THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 19, 1996 TAG: 9605190053
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NAGS HEAD LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
Standing knee-deep in the Atlantic, Don Lathrop cast a wreath into the foamy surf Saturday and thought, as he has each day for more than 50 years, of his fellow submariners now on eternal patrol.
``You just think of the fellas out there lying on the bottom of the ocean, or somewhere else,'' the 72-year-old from Madison, N.C., said during a memorial service. ``You know that it's but by the grace of God that we aren't there with them.''
Some 150 other World War II submarine veterans and their families shared Lathrop's thoughts during a reunion this week at the Comfort Inn in South Nags Head.
``They are an incredibly tight group,'' said Bruce Allen, 39, the pastor of Pilmoor Memorial United Methodist Church in Currituck, N.C., who blessed the wreath.
Like most of the members of the U.S. Submarine Veterans of World War II, Allen's father, Frank, wore a blue vest festooned with patches and pins to Saturday's service.
``When my Mom died two years ago, half of the people at her funeral were wearing these outfits,'' Bruce Allen said.
People from as far away as Connecticut and Florida came to Nags Head for the southeastern regional convention, which began on Thursday and ended Saturday, Armed Forces Day.
The regional chapter includes North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia. Its purpose is to keep alive the memory, spirit and unity of shipmates and to pledge patriotism to the United States.
This was Nags Head's first time as host, and it drew the regional organization's largest crowd, with 151 officially registered.
``It was a beautiful ceremony - one of our best,'' said Leila Jackson of Wilmington, N.C.
Much of the credit went to Jean and Robert Parker of Moyock, who helped organize the event.
``I think it was the location,'' said Jean Parker, vice president of the North Carolina chapter. ``And the weather is just right, too.
``I even ordered the porpoises to jump out, and they have been,'' she said, chuckling.
Most people spent Thursday and Friday just as William and Barbara Hale of Salem, Va., did - sight-seeing and talking with one another.
``Reminiscing, really,'' said Hale, a former torpedoman on the Pipefish.
At 11 on Saturday morning, the party took on a more somber note. By the end of the 30-minute service, many were like Barbara Hale, using tissues to wipe back tears.
During the memorial, a small bell was struck 52 times, once for each of the submarines lost between Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 2, 1945.
Most of the men serving on those underwater ships died at sea. Those who survived frequently perished while prisoners of war.
``The crews of our submarines departed from their bases determined to seek out and destroy the enemy to the extreme limits of their capabilities and endurance,'' said Lathrop during a preamble to the bell toll.
``Many of our numbers were lost in the performance of these duties. Some men lost their lives individually, but by far the greater number died as boats failed to return from patrol . . .
``In most cases, the report `submarine overdue-presumed lost' was the epitaph for both submarine and men,'' said Lathrop, who served aboard the Barbero.
As the ships' names were called out, a small replica of a submarine inched across a pool before being sunk at the final toll. Well, almost sunk.
``They play with it all the time, and the one time they need it to sink, it doesn't,'' said Grace Brockhausen, 75, who married her submariner, Charles, 53 years ago.
``Someone said it didn't sink because the submarine sailors are unsinkable,'' the Cape Carteret, N.C., woman added.
Submariners also were known as the silent servers. Some at the reunion felt that the sailors' contributions to the wartime effort were less well-known because of it.
Gatherings such as this one on the Outer Banks provided the men and wives an opportunity to again reflect on their World War II careers.
Among them was R.J. ``Shorty'' Lebonville of Charlotte, who enjoyed retelling his crew's rescue of a young aviator named George Bush.
The young fighter pilot - the only survivor of a plane crash - floated in a life raft for several hours before being recovered in the Pacific by the Finback.
``If I'd have known he'd be president, I would have had a heart attack,'' Lebonville, 72, said.
Bush never forgot Lebonville, who was invited with his wife to the president's inauguration in 1989.
Lebonville carries pictures of himself with Bush in his wallet. One is of the two men and their wives; two others are from presidential trips to Charlotte.
The submariners saved 55 aviators during the war. ``It cost our government a lot of money to produce an aviator,'' said Lebonville, who joined the southeast Sub Vets group in the early 1980s.
The organization began in 1950 with a small group in New Jersey and now numbers around 7,500 nationwide, members said.
About 16,000 enlisted personnel and officers served on submarines during the war, said Frank Gadd of Hendersonville, N.C.
``We made up 1 1/2 percent of the Navy, and we sank 55 percent'' of the enemy ships that were downed, Gadd said. ILLUSTRATION: RICHARD L. DUNSTON photos, The Virginian-Pilot
During the reunion, R.J. ``Shorty'' Lebonville of Charlotte
recounted how, as a sailor on the Finback, he helped rescue a young
fighter pilot, George Bush.
Frank Gadd of Hendersonville takes a good look at a replica of a
World War II submarine. Submarine crews were important in the war,
Gadd said. ``We made up 1 1/2 percent of the Navy, and we sank 55
percent'' of the enemy ships that were downed.
by CNB