Mystery at Sea (page 4 of 6)

Edge of the Earth

At the far tip of the Aleutian chain, Kiska island is a remote and forgotten corner of the earth, almost a thousand miles from the Alaskan mainland. But you'll find history everywhere. A rust-coated mini submarine lies on the grassy shore, while atop the island's ridges sit rusting antiaircraft guns amid hillsides pocked by airplane bombs and naval artillery.

Between June 1942 and August 1943, Kiska was one of two Aleutian islands occupied by Imperial Japan. That the enemy was on U.S. territory was a fact blacked out across much of America at the time, as the country still reeled from Japan's assault on Pearl Harbor.

Six decades later, in August 2006, Kiska was the jumping-off point for the search for the Grunion. The investigation began by covering about 250 square miles of ocean off the island. The crew lowered sound-emitting sensors into the Bering Sea, then towed them behind the Aquila. After a week of searching, an unusual "target image" came into the sonar field. It was a long and narrow silhouette, lying 3,200 feet beneath the surface.

The thing on the ocean floor was about 20 feet shorter than the 312-foot Grunion, and while it could have been man-made, it might also have been a dead whale or a round chunk of cold magma from one of the Kiska volcano's undersea vents. Most likely it was a sunken surface vessel, because the target didn't seem to show any tell-tale propeller guards, which should have been visible in the sonar composites. Only the Grunion and other Gato-class subs had prop guards.

Still, there was hope. "I was excited, but there was something else," says Nancy Stark, daughter of Lieutenant Kornahrens, "something I'd never felt before: a kind of emptiness, mixed with happiness and some tears. It was an emotion without a blueprint."

• Heroes
• • Genealogy
• Military

• The Friendship Between Two World War II Pilots
• Decades later, two pilots discover the bond they always shared.
• 
• The Navajos WWII Unbreakable Code
• The Navajos who helped turn the tide of World War II with their unbreakable code.
• 
• The Mental Anguish of War
• Sometimes the battle takes a greater toll on the mind than the body.
• 
• Four Soldiers Answer America's
• Part warrior, part cop, today's soldiers are living a life they never imagined.
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