On Thursday, the retired aerospace engineer from Missouri fought back tears when he was notified that a submarine wreck, discovered off the coast of Japan last year, is what remains of the USS Albacore, according to Naval History and Heritage Command.
Disappeared at sea
This was one of 52 naval submarines was lost during World War II.
According to the Navy, the submarine is believed to have been hit by a mine on November 7, 1944, and sank off the coast of Hokkaido.
A few days before Christmas that year, the Navy assumed that the Albacore, along with at least 85 sailors on board, disappeared at sea. This included Bower’s father, Lt. William Walter Bower.
– My mother received a telegram from the navy on 21 December 1944 that Dad’s submarine was delayed in returning to port, and that he was missing, Bower (78) says to CNN.
He was born almost two months after the Albacore sank and only knows his father through pictures and stories.
– He was a good engineer and liked the navy. He wanted to serve his country as all the men who were lost in the submarine wanted to do, says Bower.
Bower says he bonded with other families who lost sailors on the Albacore. Like him, they have been haunted for decades without knowing exactly where their loved ones perished nearly 78 years ago.
– I know he was lost somewhere off the coast of Japan. But to actually know the place where the remains of the submarine are, that is much more meaningful. It was good for me to get this peace inside me for his life, says Bower.
The NHHC says its archaeologists used underwater images provided by Dr. Tamaki Ura of the University of Tokyo to identify the wreck of the Albacore.
“My mother received a telegram from the Navy on the 21st of December 1944 that my dad’s submarine was overdue in returning to port and he was missing in action,” said 78-year-old William Bower II. https://t.co/A6Rz0zsGyK
— CBS 58 News (@CBS58) February 18, 2023
– Never give up
As his father’s only child, Bower says he finally has the peace his mother and grandmother never knew.
– I cry because I know that this is something that my father’s mother never fully recovered from. How grateful she would have been to know this, but unfortunately she did not. I am glad that someone in the family found out where his final resting place was, says Bower.
As the child of a service member missing until this week, Bower shared a message for military families who continue to wait for the same peace he finally received after a decade-long wait.
– Never give up. Always keep the hope that their final resting place will be found and you will have a sense of peace and not just the feeling of not knowing, forever, he concludes.
