The date: October 23rd, 1944.
The place: Palawan Passage in the Balabac Strait, somewhere off the coast of Mindanao, Philippines.
The ship: Gato-class Submarine SS-227, The USS Darter
The situation: Eve of the largest sea battle of World War II
The man: Hugh N. Siegel, Radio Technician 1st Class, USN
The date that would change my grandfather's life forever.
Can I really tell you what he was like? A war veteran who departed this world when I was 11? ...Not really. He didn't talk to me much when he was alive and I never got to hear any of his stories.
But thanks largely to his own research, I can tell you nearly down to the minute what he experienced, what he saw and what he survived during those 48 hours in late October of '44 that he would never forget. If he hadn't made it off that ship, I would not be here today. My family owes him everything.
After 75 years, his story deserves to be told.
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