Bio: Klune, J.R. (Rescued - 1952)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Klune

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 14 Aug 1952

Klune, J.R. (Rescued - AUG 1952)

U.S. Naval Air Station, Key West, Fla. -- Submarines have rescued men before, but the recent rescue of the Navy blimp K-96 off the Florida coast, was the first time a blimp was saved by a submarine.

Grateful survivors aboard the blimp included J.R. Klune, airman, USN, mechanic, of Greenwood (Clark Co., Wis.), son of Mr. and Mrs. Joe Klune.

It all happened about 40 miles south of Key West, Fla., when the blimp, based at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Boca Chica, Key West, made rendezvous recently with the submarine USS Sea Poacher, for a training exercise.

At one point in the training exercise an extra low approach over the water was called for by the blimp. As the 385-foot blimp approached the water, it suddenly dipped and the gondola which houses the whole crew, settled into the water to a depth of two feet. Nobody was injured.

However, the impact of the water twisted the propeller blades out of line and disable the motors. The disabled airship then rose into the air and began drifting with the air currents at about 2,000 feet. But the blimp maintained radio contact with the submarine and its base, and the crew was eventually able to bring the disable craft back to the surface of the sea.

As the blimp bounced on the water, a tow line was attached to the Sea Poacher, which started the first rescue operation of a blimp towed by a submarine.

The Sea Poacher brought the crippled blimp into shallow water, where a crash boat took over and towed the blimp to anchorage near shore. The salvaging of the blimp the next morning was just a matter of routine.