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| Arthur Newcomb was a radioman on the USS Grunion. Its fate was unknown for 65 years. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/3738788/arthur-g-newcomb https://submarinememorial.org/lostboatsfinished/ss216grunion.html https://alchetron.com/USS-Grunion |
Arthur Golden Newcomb never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on August 20, 1918 in Arizona. His parents Arthur and Bertha Young were born in Illinois and Wisconsin, respectively. His father worked as a bank teller and in 1927 was admitted into a home for disabled soldiers. By 1930 his mother had remarried and Arthur and his younger sister acquired a step brother and sister. It appears that Arthur changed his last name from Young to Newcomb, the name of his stepfather.
He enlisted in the navy in February 1938. Four years later he reenlisted. He served as a radioman first class on the submarine USS Grunion.
Grunion departed Hawaii on her first war patrol on June 30, 1942. It was sent north to the Aleutian Islands. It never returned from its patrol and the fate of Grunion was a mystery for 65 years. It turns out that Grunion made an unsuccessful attack on the Japanese freighter Kanu Maru using the terribly performing torpedoes that plagued the American submarine forces early in the war. Its first torpedo ran low and failed to explode. The next two bounced off the target. The fourth torpedo circled back and hit the periscope support without exploding. The rear dive plane was also somehow damaged, sending the boat on an uncontrollable dive. Grunion imploded at 1000 feet and broke in two after hitting the sea floor 3,000 feet below the sea. The remains of the submarine were discovered in 2007 by an expedition started by the sons of Grunion's captain.
Radioman Newcomb's death date is reported as August 2, 1943. We now know that he and the other 69 men on Grunion died on July 30, 1942.
His cenotaph grave is at the Los Angeles National Cemetery.
Last year on this date I profiled Himalayan hump pilot Elwood Wells. You can read about Elwood here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
I've only just recently become aware of your outstanding site. My blog is on Wordpress, and I am definitely not a Facebook person, so some things are difficult to do between the 2 sites. Please continue your work, we owe these men so much.
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