Glenn Minteer's recollections as told to Tim Calvert, Lou Large, Barb Hagele, Bill and Judy Davy. We are grateful to Judy Davy for transcribing this amazing story of a hero of the submarine service during WW2.  Our thanks to Glenn for sharing his exciting life story with us. 

 Glenn was born August 16, 1920. He was the youngest child. He had a brother, Claude who was nine years older and a sister, Lorene who was seven years older.  His father died in an auto accident when Glenn was 11.  His dad was on his way to work, the street car had stopped to pick him up when he was hit by an auto and died hours later.  His mother used the insurance money to buy a house and an acre of land; she reasoned that they would always have a roof over their head and could grow their food.

In the summer of 1937 between his junior and senior year he worked at an American tourist camp/gas station/restaurant.  He was paid $1.00 a day.  At the restaurant a ¼ lb hamburger cost 10¢ and a coke was 5¢.  When school started he quit the job to go back to school.  He was the captain of the football team. He played right guard one season and then he played right end for three seasons. After football season was over, the owners of the tourist camp wanted him to work for them.  He told them he didn't want to quit school.  They worked out a schedule where he would work from 9:30 at night until 8:00 am. The restaurant closed at midnight.   He would sleep with his clothes on.  If a customer would ring the bell he would get up and wait on them at the gas station.  He would go from there to school.  After school he would go home and sleep until about 8:30 p.m. and then come back to the tourist camp.  A man and his wife came in every Friday night and the man, who was the assistant stationmaster for the Union Railroad in Kansas City, Missouri asked Glenn if he ever thought of doing other work.  When Glenn said he would consider doing something else, the man offered him a job in 1937 as a Red Cap.  He had to get a waiver to work for the railroad since he wasn't twenty-one. He met his wife Helen when she and a friend came to the station to meet a friend. They were married in July of 1941.  A year later a position opened as a Pullman reservation clerk in the ticket office.  At that time Kansas City had twelve railroads.  There was a pigeonhole wall cabinet with a box for every Pullman sleeping car.  His next job was upstairs as an auditor of ticket sales. This was where he was working on December 7, 1941 when World War II started.

 Glenn didn't want to be drafted and so on May 17, 1942 he enlisted in the Navy.  His sister had married a submariner and he told Glenn that he should also join the submarine service.  He would receive 50% more pay because of the danger. He went to boot camp at Great Lakes, IL and then volunteered for submarine duty and was sent to New London, CT submarine school and he learned about sub diesel engines. 

 After sub school in early December, he rode the train to San Diego then a ship to Pearl Harbor, arriving in mid December and then on to Midway Island. He was in Pearl Harbor for Christmas and on Midway Island for New Years.  In January of 1943, he was assigned to a relief crew on Midway Island three months after the Battle of Midway started on June 4, 1942.  The relief crew would take a submarine that came in from patrol and repair what was needed and make it ready for the next patrol. 

The USS Trigger (SS237) came in to Midway and after being refitted Glenn was assigned to the USS Trigger.  He was a fireman in the engine rooms.  Glenn qualified on his first patrol. (A patrol usually lasted about 60 days) The XO, Edward L. Beach, took two days to take Glenn through the qualification process.  He would put his hand over a valve and ask Glenn what it was.  There were 87 enlisted men onboard and every one hot bunked.  During that patrol they sank a freighter and damaged two or three others.  They also experienced depth charges.  The Trigger had 4 - 9 cylinder Fairbanks Morse engines, each driving generators to charge batteries and furnish power for propulsion. 

 After that patrol he returned to Midway Island.  Midway Island is 7 x 3 miles.  He was in the refit crew for three to four months.  He was promoted to a 2nd class motor machinist mate, a "motor mac".  In 1950 the name was changed to engine man.  Glenn worked in the refit crew for four to five months while waiting to be assigned to another submarine.

He was then assigned to the Spearfish (SS190), a thin skin boat with a maximum depth of 300 feet.   Glenn was called the Old Goat by the other crewmembers because he was older - 24.  He was on three war patrols, one of which was off the coast of Japan. During this time he became a 1st class 'motor mac' One time they got close enough that they could see Japan 'with one eye' Every crew member got the opportunity to look at Japan through the periscope. The Spearfish had HOR (Hoover Owens Renchler) engines, which were double-acting engines where the piston fired down and fired up.   It was a German design, but built by the US.  The engine had copper tubes to the cylinder for lubrication and they would snap.  Then you would have to shut down the engine to repair with spare tubing.  This would happen every day.  They devised a way to loop the tubing so when it snapped, the spare tubing was right there.  A freighter came along the coast and the Spearfish was between the freighter and its escorts.  They fired three torpedoes.  Sonar detected a destroyer and the Spearfish went down 290 feet.  There were six depth charges and it raised the submarine up to 140 feet.  This caused the sub to shake.  It blew the packing, which was like waxed rope from around the shaft-packing gland.  More chargers were dropped, but not near them.  Thereafter they had packing rings prepared in advance.

