On April 7th my husband Greg and I drove back to the Chattanooga area to meet with Paul and Rosie Mayer. This was the first chance for us to get together since he returned from the ship a few weeks ago. As before, we met at their home and were promptly greeted by goats Bert and Ernie, dogs Stanley, Roger and Bella. Walter is blind and deaf, so he didn’t really care if we were there or not and neither did their cat Molly. That’s okay, because giving Paul and Rosie big welcoming hugs was all that was important. Plus getting a repeat selfie with Roger. Once accomplished, we began discussing the STRONG mission.
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After gifting them with some goodies for the animals (and a couple of cool Kentucky tee shirts for the 2 leggers), Paul had a gift for me. He presented me with a small hard drive containing all the valuable data from the mission, including all ROV video! I am allowed to share this data with families and am in the process of doing just that. If you are a STRONG family member and interested in copies please email me.

In speaking with Paul about the STRONG mission, we learned more about the work of the crew in general. This is information worth sharing. The work done on the RV PETREL (and the MY OCTOPUS previously) is interesting to people who have family members from the WW2 era and those who love history in general. After meeting a guy like Paul who has lived this explorer’s life for years now, it has pros and cons. The pros are the travel to some very exotic and beautiful places. You see people and places that most of us only dream about or see on television and movies. There’s different foods, smells, experiences in each new port. Exploring the history of things under the sea is enticing and there’s the thrill of discovery. Not only that, there are families who gain closure and peace from these discoveries and the fact that their men and women who were lost are not forgotten. Plus, some pretty cool equipment they get to work with in the ROV (remotely operated vehicle), the sonar and AUV (automated underwater vehicle). Very nice toys indeed, until they break down or need very expensive or time intensive maintenance that throws a monkey wrench into a mission. Thus begins the cons.

The crew members all work long 12 hour shifts. They are ship-locked and in their down time don’t have many places they can go to “get away from it all”. Food on board starts out pretty good with fresh fruits and veggies. As time goes on though and those run out the cooks resort to frozen foods. If they are near a port they sometimes go ashore to scrounge for produce and other fresh items. Eventually if they’ve been out to sea long enough they are subsisting on of snack foods. When weather takes a bad turn or in a rolling sea, the unstable conditions can sicken the crew and staff. If someone gets truly ill, it might be 200 miles to the nearest doctor as was the case this last trip. A crew member required medical attention and they had to head back to port in Honiara to care for him. All worked out well thank goodness.

When these guys are at sea they miss birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, and so much more. A trip could take a couple of weeks or a few months at a time. Paul once spent 8 months out of one year at sea. Very difficult to do when you miss family and your own bed. Just getting to the ship anywhere in the world can be 30 or more hours one way. Lost sleep, airport food and no shower for a couple of days and I imagine they can arrive a little ripe. On the flip side returning home, there’s the severe jet lag and readjustment to home life. So while we on this side of the world watch the Facebook page and their website, then the news on CBS or other stations with fascination, these guys have some really hard work to do. It takes very special and unique skill sets for them to perform this work and operate the equipment then to bring it all to those of us who eat up the history like candy. People in this industry who do what they do are rare as hen’s teeth. When you think about the probability of getting a group of this caliber to take on finding a ship like STRONG (not a capital ship), I don’t even want to know what the odds would be. All I care about is that we beat those odds. We are very fortunate and grateful.

Making sure the people at Vulcan, Inc. and the crew and staff of the RV PETREL know we appreciate their work is of utmost importance. I truly hope to travel over on one of those 30 hour jaunts in the future (and guys I will probably be a little ripe when I get there) to see all this first hand when it’s time to lay the plaque. Bring on the bad airport food!

They are currently back on mission and out to sea for the next few weeks. Watch their Facebook page or website for updates on their latest finds!

RV PETREL: https://paulallen.com/Indepth/Petrel/

Facebook page: RV PETREL 

-Tammi
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We are to gather in Savannah, Georgia on September 10th through the 15th for the 2019 reunion! Mark your calendars and get ready. With the ship located this year by the RV PETREL, it will be extra special. I heartily invite any friends and family members of the DD 467 men and any new DD 758 men to come. More details to follow in a few weeks!

​The venue is the Hilton Garden Inn by the Airport. Check out the website: Hilton Garden Inn
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​Tammi