'A Real-Life War Hero': Navy Radioman Found In WWII Submarine Shipwreck 80 Years Later

Elkhorn, Nebraska — A Nebraska native was identified as one of the sailors aboard the USS Harder, which was recently found in the South China Sea, officials said. Calvin A. Bull enlisted in 1942 and was deployed on the USS Harder in 1944. He is survived by several cousins and nieces in Elkhorn. "Through the years, there's been different times they have discovered ships that downed, submarines, and other ships, too," his second cousin Joann Vorrath said. "I had always hoped that someday they would find the Harder." Vorrath was 14 when Bull was lost. She remembers him as cheerful with lots of friends. The Harder was lost in battle on Aug. 24, 1944, along with its entire crew of 79 submariners, while on its sixth patrol of the war, as the U.S. sought to retake the Philippines from occupying Japanese forces.

The wreck of the USS Harder, one of the most storied U.S. Navy submarines of World War II, was found in the South China Sea eight decades after its last patrol, the Navy’s History and Heritage Command said last week. The USS Harder lies under 3,000 feet of water off the northern Philippine island of Luzon, sitting upright and intact except for damage behind its conning tower from a Japanese depth charge, the NHHC said in a news release. While Bull was lost for 80 years, his family never forgot him. "(My dad) loved his cousin, and when he was killed, he thought, if he had a son, he would name him after Calvin, and that was me," his cousin, Calvin L. Bull said. This discovery has finally given the family closure. "When I read that, it was a feeling of relief that we finally knew the resting place and what had happened," Vorrath said.

Calvin A. Bull helped sink and damage several Japanese destroyers. Vorrath said Bull received a bronze medal during the sub's fifth patrol. "There's movies in Hollywood that are make-believe war heroes of stories that maybe never really happened," Bull said. "This is a real-life war hero."

KCRA NBC 3 News: 'A real-life war hero': Navy radioman found in WWII shipwreck 80 years later
https://www.kcra.com/article/navy-veteran-found-in-wwii-shipwreck/60944112