 After those patrols he was eligible to come back to New London for new construction - a new submarine, because he had been on four war patrols. He had 30 days leave at home.  He was in the US for 4 months and 4 days before leaving New London on the USS Blenny (SS324).  The USS Blenny was barely finished before Glenn reported to it.  They were running the engines to break them in as he was boarding.  The USS Blenny had General Motors engines.  Glenn preferred the Fairbanks engines because he thought they were more reliable.  They went through the Panama Canal to Pearl Harbor.  He was on 4 war patrols with the USS Blenny.  The first patrol was in the South China Sea.  They had to go through the Lombok Straits between Lombok and Bali, a seven mile long strip, to get to Australia for refit after the patrol.  They had to go on surface at night; it was not deep enough to dive.  They went full speed. 

They had two weeks R & R in the harbor of Fremantle, Australia twelve miles from Perth.  They stayed at the Ocean Beach Hotel at the Cotterslow Beach, which had been commandeered.  It was on the sea front. They could walk across the street and down some steps and be on the beach.  We swam a lot and when the hotel bar opened we would be near. Three blocks down from the beach was a dance hall and was open on Wednesday and Saturday.

After the R & R, the relief crew had overhauled their submarine and had done all the repairs that were listed.  They had to go back through the Lombok Straits and then on to Subic Bay in the Philippines after the patrol.  This was in January 1945; The US had taken back the Philippines the previous fall.  While in Subic Bay they had two weeks of R & R and they had to build their own cabins.  Each cabin held one crew.  One day Glenn and two other sailors  hitchhiked to the Clark Field Air Force base which was between Subic Bay and Manila.  They got a ride in a truck - sitting on top of a load of bombs - to the Air Force Base.  They stayed overnight there; "the air force guys were great - took us in and made us one of them".  They gave us a ride into Manila and back to the base.   Manila was a "wreck", only a church survived the bombing.  On the way back they stayed overnight again at the Air Force Base.  At the end of the third patrol they were back in Perth.  They stayed in a hotel there.  The next patrol was to the Gulf of Siam.  Now they have gone through the Straits of Lombok four times. 

 They participated in a full blockade of Singapore - didn't let anything through.  They would run on the surface and stop all Sampans and Junks.  "Pull up along side of them.  Always had a boarding party up on deck.  Whoever was off watch would grab a gun and come up on deck, about four or five guys.  Would pull up along side of them and tie them to the side of the submarine. They all carried a rowboat."   They would have all the crew get into their rowboat and sent them off to shore which was not very far.  After searching the boat they would drag it off into deep water and back off and sink it with a deck gun.  Sometimes they would put demolition charges in the bottom of the Sampan.  "Well, (chuckle, chuckle) one time we saw the Sampan come out the harbor there and head up the coast and (chuckle, chuckle) we started to go in toward him, we were on the surface, of course.  This afterdeck house, a little house on the deck, disappeared and there was a 37 mm gun sticking there.  And he fired that gun, one round went over us they said and one came forward of the ship in the water and by that time we were turning full steam heading the other way."   "Most of them were not armed." They stopped 53 Sampan and junk boats during the blockade that lasted 30 days. "We sank more than one a day."   The captain was William H. Hazzard, nicknamed Wild Bill Hazzard.  The USS Blenny 324 had two 5inch -25 caliber deck guns, one forward and one aft of the conning tower. After that patrol they came back into Subic Bay for refit before the next patrol. "The day after we got into Subic Bay the war was over."

 We had devised our own "smoke screen" layer.  We had rigged up in the engine room a fuel line, up into the engine exhaust pipe, from our auxiliary stand by fuel pump a little copper tubing line right into the big exhaust line where the engine exhaust came out of the engine and we built a little spray orifice and that line hooked up there to spray raw fuel into that exhaust while the engine was running, and when we did that the exhaust came out in white clouds, huge clouds. Glenn was asked it they did this to celebrate, and he replied.  "We did that early on soon after commissioning, we figured if we ever got caught on the surface and we couldn't dive we could run and hide ourselves in that fog."

