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Service Details |
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Personal Details
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Home State
Montana | |
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Year of Birth
1918 |
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This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Tommy Burgdorf (Birddog), FC2
to remember
Blinston, Wesley Hope, RM3c.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
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Casualty Info
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Home Town
Ryegate, MT |
Last Address
9 Alderson Ave
Billings, MT
(Mother~Sophie H Blinston)
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Casualty Date
Jul 30, 1942 |
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Cause
Hostile, Died |
Reason
Lost At Sea-Unrecovered |
Location
Gulf of Alaska |
Conflict
USS Grunion (SS-216) |
Location of Interment
Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial - Honolulu, Hawaii |
Wall/Plot Coordinates
Court 5 (Cenotaph) |
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Memorial Marker also at Oak Grove Cemetery La Crosse 1
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Oct 15, 1940, Joined Naval Reserve
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Jan 08, 1941, Activated from reserves & Serial Number 510-02-77
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Jun 30, 1941, Received at Naval Receiving Station Bremerton WA
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Jul 11, 1941, Transferred to Naval Reserve Radio School Bainbridge Island, WA
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Apr 11, 1942, Commissioning Crew of USS Grunion (SS-216)
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May 01, 1942, Promoted to RM3c
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Aug 02, 1943, Declared Dead
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Sep 19, 1943, Obituary in the THE BILLINGS (MONTANA) GAZETTE
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Jul 30, 2015, General Photos2
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Last Known Activity
He enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve on January 8, 1941, and went on active duty beginning June 30, 1941. Blinston next completed the Naval Reserve Radio School at Bainbridge Island, Washington, in November 1941, and then attended submarine school at Submarine Base New London, Connecticut, from December 1941 to March 1942. RM3c Blinston then transferred to the submarine USS Grunion (SS-216)during her fitting out, and through her commissioning in April 1942. He was killed in action aboard the Grunion during a confrontation with the armed Japanese freighter Kano Maru on July 30, 1942. On August 22, 2007, a search team organized by the three sons of CDR Mannert Abele (the captain of the Grunion when she was sunk) used a remotely operated vehicle to find a sunken vessel 3,000 feet down in the Bering Sea nort of Kiska Island at the tip of the Aleutian Islands. On October 1, 2008, the U.S. Navy announced that the sunken vessel is the World War II Submarine USS Grunion (SS-216).
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Comments/Citation
His Navy Commendation Medal Citation reads:
For meritorious conduct as a member of the crew of the U.S.S. which destroyed three enemy destroyers while engaged in a war patrol in enemy controlled waters. Despite severe and persistent anti-submarine measures resulting from these three successful attacks, the GRUNION was brought safely through the counter attacks and continued an aggressive war patrol. As a member of the crew of the GRUNION, your performance of duty was an important and material contribution to the prosecution of this war.
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