Brothers find father's sunken submarine

Bruce Abele was tossing a football with his brothers in Newton Highlands when his mother received the telegram about the missing submarine.

She called the three boys inside - Bruce was the oldest at 12 - and told them that the ship their father was serving on was gone.

For the 65 years since the USS Grunion disappeared, Bruce has wondered what happened to his father.

Propelled forward by the dozens of families who have lived with the same unanswered question, Bruce and his brothers have chased the unsolved mystery for decades.

It was only until a few years ago - aided by the Internet and with help from around the world - that Bruce, now 77, has been able to piece together what happened that day.

And this past August - after years of searching - they found the sunken submarine.

"It's an emotion you don't get very often," Bruce said, remembering the first time he saw the video glide over the lifeless ship. His two brothers went to the icy waters of the northern Pacific to video the ship, after pinpointing a probable location based on an obscure Japanese article.

On a recent afternoon, Bruce played through the 3.5-hour tape and sat affixed to the screen like he was watching it for the first time.

Buried nearly a mile below the surface, the damaged submarine is slowly being eaten by sea life. As the camera floated over the bent and broken ship, the all-encompassing silence gives the feeling of moving through an underwater galaxy.

"[This video] had such an incredible effect on so many people," he said, still staring at the screen through wide-rimmed glasses.

But rather than putting an end to the seven-decade mystery, the video has gotten people asking more questions.

Bruce wants to find out how the ship sank, based on its scars and bruises: Why is the bow missing and why did the hole crimp in? Why were the hatches open? Was it a circular torpedo or Japanese fire?

"We are trying to figure out where we are and the next steps going forward," he said.

In the meantime, Mary Bentz, who lost her uncle on the USS Grunion, has set about contacting the families of the 70 men who perished on the ship.

With two other women, who have dubbed themselves the "sub ladies," they located at least one family member for every crew member, after a year and a half of research.

"I know what an impact [my uncle's death] had on our lives and I decided to help," Bentz said. "Can you imagine not knowing where someone is? It's one thing if there is an accident or an illness, but when you don't know...

"Everyone went through the same thing," she said. "It was just a different name and a different place. Reaching out to all the families to let them know of the finding was closure for them."

The Abeles

With Bruce's father gone when he was 12, life for the Abele family was not easy.

But thanks to his mother's aggressive violin teaching - she convinced nearly everyone in the Highlands to play - the family was able to survive.

Their life wasn't extravagant, said Bruce, but they got by.

Bruce studied at Newton North High School, but graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon High School. He attended Iowa State, served in the Army for a few years, and received an MBA from Columbia. As a retired computer engineer, much of Bruce's time recently has been consumed by the search for the USS Grunion.

Brad, who was 7 at the time of the telegram, attended Yale and became an industrial engineer.

And John, the youngest of the brothers, founded Boston Scientific. Wanting desperately to find his father's submarine, he personally funded the expedition to locate the USS Grunion.

But the search for the missing submarine went far beyond a search for their own father. It was an opportunity to help the families of the 69 other men who died that day.

"It meant an awful lot to a heck of a lot of people," Bruce said. "And that's what kept us searching."

For up-to-date information on the brothers' search, visit www.ussgrunion.com.

Chrissie Long can be reached at clong@cnc.com.

__________________________________________________________

The United States Navy named a destroyer in honor of the Abeles' father. Mannert L. Abele, known as Jim to his family and colleagues, was the commander of the USS Grunion that was lost in the northern Pacific. The USS Mannert L. Abele was commanded by a Newton resident, Alton Parker, but was sunk in 1945, while on picket duty near Okinawa. A documentary about the sinking of the USS Mannert L. Abele will be aired on Sunday, Nov. 11, from 9:30-11 p.m. on the Smithsonian Channel.