VANCOUVER, Wash — Seventy-five years ago, a Vancouver man was one of 80 sailors who vanished when a torpedo sunk their submarine off the coast of Japan.
This week, explorers with Lost 52 Project announced they finally found the remains of the USS Grayback. The news gave family of that sailor, Leslie Harold Leaf, the gift of closure on Veterans Day.
“He was really good natured,” said Leaf’s niece, Delores Mathews. “They called him ‘Beefy,’ that was his nickname.”
Everything Mathews and her brother David Magel know about their Uncle Harold, they learned from their mother. It's how they learned Leaf went to school in Salmon Creek and how, when Leaf was 19, he joined the Navy.
“He joined the Navy after Pearl Harbor, then came home and told Grandpa,” said Mathews. “I don't think Grandpa was very happy.”
But what happened to Leaf after that is a story no relative could ever pass down.
“We just knew that he was lost at sea and didn't know what happened,” said Magel.
The USS Grayback was one of 52 submarines lost during World War II. The Lost 52 Project discovered it back in June and made the announcement on Sunday. It was the fifth WWII submarine they had discovered.
“I thought that was amazing,” said Magel.
The Grayback was found more than 1,400 feet under water and about 50 miles south of Okinawa, Japan. The submarine was lost on Feb. 26, 1944, after a 500 pound bomb from a Japanese bomber sunk it during its tenth war patrol.
“To see that picture of that plaque on the sub itself that says USS Grayback Submarine, yeah, that really kind of brings it home,” said Mathews. “It makes it real.”
The siblings recalled their grandmother—Leaf’s mother— never took the service flag down from her window.
“She was always waiting for uncle Harold to come home and of course at that point we didn't really know what had happened so there was always that little bit of a thought that one of these days, maybe he would come walking down the driveway.”
On this Veteran’s Day, Leaf would be 97.
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“A lot of people like my uncle gave their lives,” said Magel. “They gave all they had.”
And while Magel and Mathews could never meet their uncle, now they can finally say good-bye.
“He gave his life for our country and our freedom,” said Mathews. “It's a good thing they found it.”
