Sub Vets of Central Washington a home for those who served

ELLENSBURG – Members of Submarine Veterans of Central Washington were elated to receive the national Golden Anchor Award recently, and they are most proud of the growth it signifies.

The SVCW had 18 members when publicist Gary Brown joined the organization in June of 2011. Membership was up to 28 this summer for a 60 percent increase.

Although Brown, who served on the USS Nautilus, won't take the credit, he has been largely responsible for the growth. He consistently communicates the group's activities to central Washington newspapers.

“We want all former submariners in central Washington to know the organization exists,” Brown said. “There is a special connection between submariners, and we think there are a lot more in central Washington.”

Nautilus was the the first nuclear-powered sub. It was the first to travel all of the way to the North Pole.

The Golden Anchor is for the sub vet base that has best demonstrated a leading role in developing and promoting creative membership renewals and has developed successful recruiting tools, programs and ideas.

“The Yakima Base (chapter) is the smallest USSVI base in the 13-state Western Region and is indisputably the most active and the fastest growing,” Brown said.

Brown noted it took five members to charter the base back in 1988. They were Chuck Troyon, Les Sutton, Bill Richards, Joel Cooper and Commander Jim Foote.

The SVCW has members all over the region. Although hardly any of them served together, they share a kinship. They've had experiences only submariners can claim.

“Not everyone can be a submariner,” said John Mansfield of Ashford, western regional commander of USSVI. “It takes a person who remains calm under stress, who can take the confined life aboard without developing claustrophobia and who gets along with all sorts of people for long periods of time.”

It was Mansfield who presented the Golden Anchor Award to Yakima Base Commander Rob Jacobson. He is also author of “Cruisers for Breakfast”, an account of the war patrols of the USS Darter and USS Dace, the subs that fired the torpedoes that ignited the pivotal WWII Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Yakima submariner Herb Brunkhorst, 89, served aboard the Darter during that battle. He is one of two WWII vets in the SVCW.

Although no one else in the group saw action as serious as Leyte Gulf, all members have been in tense situations. Bill Millard of Desert Aire served in Korea in 1952. Others served in the Gulf of Tonkin during Vietnam, rescuing downed airmen.

“You bet it was dangerous,” Mansfield said. “You were depth-charged by Russian Destroyers.”

Even during the cold war, American subs were depth-charged by the Russians, Mansfield added. Often they were caught spying in or near the port of Vladivostok.

“Vladivostok is their San Diego,” Mansfield said. “They didn't like us being around there.”

Millard was in a sub caught in Vladivostok. He lived through an attack of 18 depth charges.

“You just got real quiet, hung on to something and prayed,” he said.

“You get used to it,” Brunkhorst said.

Millard chose the submarine service because he didn't want to chance having to run up a hill in the face of enemy fire.

“If I was coming home, I was coming home in one piece,” he said.

Spying activity continues today, by the Americans and the Russians, according to SVCW members. Submarine patrols are never joy rides, they said.

“I’m on the bridge,” East Wenatchee submariner John Dominguez recalled. “We are being followed by a Russian AGI (spy ship). These supposed fishing boats would hang out near the routes we would travel so they could try to gather intelligence. A British jet came out of the sky, between us and the AGI numerous times, until the AGI broke off.”

“We were playing games,” said Toppenish SVCW member Fred West.

A senior systems engineer, Dominguez was amazed at the responsibility young men, some still teenagers, were given in the high tech world of submarines.

“When I was 26, I was in charge of my division of electronic technicians.” he recalled. “Being duty chief and having to coordinate the dry-docking and undocking of the boat.”

Dominguez was one of the men who pushed the buttons to launch missiles from his sub when it was time to test missile systems. The power of the experience gave him a rush.

SVCW member Art Clark of Ellensburg noted that all submariners had one year to qualify to remain in the service. That meant learning every job on the boat so that each man could back up every other man in an emergency.

“The sailor must learn every compartment, every system, every piece of equipment on board,” he said. “He will be tested on each, then at the completion will be re-tested on everything. It's rigorous. You spend all of your free time the first year studying.”

Dominguez was not yet 18 when he joined the Navy. He wasn’t going to sign up for submarines, but he learned they had the best food, best liberty privileges and other perks.

“Submariners got hazardous duty pay,” Ellensburg's Bill Thelen said. “It was only $100 more in my time, but that was a lot of money back then.”

According to Brown, the Battle of Leyte Gulf was the biggest naval battle of WWII. It was also the most important. Brunkhorst was aboard the Darter when it started.

“The U.S. knew Admiral Kurita's fleet was out there somewhere, but its size and location were unknown before Darter and Dace found it,” Brown said. “Their message to HQ, giving its location, was considered one of the most important pieces of intelligence during the war.”

According to Mansfield, the Japanese fleet was looking for Gen. Douglas McArthur and his army, who were headed for the island of Leyte. The Japanese were three days late and were caught in a trap set by the Dace and the Darter.

The two submarines made contact with the Japanese force in the early hours of October 23, 1944. Darter sent a message to commanders in Australia and Pearl Harbor, letting them know what was about to take place.

Darter was submerged and fired six torpedoes that struck the heavy cruiser Atago, Admiral Kurita's flagship, which sank in 18 minutes. As it swung around, Darter fired four torpedoes at the heavy cruiser Takao, inflicting damage.

The Japanese force then turned away from Darter, into the path of Dace, which fired six torpedoes at another heavy cruiser, the Maya, and sank it.

At midnight, doing full speed of 20 knots, Darter ran aground on Bombay Shoal, a coral reef. Luckily, Dace followed Darter's track on radar and came up to the reef to help.

It was decided to blow up Darter. The crew, including Brunkhorst, was transferred to Dace by rubber boat, six men at a time. The charges did not go off, and a Japanese destroyer about 6,000 yards away caused the Americans to abandon their plan.

To keep from being detected, Dace submerged and all 165 crew members, from both boats, made the 11-day trip to Australia.