The U.S. Navy is honoring the crew members of a storied World War II destroyer that endured being blown apart by an explosion in 1943, the sunken stern of which was found this year by Project Recover, a partnership among researchers at the University of Delaware, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego, and the BentProp Project.
A rebuilt USS Abner Read (DD 526) returned to service, but was lost with 22 sailors after being struck by an enemy suicide plane on Nov. 1, 1944.
At a ceremony held Nov. 1 at the Navy Memorial in Washington D.C., Michael Davis (left), son of Max Davis who survived that second attack, posed for a U.S. Navy photo with a commemorative copy of the plaque that now hangs in honor of the ship and its crew. He was joined by Anthony "Tony" Perry, who also survived the ship's loss, and Irene Coffeen, whose husband Jack was also a surviving member of Abner Read's crew.
On July 17, a NOAA Office of Exploration and Research-funded team of scientists from Scripps and the University of Delaware aided by four U.S. Navy sailors assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Group discovered the missing 75-foot stern section in 290 feet of water off the Aleutian island of Kiska.
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Related Video: Project Recover locates stern of USS Abner Read