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Contact Info
Home Town Milan Mich.
Last Address Social Security records show he died in London, England, 1995.
Captured at Wake, December 1941, prisoner of war at Zentsuji, Japan on June 24, 1945, and moved that clay to Roku Roshi, Japan.
Commanding Officer USS Glacier AGB-4: The ship returned to McMurdo Sound on 28 October 1956 for "Deep Freeze II", having made the earliest seasonal penetration in history. Glacier then delivered stores and supplies at McMurdo and then Little America, she led seven other ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) through the ice pack to the two Antarctic bases. In January 1957 she led two cargo ships into Vincennes Bay where the last of the seven American bases for the International Geophysical Year was to be constructed. Glacier departed Wilkes Station on 17 February 1957 for the United States via Melbourne when the operation was completed.
Lauff Island is a small island lying 2 n.mi. north of Cape Dart, Siple Island, off the Bakutis Coast of Marie Byrd Land, Antarctica. It was discovered and photographed from aircraft of USA Navy Operation Highjump, 1946–47, and was named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names for Commander Bernard J. Lauff, US Navy, Commanding Officer of USS Glacier during Operation Deep Freeze, 1956–57.
The Liberty Incident: On the fourth day of the Six Day War (8 Jun 1967), at about 2 PM Sinai time (then, GMT+2), Israeli defense forces attacked the USS Liberty about 14 miles off the coast of the Sinai peninsula, near El Arish.
Captain Bernard J. Lauff, USN, a highly respected veteran of Wake Island in World War II, was designated a member of the U.S. Court of Inquiry which was convened on the Liberty attack.
The court convened in London at forty-six minutes before midnight on June 10, 1967, two days and a few hours after the attack. Testimony was taken in London from Captain Leonard Robert Raish, the Assistant Chief of Staff for the Commander in Chief U.S. Naval Forces Europe. The court remained in session until 0250 June 11. Rear Admiral Kidd then traveled to Souda Bay, Crete, and boarded the Liberty at sea on June 12 while she was en route to Valletta, Malta. The other members of the court met the ship on June 14, 1967, at the port of Valletta, Malta, and at 0730 the court went into session aboard the Liberty.
The court completed taking evidence in Malta on June 15 and returned to London, where it took additional evidence. The court was closed at 1645 London time on June 16. The court concluded its deliberations two days later and presented its fifty-two findings together with the record of its proceedings to Admiral McCain.
After ten official US investigations (including five congressional investigations), there was never any evidence that the attack was made with knowledge that the target was a US ship. There is substantial evidence the attack was a tragic mistake caused by blunders of both the US and Israel. Eight US presidents, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush (41), Clinton, and Bush (43), have each accepted the conclusion that the attack was a tragic case of mistaken identity.
Nevertheless, conspiracy theorists continue to claim the Israelis knowingly attacked a US ship. By some estimates, there are more conspiracy theories about the Liberty incident than about the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
Captain Bernard J. Lauff was married to Metta Lund of Oslo, Norway. He died in London, England on November 5, 1995 at age 76.
Other Comments:
Prisoner of War Medal
Awarded for actions during the World War II
Ensign Bernard J. Lauff (NSN: 0-97651), United States Navy, was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Wake Island on 23 December 1941, and was held as a Prisoner of War until returned to U.S. Military control at the end of the war.
General Orders: NARA Database: Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created, 1942 - 1947
Action Date: December 23, 1941 - 1945
Service: Navy
Rank: Ensign
Division: Prisoner of War (Japan)
A survey of the instrument landing system glide path
Date
Mar 18, 1949
Last Updated: Jul 27, 2016
Comments
Title: A survey of the instrument landing system glide path Creator: Lauff, Bernard John, LCdr, USN. Contributor: Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.) Department of Engineering Electronics Subject: Aeronautics
Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Description:
The investigation of the operating characteristics of the glide path equipment of the Instrument Landing System was made in the eleven week period which comprises the Winter Term of the third year in the Electronics Engineering course of instruction at the U. S. Naval Postgraduate School at Annapolis, Maryland. The field work was done at the Federal Telecommunication Laboratory at the Westchester County Airport, White Plains, New York. There the author assisted Mr. Sidney Pickles in a series of air and ground tests on a glide path installation. The tests covered the period from January 3, 1949 to March 18,1949. The tests were made in an attempt to complete the theory of operation of a piece of equipment which has been in actual operation in all parts of the world for several years. The difficulty of making measurements on the glide path (the useful glide path lies almost entirely at distances above the ground which cannot be probed from the ground) and the inadequate equipments and techniques for making measurements at the glide path frequency has left several factors uninvestigated and the inter-relation of many factors open to considerable question. While Mr. Pickles and the author feel that their work has added to the knowledge of the theory of operation of the equipment they are convinced that the theory is still inadequate to explain some of the phenomena observed during the test period. Lieutenant Commander Bernard John Lauff, United States. U.S. Navy.