20 YEARS AGO in our KTB

With KTB #8, we tried a new format. The pages were known as (in America) legal size which is 8½ inches wide by 14 inches long. One of the better things we reported in KTB #8 was that we were out of the red ink – almost. In the early days of Sharkhunters, there were no dues for a couple reasons. There were only about twenty or so Members, and because I was Vice President of a company in Chicago, I used the company copy machine to make the copies and used the postage meter in the mailroom to mail them out. Any money that needed to be spent came from my own pocket. As is said, we were very small back then….. shortly after KTB #8 came out, we did go to charging dues of $12 per year, but the KTB was a small newsletter back then and postage was a lot less money.

WALTER SCHWEIDER (4-+-1983) was writing a book about the 84th voyage of the QUEEN MARY when she took some 8,000 American soldiers down the east coast of the Americas bound for the fighting in the Pacific. DAVID SIMPSON (15-?-1983), who turned out to be an enigma in later years, began a column giving the values of various collectibles from the war years. JIM FRYE (8-1983) donated a pair of field binoculars from the Heer in WWII.

We mentioned a horrible story about a scuba shop in Jacksonville NC that was selling bones that they removed from U-352! Fortunately this shop was put out of business and the owner faced serious criminal charges. We had found the location of UC-97, the only known World War I German U-Boat that would be in good condition, sunk in Lake Michigan off the town of Wilmette, some 40 or so miles north of Chicago. HARRY met with the (then) director of the Museum of Science and Industry and as you read in KTB #173 last month, Mr. Dannelov didn’t even want U-505.

KTB #8 was only 3 pages long and done on that old manual typewriter – desktop computers hadn’t been invented at that time! It was pretty nice at the time – but we have come a long way.

15 YEARS AGO in our KTB

A great deal of KTB #39 was taken with a “Patrol” report, but we also reported that JOHN “Mad Dog” MOSELE (77-1984) had been looking for the elusive U-166 and had wrecked his prized magnetometer. Captain REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985) sent an autographed photo for our files. He also gave the final and definitive answer on why Lüth failed to respond to the sentry that night when he was shot dead by the German sentry.

There was more on SUCOUF, but nothing definitive. That giant French submarine will remain a mystery for some time to come. KTB #39 was a huge (for the time) 16 pages long and yes, done on that old manual typewriter. It was double the size of KTB #38 but the “Patrol” report took a lot of paper.

10 YEARS AGO in our KTB

KTB #79 was really unique in that our front AND back covers were color, thanks to JOHN RYAN (401-+-1987) and his high-tech color copier. Rather than go into too much of what was in the issue, we’ll tell what is on the cover.

Front row of photo 1 from left: JIM VERDOLINI (480-1988), radioman on USS GUADALCANAL when they captured U-505; ZENON LUKOSIUS (1500-1990) is the guy who closed the valve to keep U-505 from sinking; HARRY COOPER (1-LIFE-1983); WAYNE PICKELS (768-1988) one of the first group to go down into U-505 to capture her. This was at U-505 in Chicago as was #4.

Photo 2 is PETER HANSEN (251-LIFE-1987) on the left and HARRY SCHONAU (170-+-1986), one man torpedo veteran. This photo and #5 was shot at an R&R in Ft. Lauderdale, just like the one planned this April.

Photo #6 is our Sharkhunters group at U-995 in Germany.

JIM VERDOLINI (480-1988) was the radioman on USS GUADALCANAL when they captured U-505 and in KTB #79, he gave his memories of this historic encounter on the high seas on 4 June 1944 when the US Navy captured U-505, the first enemy war ship captured by the USN since the War of 1812.

This is the back cover of KTB #79, also in color. Photos are:

Upper left, the big guy in the Afrika Korps cap is SITRIC O’SRUITEAN (1378-+-1990), to his left is BRIAN ORLANDO (807-1988) and in the water is HARRY COOPER (1-LIFE-1983) on a dive boat owned by TYLL SASS (526-1988). Sadly, just after this great expedition, SITRIC took his own life.

Upper right is KAYCEE COOPER (161-LIFE-1986)

Center left is Professor TOM MACKIN (146-1985), HARRY COOPER (1-LIFE-1983) and Kathy Mackin in Chicago.

Center right is our group in the wardroom of the South African Submarine Command when we toured that beautiful country.

Lower left is a great photo – it’s Capt. REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985) holding a very young SEAN PATRICK COOPER (½-LIFE-1987) in Chicago. I love this shot!

Lower right is Captain HANS-GEORG HESS (125-LIFE-1985) and WOLDEMAR TRIEBEL (197-LIFE-1986) on the boat of Captain SPENCER SLATE (1567-1990) during our first ever Convention, Key Largo, Florida in February 1987.

This was a great issue – and we still have a few in stock!

5 YEARS AGO in our KTB

In KTB #125, there were memories of the war from Captain REINHARD HARDEGEN (102-LIFE-1985) and there were reports of our “Patrol” in Paradise that had just finished. We ran some more of the German secret weapons of WW II and part of the doctoral thesis on cooperation between Japan & Germany in WW II written by PHILIP ATTENBOROUGH (440-1988).

We laughed at the goofy stories put out by some of the veterans of the destroyer USS KEITH that they sank a German U-Boat right off San Francisco Bay that was, of course, full of gold. Then they ran the story that it was not a German U-Boat full of gold, but an American submarine they sank in error but the US Navy wouldn’t give them the details. Then they changed again and decided it was a Japanese submarine that had been bringing supplies to the secret Japanese air base in Malibu, California. One wondered if they let these guys out of the ‘home’ too early!

KTB #125 was a very nice computer typeset magazine of 40 pages, but the photo quality was not up to what we have now with our new techniques. As technology continues to grow – so do we.