 After the war the USS Blenny along with other submarines followed a submarine tender; there were three lines of submarines behind the tender headed for the USA, or so they thought.  The USS Blenny and two other subs were directed to go into Guam.  They were told that they had to stay for four to five months.  Glenn said that he had signed up 'for the duration' not for four years.  Only he and a couple of other guys were able to leave on an LST headed for the US.  It took them four weeks to get from Guam to Meyer Island, San Francisco.  From there he took the train to St. Louis where he was discharged.

He returned to his home in Kansas City where he returned to his job of auditor at the railroad that had been held for him.  Twenty-three months and four days after getting out of the Navy he reenlisted.  He felt that there was no future for him at the railroad.  The next step up was the head of the department and his boss was not going to retire soon.  He knew that he would have to work until he was 65 to retire, where as if he went back into the Navy, he could retire in sixteen years with a bigger pension. 

He had to go back in as a 2nd class motor mac. He was 1st class when the war ended.   He went to New London where he got his orders to report to the USS Diablo (SS 479) which was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone.  He had to wait for the Diablo to come back from the Panama Canal to board.  He asked around for housing for his wife and daughter Judy who had been born in 1946.  Someone told him a local barber had rooms to rent.  They lived there three to four months and then they got an apartment in Navy Housing.  The Diablo was transferred to Norfolk and they rented a house on Ocean Beach.

 In 1951 he was transferred to New London and was assigned to the USS Tusk (SS 246). He passed the test for Chief Engineman, but because of quotas he was passed up 3 or 4 times.  Glenn became an instructor for basic construction and diesel engine class.  He also instructed officers on how submarines were constructed and all systems.  He took warrant officer class and LDO for six months.

Glenn then had two years shore duty.  During his last year he finally made chief.  Then he was transferred to the USS Trutta (SS 421) out of Key West. He was Chief Engineman.  They had Navy housing in Key West.  The USS Trutta then went to the Mediterranean.  They stopped in Turkey, Greece, Cannes, France, and Gibraltar.  On the way back to Key West the Skipper got a letter that Glenn had made Warrant Officer. He gave Glenn the oath-of-office, then instruction as Officer of the deck and other duties.

Next Glenn was assigned to the USS Chanticleer ASR7, a submarine rescue vessel out of San Diego.  He was an Engineering Officer for four years.  They went on deployment for four months to the western Pacific including as far as Japan, as well as operating out of San Diego.  There was talk of doing away with all warrant officers in the late 1950s.  Glenn got a letter from the Bureau that he would have to revert to chief or change to Lt. Junior Grade. The ships captain swore him in right then as a Lt. JG.   He served on the Chanticleer for four years.

 Then Glenn became Officer in charge of the Armed Forces Examining Station in St. Louis.  He was there from 1962 to 1964. That is where anyone going into any U.S. military service was sent for his or her physical and mental examination.  During his second year in St. Louis, Glenn went to lunch and when he came back to his office, he saw large Lieutenant bars hanging from the ceiling with strings.  That is how he found out that he had made full Lt. The Sgt Major in charge had made the cardboard bars to surprise Glenn.  He and Helen were divorced in early 1963.

In 1964 Glenn was transferred to the USS Boxer (LPH-4) in Norfolk, Virginia as "A" division officer in charge of the auxiliary machinery.  The Boxer was an 888-foot aircraft carrier that had been converted to a helicopter carrier for the amphibious Force.  It could carry forty-eight helicopters and 1600 Marine troops, and operated out of Norfolk, Virginia.  In 1965 Glenn married Vivian, his current wife.  In late 1965 or early 1966 the Boxer was sent to the coast of north Florida and picked up the Army's 1st Cavalry Airborne Division of helicopters and their crews and took them to Vietnam, through the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal, Red Sea and Indian Ocean and into the Pacific Ocean and anchored off the coast of Vietnam, and the helicopters were flown into the airbase on Vietnam.  The Boxer returned to Norfolk.  In late 1966, the Boxer was on deployment to the Caribbean Sea and on Dec 7th Glenn received a radio message from the U.S. Naval hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia that he was the father of a baby boy.  By this time Glenn had been advanced on the ship to MPA - "Main Propulsion Assistant" in charge of the eight steam Boilers, four main Engines, and four propellers and shafts and all associated equipment.  Glenn says he was very happy to get back to Norfolk and see his wife and new son, Glenn Jr. In September of 1967 Glenn was transferred to shore duty at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California.

 In 1969 Glenn got orders to go to Vietnam.  He was Maintenance office for the River Division 553.  He was required to maintain 10 "patrol boat river" called PBRs.  They are 31foot fiberglass gunboats with a twin 50-caliber machine guns forward, a single 50-caliber gun aft and two M-60 machine guns on the engine covers.  They are water-jet propelled so they could operate in shallow water.  They were assigned to the Delta area of Vietnam and operated in the canals there.  There were 52 men in his division and had six men killed and twenty-three wounded.  In October 1970 Glenn's one-year tour of duty in Vietnam was finished and he was transferred back to San Diego.

