the May 2014 newsletter here

News to Use
May 2014
R e m J a c k s o n L a w O ff i c e s
The
R o a d Justice
To
Accidents
|
Attorney Richard A. Pignatiello
Here
(216)Starts
524-1000
Nursing Home Neglect
|
Insurance
He was 6 feet 6 inches tall.
AND HE WAS A U.S. NAVY SUBMARINER.
what’s inside
page 2
He was 6 feet 6 inches
tall. And he was a U.S.
Navy Submariner.
(cont.)
page 3
He was 6 feet 6 inches
tall. And he was a U.S.
Navy Submariner.
(cont.)
page 4
Top of the ocean food
chain
“Is that you?” she asked. She was holding the
September 23, 1967 edition of The Saturday
Evening Post. He leaned over, and he looked
at the picture. “Probably. . .yes” he said.
I never met my wife’s grandfather, but I’ve
heard about him. He died when my wife was
17 years old. My mother-in-law was also
17 when he became her step-father. I made
the mistake once, and only once. My wife
set me straight. I thought because he was a
step-father, that he was not my wife’s “real”
grandfather.
He is the reason my wife says, “Red sky at
night, sailor’s delight. . .”. She tells me that
he believed you could fix anything with
duct tape, and he often did. Sometimes it
was even preventative. He painted her red
and white striped swing set with aluminum
paint to ward off rust it did not yet have. He
would find things others had thrown away.
He would tinker and fix them. And boy
could he cook. The family still regrets they
never asked him to write down his chop suey
recipe.
His name was Leo Kowalski. He was 6 feet
6 inches tall. He weighed three hundred
pounds. And Leo had a long career as a Submariner in the U.S. Navy.
Our family took a trip to see the USS Yorktown, a World War II air craft carrier just outside of
Charleston, SC. On board the ship, there is a Medal of Honor Museum. And inside there is an area they
Continued on page two.
Rem
Attorney
Jackson
Richard
LawA.
Offices
Pignatiello
10027543
Lititz
Broadview
Pike #191
Road,
| Lititz,
SuitePennsylvania
2 | Seven Hills,17543
OH 44131
| (717)
| (216)
238-3668
524-1000
| www.TopPractices.com
| www.RAP-Law.com
Continued from page one.
call Home of Heroes. As we turned a quiet corner, my mother-in-law stopped
suddenly and stared. There, in an alcove, is a dedication to the heroes of the
USS Squalus submarine rescue.
The USS. Squalus had been launched in March 1939. Just a few months
later, on May 23, she suffered a mechanical failure off the coast of Maine.
There were no indications of a problem. But when the Squalus submerged,
the engine rooms flooded. When the sub’s after compartments filled with
water, 23 crew members drowned and the Squalus settled on the bottom of the ocean.
The depth of the water and its frigid temperatures made using the “Momsen Lung” too dangerous for the crew to use. The “Momsen
Lung” was a primitive rebreather used by submariners as emergency escape gear.
On the surface, ships were searching for the missing submarine. But they were in the wrong location. A tug spent the afternoon and
evening dragging grapnel around the site, finally hooking what everyone hoped was the Squalus.
Meanwhile in Washington D.C. at the Experimental Diving Unit at the Navy Yard, one of the divers had just emerged after subjecting
himself to a test for a new decompression process. They never ran the results. Instead, a phone call came with the grim words the
Squalus was down and directions to report immediately to the scene. A team of rescue divers led by Lt. Charles Momsen and their
submarine rescue ship the Falcon, began to hurry towards the site. On board, they carried the McCann rescue chamber. This large
diving bell had been designed specifically for this type of situation. This would be the first time the diving bell was ever used and
was the result of 12 years of research and training by the Navy after the loss of a submarine in 1927. The Falcon arrived on the morning of May 24th and moored over the site. Divers
were able to confirm that they had found the Squalus. That afternoon and evening
the rescue bell was able to make three trips from the surface to the sunken submarine, successfully rescuing 25 crew members.
Crew members brought to the surface were sent to shore a few at a time on the
boats that had gathered at the site. Family members of the crew, some with small
children and residents of the Maine town, waited on the shore. They did not know
who did and who did not survive until the boats began arriving at the shore carrying survivors. As night fell, the rescue bell made what should have been the final trip with the
remaining 8 men secured inside. At 160 feet below the surface, the cable jammed
and then broke. The rescue bell and the men inside had to be returned to the sunken submarine. Divers worked for four hours in brutal water temperatures to solve problem after problem. And finally after midnight on May 25th,
the final trip to rescue the sunken crew was successfully completed.
The divers would make more trips down to the Squalus on the bell. They searched for any possible remaining crewmembers who had
survived. None were found.
The rescue of the crew of the Squalus is considered historically important. It was the first of its kind in World history. It employed underwater techonologies considered to be in their infancies, and never previously used. The Squalus rescue was a success.
With the Cleveland Indians playing the Chicago White Sox in the background, she asked her husband, “is that you?” “Probably…
yes,” he said.
Continued on page three.
2 | May 2014 | (216)
524-1000
www.TopPractices.com
Continued from page two.
After a long career in the Navy, he had put it all behind him.
He had circled the globe and crossed the equator and back
again. He had returned to Cleveland with his daughter and
he had remarried after his wife died. It was now 1967, and
he had not talked about it for years.
