OTTAWA — It was considered by other submariners as an unlucky boat. And so it proved for the U.S.S. Flier, which had a disastrous first voyage during World War II and was sunk by a Japanese mine in the waters off the Philippine Islands eleven days into its second war patrol. A handful of submariners survived and were helped by Filipino guerrillas to escape Japanese patrols and capture. However, a sailor from Ottawa, Jimmy Elder, was one of those sailors who went down with the doomed submarine. Elder’s story, and that of the U.S.S. flier, is the subject of a novel called “Surviving the Flier” written by R.J. Hughes. Hughes and Elder’s nephew Buster McAuley will talk about Elder, the Flier, and the half-century of government secrecy concerning its final mission during the next edition of Community Perspective this Sunday morning at 8:04.
Friday, July 26, 4 p.m.