Glenn retired from the US Navy on 1 January, 1971; he had served twenty-seven years in the US Navy.

  George Brundage passed away at his home in Madera, Calif., on June 22, 2005 at the age of 75.  George spent 20 years in the Navy mostly in the submarine service in New London. He retired from the navy in 1968. George was active in the Elks, American Legion and the Fleet Reserve

From: Andrew Everett grandson of Darwin Whitcomb Heath
Darwin Whitcomb Heath died October 21, 2005 in Ludlow, VT. He was born in New York City on September 23, 1921, the son of Mary Darwin and Harley Willis Heath. He graduated from The Lawrenceville School in 1939 and from Yale University in 1943.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, first on a Sub-chaser in the Atlantic and retired from The Navy as a Lt. Commander aboard the submarine USS 479 Diablo in the Pacific.

He married Suzanne Irene Bates on January 27, 1945 in New London, CT. He worked for John Falkner Arndt Advertising Agency in Philadelphia, and in New York for Mooresville Mills as Advertising Director, in the
Advertising Department of Women¹s Day Magazine. For nineteen years he worked for Yachting Magazine and retired to Vermont in 1974 after having been Advertising Manager of Yachting and Advertising Director of Yachting Boats and Gear.

He and his wife operated Darwin¹s Country Store in Ludlow, VT from 1976-1986. He was a former member and Director of the Noroton Yacht Club, Darien, CT, a member of the New York Yacht Club, The Yale Club of New York City, and the Wantastiquet Trout Club of Weston, VT. He was an avid sailor, having participated in five Bermuda Races and numerous off shore races both on the East and West coasts.

What ever happened to Lt. Edwin K (Ted) Snyder 46-47 our only known crewmember to make Admiral?

I just saw the web site regards reunion for the Diablo and great pictures.
I am not a former crew member, but back in 1952 (I believe), the Diablo tied
up outboard of the USS Utina ATF-163, a fleet tug, in GTMO.  I was a
radioman and got friendly with the radioman on the Diablo and I was invited
to go out for a day with you...couldn't believe such a thing could happened,
but I went out for the day and watched how all of the crew ran the boat.  I
had a marvelous trip and on the way back into port, the Skipper  took me
topside (do you call that the Bridge on a sub?); it was wonderful
experience. I spent 4 years in the Navy (1948 to 1952) and spent most of my
time on the Utina. I was first assigned to to a wooden hulled Geodetic
survery ship(former minesweeper), the Simon Newcomb AGSC-14 which ran
aground in Labrador in August of 1949, so that was a short tour of
duty(damage was so bad, it was finally decommissioned in Brooklyn).
Its great that your have all your reunions and get to see old crew members
that are still around,.

Have a great reunion in 2005

Dave Swanson RM1

 

Crew members who served from 1959 to 1962 please help. David Pruitt is looking for information about his father Bill Pruitt. Bill died in May of 1965 when Dave was only four years old. He was an only child and his Mom died in 1989. Dave is seeking to find family members and would love to hear from guys who served with Bill and might lead him to some of them. Dave would like to have any information about Bill you could share. He knows almost nothing about his dad and a few words from some of you who knew Bill would have great meaning to him.   dpruitt@hvc.rr.com

What ever happened to:

John Zarcheck

John went on eternal patrol February 23, 2005. He joined the Navy in 1939. He was on a submarine at Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941 during the attack. He made war patrols through out the war and married a lovely Australian girl in 1944 while his boat was in for repairs after being depth charged. John was an ENC on the Diablo from 1954 to 1956. John retired from the Navy after 22 years of service and worked at Electric Boat for 20 years. Chief Zarcheck fathered a son who also served on the boats.

Beetle Bailey

Mitchael Page TM3 61-62

 Mitch stayed in the Navy made Warrant Officer and retired as a LT. Mitch has a son who made Chief and is also nearing retirement. Mitch and his wife spent part of this summer living on a boat in Baltimore harbor. They plan to return to their home in Huston Texas in September. The family visited the USS Torsk July 31, 2004.

Walt Oemcke TM3 60-62

Russell Thomas (Tom) Oliver

Tom served as an MMFN in the FER in 1962 and was transferred to the Cobbler in July of that year to help bring her out of the shipyard. He lives with his wife Lynne in Bellingham, WA.

Lenny Gregrey

What ever happened to: Buck Conrad click on the web site below