WWII sub found; G. Haven family elated

GRAND HAVEN, Mich. (WOOD) -- Al Jacobson never gave up the search for his shipmates, lost at sea when the USS Flier struck a mine in 1944.

The Grand Haven native became the last surviving member of the sunken submarine, and after he retired in 1990, he stepped up his quest to find the USS Flier.

Jacobson died in 2008, but his family kept searching. Now, the U.S. Navy confirms the submarine was found in the Balabac Strait area of the Philippines.

Nelson Jacobson, Al's son, sat down with 24 Hour News 8 on Tuesday night to share his father's journey during World War II.

The USS Flier was commissioned in 1943 and left Pearl Harbor for war patrol in January 1944. Then, on Aug. 13, the Flier struck a mine in the South China Sea and quickly sank. Only 14 of the 86 crewmen escaped, but only eight of the 14 survived the swim to

shore. Those eight, including Al Jacobson, were rescued at the end of the month.

"They were running at night -- at full speed -- and they hit either a floating mine or a mine that was tethered to the bottom of the ocean," Nelson Jacobson said of the initial crash. "They were free swimming for 18 hours."

The men swam past islands occupied by the Japanese, looking for safer land. Bombs were laced throughout those waterways.

The crew members knew they were armed with vital information that could save American lives -- information that had to be passed along to the Navy before other American fleets went through the same stretch and suffered the same plight.

Not all the initial survivors made the swim through the Sulu Sea; six more died.

"(It) probably was the most difficult decision my father ever faced -- instead of helping the injured ones, someone had to survive to get information back to the naval fleet," Nelson Jacobson said.

Now, the location of the USS Flier has been discovered with the help of a production crew and dive team. Nelson's brother and son -- Alvin's grandson -- accompanied those crews in their quest.

"I'm not sad (Al) is not here, what I'm happy for is the families that know now," Nelson Jacobson said. "My father knows where his crew is and essentially, now they're all rejoined.

"We know it hit a mine. We know what happened, and I think it brings closure to something -- that, until this point, families could only speculate."

Nelson and the rest of the family know Al's mission finally has been accomplished.

"Some projects take a while. This one took about 64 years," Jacobson said. "But we finally brought closure to it and closure for all those families."

The story will be featured by National Geographic and the History Channel.