USS Mississinewa (AO-59)

I was just out taking my dogs for their midday romp, and as is my custom on weekends, I walked 'em past my neighbor Chip's house because they like to play with Porsche, his Nova Scotia Duck-Tolling Retriever. He's an old hound that thinks of my pups as young stuff. Porsche, not Chip.

Chip and I always visit while the dogs are playing. In real life he's a biophysicist in the Bay Area and has a second home on my block. His hobby, or perhaps passion, is traveling to the far reaches of the Pacific and diving on WWII ships. He's got a trip comin' up in a coupla months, but he told me about one he discovered several years ago.

I think this is appropriate for Memorial Day. Go read. Links at site.

What got you and your wife interested in WWII and diving?

We took a dive group to Palau in 1989. The group went home and Pam and I were going on to Yap. A typhoon interrupted air travel. Sitting on the verandah of the Palau Pacific resort consuming adult beverages, we met Dan Bailey, who, with Dave Buller, had just found the 'Helmet Wreck'. Many hours later, trips were planned and information exchanged (or maybe it was the other way around). Next trip, Pam, Dan and I found the Samidare (Pam's picture at the Samidare site is on the cover of his Palau book). Many trips latter, including visits to the National Archives and a bulging personal library, we have never looked back.

Elaborate about your first dive on the Mississinewa

Pam describes it as an obsession, I felt I was just "focused". After spending hundreds of hours researching the ship and 6 1/2 days looking for it, when I saw the spike on my bottom finder, I screamed "We found it", but nobody believed me. I turned the boat around and we hit it again. Kenneth Wur, one of the Ulithians helping us, put his mask on and looked below. He claimed he saw it. I asked him three times what he saw, because we had a false sighting 2 days earlier. He kept saying, "something, it must be the ship". At that point, after all the time, I still didn't believe we had found it.
...

We made a promise to the veterans and the families of the deceased, that, if found, we would not penetrate the wreck. It is a grave site for 50 sailors and it would be the same as going into a cemetery and digging in the plots for remains. We kept our word and hope that others have the same respect and sensitivity for the site (my em). However, of the many interesting things we saw on the exterior, one piece of plating was incongruous with the rest. We felt it might be part of the kaiten and others that have seen the photos, agree.

The Kaiten (Japanese: 回天, translated "the turn toward heaven,"[1] "Turning of the Heavens," was a torpedo modified as a suicide weapon, and used by the Imperial Japanese Navy in the final stages of World War II.

Boy, the finish line after that last "turn toward heaven" musta been a doozy!

I think this is fascinating stuff and hope you find it interesting.

Did I mention that this simple ol' hillbilly has interesting neighbors?