USS Grunion (SS-216)

 

 

USS Grunion (SS-216) was a Gato-class submarine that was sunk at Kiska, Alaska, during World War II. USS Grunion was also the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the grunion, a small fish of the silversides family, indigenous to the western American coast.

USS Grunion keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut on 1 March 1941. She was launched on 22 December 1941, and commissioned on 11 April 1942 with Lieutenant Commander Mannert L. Abele, USNA class of 1926 in command.

After shakedown out of New London, USS Grunion sailed for the Pacific on 24 May. A week later, as she transited the Caribbean Sea for Panama, she rescued 16 survivors of USAT Jack, which had been torpedoed by the German U-boat U-558. USS Grunion  conducted a fruitless search for 13 other survivors presumed in the vicinity. Arriving at Coco Solo on 3 June, USS Grunion deposited her shipload of survivors and continued to Pearl Harbor, arriving 20 June.

USS Grunion depart from Hawaii on 30 June after ten days of intensive training.

USS Grunion touched Midway Island before heading toward the Aleutian Islands for her first war patrol. Her first report, made as she patrolled north of Kiska Island, stated she had been attacked by a Japanese destroyer and it had fired at her with inconclusive results. USS Grunion operated off Kiska throughout July and sank two enemy patrol boats while in search for enemy shipping. On 30 July the submarine reported intensive antisubmarine activity, and she was ordered back to Dutch Harbor.

USS Grunion was never heard from nor seen again. Air searches off Kiska were fruitless. On October 5, USS Grunion was reported overdue from patrol and assumed lost with all hands. Her name was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 2 November 1942. Captured Japanese records show no antisubmarine attacks in the Kiska area, and the fate of USS Grunion remained a mystery for 65 years until discovery in the Bering Sea in August 2007 of a wreck believed to be the boat. In October 2008, the U.S. Navy verified that the wreck is the USS Grunion. The reason for her sinking is still not known, though there are two possible explanations.

Grunion received one battle star for World War II service.