The USS Snook (SS 279) Memorial is on display in North Little Rock Riverfront Park in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The memorial displays a Mark 14 torpedo and is dedicated to the 52 submarines that were lost during the Second World War. The memorial was originally located at MacArthur Park in Little Rock, Arkansas.
The memorial was constructed by the Arkansas Diamond Chapter of the United States Submarine Veterans of World War II. When the veterans group was formed in the 1950’s, each state was asked to create a memorial for 1 of the 52 lost submarines; California and New York were asked to make 2 memorials. Arkansas was awarded the honor of displaying a memorial to USS Snook (SS-279).
USS Snook (SS-279) was commissioned in the United States Navy on October 24, 1942. The submarine completed 8 war patrols and sunk 17 Japanese ships. Snook was last heard from on April 8, 1945, in the South China Sea. The submarine was declared overdue and presumed lost with all hands on May 16, 1945, while on her ninth war patrol. The cause of her loss is unknown to this day.
The following 84 men were aboard USS Snook (SS-279) when the submarine was lost:
Robert Brown Adams | Stephen Partridge Gardner | Charles Morgan |
Erven Eugene Jack Bagby | Jack Junior Glass | John Lawrence Morgan |
Russell Leigh Baum | Victor Gregorini | George Charles Olson |
Richard Stanley Billingsley, Jr. | Andrew Grindzak | Glen Colbert Page |
Kenneth Patrick Bolger | Jack Eugene Groat | John Shelton Parker |
Ben Alvin Branum, Jr. | Paul Henry Grupp | Norman Phillips |
Ned Erskine Browning | Andrew Thomas Guthrie | John Bernard Regan |
Sidney Brownstein | Raymond Lloyd Hughes | Martin Lambuth Register |
Robert Karl Burdick | David John Hurley | Walter Joseph Rehbit |
Leo Burger | Robert Ralph Ingram | William James Rodney |
Claude Robert Busby | Harold Malcolm Johnson | Arthur Malone Russell, Jr. |
Danford Anthony Byron | Joseph Johnston, Jr. | Richard Louis Schoen |
John Edward Cave | Harry Fenner Julian | William Clarence Schramm |
Benedict Anthony Cesare | Paul Frederick Keiser, II | Ronald Leroy Schwendemann |
James Durward Choate | William Ernest Kellogg | John Francis Scully |
Edward Perkins Clark, II | Francis Joseph Klosterman | William Everett Shelton |
Delmer Lemar Crawford | Norman Thomas Kramer | Ben Silvia |
George Loren Crawford | Thomas William Lamont, II | John Calvin Sloan |
James Anthony Cross | William Thomas Lang | Ernest Leopold Spence |
William Lory Dolph | Lawrence Wilbur Lundgren | Robert R. Sukola |
Charles John Eckenrode | Isadore Irving Lunken | Howard Thomas Toulson |
Clarence Foster Edmunds | Francis Raymond Maney | Harold K. Wagner |
Warren Preston Ellis | John Gordon Manley | John Franklin Walling |
Harry Robert Etkin, Jr. | Ones William McEntyer | Andrew Williams Welch, Jr. |
William Stanley Farrel | James Edward McGahan | James Albert Will |
John Courtland Felabom | Ralph Marion McGuire, Jr. | Robert Emmett Wood, Jr. |
Donald Wilson Fry | Donald John McNeill | Robert Eugene Wood |
Anthony Gambardella | Vincent Paul Mlynek | James Nichols Wright |