transferring to the Scamp. He was in almost continuous action from December 7th 1941 (Stingray) until his second sub (Scamp) was sunk. While he was in on leave, he married my aunt Fleda in San Francisco. He left his personal log that he had kept during that time with her for safekeeping, and rejoined the Scamp at Pearl Harbor, IIRC. He never came back. Aunt Fleda recently gave me uncle Gene's log, and a lot of other memorabilia. They had no children, and he was my mothers baby brother, and I am named after him (my middle name is Gene). His full name was Eugene Sturm Moore.
The point of this story is that that log is an amazing story of life on a WWII sub, with notes of ships that the Stingray and Scamp engaged, and surviving depth charges, etc. this all happened just before I was born, so I grew up with these stories. Mom's other two brothers were also career Navy men, and I knew them as I grew up, but the stories in uncle Gene's log still haunt me. When I get a chance, I'll photograph a page or so and post here. I served on two Destroyers... At least I could see the sky most days!!
Edit... I took a picture of a couple of pages, but Photobucket is down this evening, tried several times, but will load it when I can get PB to cooperate. This is the first time I have shared any of this history anywhere, thought you guys might be interested. Also, I am going to watch a couple of episodes of this show. Might give me a feel for uncle Gene's working environment!!
Dad's side of the family were Army men, and I guess that the lure of the sea was just compelling when it came time for me to join the service!!
Best Regards, Les
