The Abele Sons, In Search of Answers
About three years after USS Grunion (SS 216) was found near the Aleutian Islands, a man named Bruce Abele, now 80 years old, was still puzzled over the sinking of his father’s submarine during those the days of World War II. In 2006, Abele and two of his younger brothers, John and Brad, made the news. The ocean-surveying firm they hired to search the Bering Sea floor sent them a photo of an oblong object.
This object had featured a resembling conning tower and periscope mast. The following summer, a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) indeed confirmed the same object as the wreckage of a U.S. submarine. Finally, the Abele brothers got answers to the decades-old mystery of what happened to their father, Lt. Cmdr. Mannert Abele, and his 69-man crew.