October 1, 2009         

Event Advisory

For immediate release

Contact:Myrna Hayes, Co-founder and Coordinator

The Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial

Volunteer Mare Island Projects Manager–Arc Ecology

707-557-9816

707-249-9633 cell

myrnahay@pacbell.net

http://www.mareislandlostboats.org

Tribute Coincides with Fleet Week To Honor 575 Crewmen of

Mare Island Built Submarines Lost During World War II

Former Navy memorial chapel a fitting place to honor crewmen of the seven lost submarines of Mare Island

VALLEJO, CA – An afternoon of memorial services to honor the 575 crewmen of Mare Island built submarines lost during WWII will take place on Mare Island, Sunday, October 11, 2009.  This is the third year that organizers have held the Lost Boats memorial program on the anniversary of the loss at sea of the USS Wahoo.  “Our Lost Boats Memorial happens to fall on Fleet Weekend when Navy support is heightened throughout the Bay. We hope people will join us in honoring these men who gave their lives during WWII in service of the Navy and the people of this nation”, said Lost Boats Memorial Co-founder and Organizer Myrna Hayes.

The free events on Mare Island begin with a flagraising at 1pm at Morton Field named in honor of the Commander of the USS Wahoo, one of the 7 vessels and their crews now “on eternal patrol”. A program of music and history in St. Peter’s Chapel is planned from 2 to 3:30pm with a reception following at Quarters C, 832 Walnut Ave. on Mare Island.  At 5:30pm a wreath-laying ceremony will be held at Berth 6, the historic dock where submarines were repaired during WWII. The featured slide show presenter for the Chapel program will be Yountville resident Larry Maggini, a former submarine combat systems engineer at Mare Island Naval Shipyard until the base closure in 1996. He still works on Mare Island for the Navy’s environmental remediation contractor, Weston Solutions, Inc. the host sponsor of the USS Wahoo Mare Island Memorial event. Mr. Maggini has researched and compiled a book on which his slide show “Moments in Time” is based. His book entitled “On Eternal Patrol—The Lost Boats of Mare Island”. The book will be available for sale in print and DVD version.

The U.S. Navy submarine force went to war against the Japanese Empire in December 1941 with orders to “…conduct unrestricted submarine warfare…”. By the end of World War II in September 1945, it had sunk a significant portion of the Japanese Navy and virtually wiped out their merchant fleet, effectively strangling the island nation. Success, however, came at a heavy price. Fifty-two of the 325 U.S. submarines that departed on war patrols during World War II were declared “overdue, presumed lost”. Their 3,500 crewmen today remain on what surviving shipmates reverently term “eternal patrol”, their final resting places in most cases known only to God.

Seven of the twenty-three submarines built at Mare Island that took part in World War II combat operations were among the fifty-two that never came home: USS Pompano (SS-181), USS Swordfish (SS-193), USS Gudgeon (SS-211), USS Trigger (SS-237), USS Wahoo (SS238), USS Tullibee (SS-284), and USS Tang (SS-306). For more than 63 years the final resting places of the lost boats and their crews had remained unknown. Then, in October 2006, the Navy confirmed that USS Wahoo, lost at sea on October 11, 1943 with her crew of eighty men, had been located in La Perouse Strait off the Japanese island of Hokkaido. The Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial services are scheduled to take place on the 66th anniversary of Wahoo’s loss.

The memorial service in St. Peter’s Chapel will honor the 575 crewmen of the Mare Island submarines lost during WWII, including USS Wahoo. The service will feature a photo slide presentation entitled “Moments in Time”, music from Terra Trio, and an opportunity for those in attendance to share memories and recollections. The service will also recognize all members of the submarine force and especially those lost in submarines. “We have a privilege and responsibility to remember the lost crewmen and to honor all of those who have served our country in the submarine force. And as importantly, we owe the men and women who built and maintained ships such as these 7 submarines at Mare Island a debt of gratitude,” said Myrna Hayes, Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial organizer.

In Larry Maggini’s photo narrative book he cites a quote by the historian Fletcher Pratt who wrote: "There is a poetry in ships' names. It can still be heard in the quiet watches of the night..., when mist obscures the waterfront and foghorns call mournfully through the darkness. Out across the bay, blinking lights mark the channel down which Navy ships have sailed for a hundred years, and bells sound a knell for those that never came back." “The names of Mare Island's lost boats are honored names—Pompano, Swordfish, Gudgeon, Trigger, Wahoo, Tullibee, and Tang. Some were old and some were new, but the sweat and the skill and the steel of Mare Island were a part of each of them to the end. The memories of them will live so long as the bells still toll. I hope you will join us on October 11 to remember the crewmen of our lost boats”, said Larry Maggini.

The Lost Boats of Mare Island Memorial is hosted by the newly founded Mare Island Heritage Trust, a project of Arc Ecology, a San Francisco based non-profit organization working within the community of Vallejo and throughout the region to raise the public’s awareness of, and access to, Mare Island.  Arc Ecology has hosted the annual San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival, the Daffodil Tea–a fundraiser for the restoration of St. Peter’s Chapel, and the Mare Faire, which includes a commemoration of the 65th anniversary of the Port Chicago Mutiny in Vallejo.

The memorial service planned at Mare Island is free of charge and will be followed by a reception held nearby. More information about Mare Island ties to the lost boats and the planned memorial can be found at www.mareislandlostboats.org or by calling 707-557-9816 or 707-249-9633.

Organizers gratefully acknowledge the support of Vallejo Rugby Club for use of Morton Field during an actual game time, the WWII Landing Craft Support Gunboat LCS-102 for use of Berth 6 for the wreath-laying service and Lennar Mare Island for their contribution of Quarters C in which the reception is held.

# # #