But there he is. In that picture in the Saturday Evening
Post, he is standing in the back row. All 6 feet 6 inches of
him and that head of hair he kept his entire life. “Probably.
. . yes”, he said to her.
There was always a family rumor that he was on the
cover of Time magazine for his work as an early Navy
rescue diver. He received $11.00 each month in a check
from the U.S. Navy for the rest of his life because of the
damage he sustained to his lungs.
When he proposed to my wife’s grandmother, she told
him he was crazy. She had no money and five children
who would always come first. He had just one daughter
and a good job as an electrician with The Cleveland Electric Company.
Her life had been hard. She had raised five children on her own. Things had been so bad at times, that she had considered giving
some of the older children away because she could not feed them. Back then, good jobs that could support a family? Those jobs
went to men with families. Not to women whose husbands refused to work or drank what little earnings when they did.
They married. And her five children, became his. She had worked hard her entire life. Once they married he told her, you’ve worked
long and hard enough. Go tell them you are done. And she did.
In the 1950’s, one of her sons had a young family to feed. He bought a duplex, so the son would have a place to live with his family
until they got on their feet. In the 1960’s, he said to Grandma, who had never left Cleveland, go. Travel. He had seen it all, and he
was content to stay at home. Until they married, travel was something that was beyond her wildest dreams. He wanted her to see and
experience what he had. So she went. She enjoyed traveling. She took bus trips and boat voyages. She boarded planes and trains.
Hawaii for vacations, California to see two sons, Florida to see the youngest son. And all points in between.
While the first half of her life had been about survival for her children and herself, the second half was about providing comfort and
care. If a grandchild was sick, she went when they called. If a marriage was in turmoil, when they called he put her on a plane. He
never once made her feel guilty about the time she gave to the children. He made it possible in the second half of her life, for her to
love and care for her family in a way that almost erased the pain of the first half.
He suffered a stroke and died at the VA Hospital at Wade Park. His hard work, his CEI pension, and the loving decisions he made
during their 30 year marriage provided for her for the next 21 years.
Was he a part of the dive team that rescued the crew of the Squalus? Probably. . . yes. But I
can’t tell you that for sure. What I can tell you, is that this Memorial Day we take the time to
honor those who served our country. Those who dedicated their lives, so that ours would be
better.
And to the man who came home from the Navy as a diver, and dove in to rescue a family. ■
Richard
Note: Special Thanks to the Department of the Navy – Navy Historical Center, Patriots Point USS
Yorktown, Navy Personnel Command Military Records, and the family of Leo Kowalski. This is a true account of an actual historical event. Every effort has been made to report this story accurately, however
Leo died in 1983 and the memories of his tales at sea are from his family including his loving daughter.
www.TopPractices.com
(216) 524-1000 | May 2014 | 3
Rem Jackson
Attorney
Richard
Law A.
Offices
Pignatiello
7543
Road, Suite 2
1002 Broadview
Lititz Pike #191
Seven Hills, OH 44131
Lititz, Pennsylvania 17543
(216) 524-1000
(717) 238-3668
www.RAP-Law.com
www.TopPractices.com
He was
6 feet
6 inches
tall.
AND HE WAS
A U.S. NAVY
SUBMARINER.
SEE PAGE ONE
This publication is intended to educate the general public about personal injury, medical malpractice, and other issues. It is for information purposes only and is not intended to
This
publication
is intended
to educate
the general contained
public andhere,
is foryou
information
purposes
onlycompetent
and is not counsel.
intendedThe
to beinformation
legal advice.
to acting on
any
contained
be legal
advice. Prior
to acting
on any information
should seek
and retain
in Prior
this newsletter
may
beinformation
freely copied
and
here,
you should
andnewsletter
retain competent
counsel.
The information in this newsletter may be freely copied and distributed as long as the newsletter is copied in its entirety.
distributed
as longseek
as the
is copied
in its entirety.
top of the ocean food chain
Killer whales, also known as orcas, are actually the largest members of the dolphin family, weighing 6–10 tons and reaching a length
of 25–32 feet on average. They are very distinctive looking—black with white patches on the underbelly and near the eyes—and
highly intelligent.
Orcas are social creatures and roam the waters in groups (pods) ranging in number from 5–40. They communicate with a variety of
clicks, whistles, and squeals, and each pod has its own “dialect,” which aids them in recognizing their own pod members.
In order to achieve and maintain their substantial girth, orcas eat over 500 pounds of food per day. When hunting, the pod displays
teamwork that rivals a pack of wolves, utilizes echolocation (a sound bounce-back system that reveals the size, shape, and location
of objects), and pursues at speeds of up to 35 mph.
An orca’s menu encompasses a smorgasbord of fish, squid, seals, penguins, sea turtles, sea gulls, whales, and sharks,
among other delicacies. Their powerful teeth (3” high, 1” diameter) come in handy at feeding time. Orcas can be enterprising when hunting, occasionally rushing a shoreline and temporarily beaching themselves to frighten prey
into the water, where other pod members pounce.
Orcas live in all oceans, at all latitudes, and are equally at home near the coastline and
out in the open sea. Generally, they are more concentrated in colder waters.
Outside of human/environmental activity, orcas have no natural enemies. Size,
brains, and brawn is a tough combination to beat. ■
Call us at (216) 524-1000