Two men are forever linked by tragedy of the Scorpion

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Thursday, May 21, 1998

Two men are forever linked by tragedy of the Scorpion

By ED OFFLEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

U.S.S. Scorpion: Mystery of the Deep
It is a simple silver insignia depicting a submarine flanked by two dolphins.

For the sailors of the U.S. Submarine Service, the emblem symbolizes their formal certification and acceptance into the elite naval fraternity.

But one dolphin insignia worn by Sonarman Chief John Bishop means much more than that.

It was handed down from his father to a younger Scorpion sailor who, in turn, would later give it to Bishop in memory of the man who had inspired both to become submariners.

Thirty years ago, Bishop was a robust, 9-year-old boy excitedly awaiting the homecoming of his father, Torpedoman Chief Walter Bishop, "Chief of the Boat" for the USS Scorpion.

Bill Elrod was a 25-year-old Sonarman 1st Class assigned to the Norfolk-based submarine who had rushed home on emergency leave upon the death of his newborn son.

After the Scorpion failed to reach port on May 27, 1968 and was declared lost at sea a week later, the father who had lost a son and the son who had lost a father were just two of the hundreds of family members devastated by the disappearance of the nuclear submarine.

But the particular grief the two shared would bind them. Walter Bishop had been a mentor and father figure to Elrod during the younger man's four years on the Scorpion. And he was a loving father to John and his brother and sister, Mike and Mary Etta.

Walter Bishop had been a submariner for 11 years when he joined the Scorpion crew in 1959 as a Torpedoman 1st Class. Three years later he was picked to be the "Chief of the Boat," the senior enlisted man aboard who holds many responsibilities not shared by his counterparts on surface ships.

One central task for the "COB," as Bishop was known, was the tutoring and training of new submariners.

When Bill Elrod reported aboard the Scorpion in 1964 as a young Sonarman 2nd Class on his first sub, it was Bishop who took him in hand and supervised his training for formal qualification in submarines, Elrod recalled.

"He mentored me," Elrod said. "He took care of all the youngsters on the boat."

Elrod said he never forgot the ceremony in 1964 where he received his dolphin insignia for submarine qualification. Walter Bishop took a pair of his own insignia and pinned them on Elrod's uniform, he recalled. Elrod was wearing them the night he left the Scorpion on emergency leave in Rota, Spain, thus escaping the fate of the rest of his crewmen.

Nine years later, when John Bishop turned 18, he enlisted in the Navy and like his father before him, joined the submarine service.

"He has emulated from what I have heard how his dad was (as a submariner)," says Darlene Bishop, who married John in 1987. Younger sailors now "look up" to John Bishop the way an earlier generation like Bill Elrod looked up to his father, she said.

Elrod stayed in the service, achieving the rank of chief petty officer in 1971 and becoming a "COB" himself in 1980. At his retirement as Chief of the Boat of the USS Dallas in 1985, Elrod paid special tribute to the influence Walter Bishop had on his career and life, particularly in counseling younger sailors.

Meanwhile, John Bishop was continuing his own career on submarines. He got out of the Navy for two years in the mid-1980s, but rejoined the service and today is assigned to the Trident missile submarine base at Kings Bay, Ga.

In June 1993, Darlene Bishop contacted Elrod at his Connecticut home to tell him that Walter Bishop's son had himself just been promoted to the rank of chief petty officer, a major step toward becoming a Chief of the Boat.

Elrod said he walked into his den where a large plaque on the wall contained several mementos of his career, including the dolphin insignia Walter Bishop had pinned on his chest 29 years earlier. With tears in his eyes, Elrod pried the silver dolphins loose and sent them to Darlene Bishop.

"He called me and told me he was sending the dolphins but asked me to keep it a secret until the ceremony," Darlene Bishop said in a recent interview. "I thought it was just the most wonderful thing that someone could do."

Several days later she pinned Walter Bishop's submarine insignia on his son's chest and said she watched her husband cry tears of pride and joy.

Reporter Ed Offley has left the P-I since this series was originally published. His e-mail address as of August 2002 was ed_offley@yahoo.com

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