We note in the information from “Dex” Armstrong that he was happy that we had a major part in saving USS REQUIN from being turned into scrap. For the Members who have come on board in the past 10 or 12 years, let us recap what happened.

USS REQUIN was a Memorial submarine in Tampa when we moved there in 1987. She had been open to the public for a long time, but at that point in time, she was sitting in the Hillsborough River, more or less abandoned. We went to speak with the mayor of Tampa, Mrs. Sandy Freedman, and ask if we could take over the operation of the boat. Noting that we were primarily focused on the history of the German U-Boats, this foolish woman said no.

Her stooge in charge of such things tried to force Sharkhunters into a shared operation with the leader of a Boy Scout Group but our legal advisor told us absolutely not. So Mayor Sandy Freedman, in all her wisdom gave the operation of the boat over to the Sea Scout Leader……who was soon caught sexually abusing his Scouts ON BOARD THE BOAT!!! He was hauled off to jail, and once again USS REQUIN lay more or less abandoned.

In company with a US Navy 4 stripe Captain with a real head of steam up, we went to the Mayor’s office. We were told that they’d be happy to sign over the contract from the Scout leader to us but I reminded him that our legal advisor told us only an idiot would sign the contract. The Captain looked at the contract and agreed.

We had initially proposed that the bills would be paid by the entry fee to the boat then what was left would be split evenly to the city of Tampa, to the veterans who would be guides, and Sharkhunters to continue our research. No good – they wanted Sharkhunters to pay all the bills – and the money coming in would go directly to the city of Tampa. Yep, only an idiot would sign that, so we walked away…..then began the mayor’s attempt to scrap the boat.

The mayor’s office would not budge on their proposed contract that Sharkhunters should pay all the bills and that all the income from people visiting the boat would go to the City of Tampa, and Sharkhunters would not change our proposal that first the bills would be paid from the income then the remaining money would be split 1/3 each to the City, to the veterans’ group that supplied the guides, and to Sharkhunters to continue our research.

There was a definite stalemate – but then we began to hear rumors that the city was making preliminary contacts to have the boat removed to a scrap yard for the obvious fate. There was now no other option for us but to take action against the city – and fast!

We ran a scathing editorial in our KTB, denouncing the idiotic actions taken by the Mayor to place this treasure of American history under the complete and total control of a Boy Scout Leader who primarily used the submarine as a sex retreat for him with the various Scouts under his control. But to even think about scrapping the boat was unacceptable and in our minds, un-American.

The U.S. SubVets of WW II asked if they could use our editorial in their publication and we heartily agreed. In our editorial, and in the copy they ran, we gave the name and mailing address of the Deputy Secretary of the Navy and strongly suggested that everyone write to him and demand that USS REQUIN be saved from the breakers torch and that the submarine should be removed from Tampa, where city officials at the highest level, could not be trusted with this piece of American history.

She was then taken over by a highly respected group in Pittsburgh and moved to that city. Within her first year, they had recouped the cost of moving her and each year they bring in a lot of money to maintain the boat. USS REQUIN was saved from a terrible fate, thanks to the people who got involved and wrote to the Deputy Secretary of the Navy – Bless ‘em all!