TRAER - A lot has been said about the USS Susan B. Anthony and even more forgotten.

The World War II troop transport ship sank off the shores of Omaha Beach a day after the invasion at Normandy. Leroy Whannel, a native of Traer, had a front-row seat and watched a massive rescue effort to save the 3,000 soldiers and sailors aboard.

Whannel, now 93, served on the USS Pinto, a salvage ship involved in the effort. He remembers the faces of the men who came streaming across the Pinto's deck.

But he never knew what happened afterwards.

"I saw them all come aboard our ship and couple of other ships that were taking them off too and then I never saw them again."

That was the case until this year, when he was reunited with some of those veterans.

Whannel was invited to a reunion of survivors in Boston. Members of the group found out about him through a Courier article published Jan. 18 about his experiences in the war.

"I was really pleased that Leroy was getting his recognition as well as the Pinto," said Ted Spoonster, a son of a Susan B. Anthony survivor. "It was just a 90-foot ship, but it may have saved the invasion."

Historians tracked the movements of the soldiers later in the war and found many served important roles, Spoonster said.

Whannel served as a signalman on the Pinto throughout his service. The second day of the invasion, Whannel and the ship were involved in some clean-up operations when the Susie B. sailed by, loaded with people. Then, a massive explosion rocked the ship.

The Anthony was in an area swept of mines but she managed to find a straggler.

"I could see and hear that explosion," Whannel said. "I could see it was right in the stern of the Susan B. Anthony, like an acoustical mine got sucked into the screws."

The Pinto hurried over to start rescue efforts. Crewmen first tried to pump water from the wounded ship, but the hole was too large and the ship continued to sink. A widespread rescue effort began after a second explosion went off aboard the Anthony. None of those aboard, however, were lost in the incident.

Afterwards, the crewmen and the Pinto went their separate ways to fight the war.

Whannel went to North Africa and the Pacific Theater before coming home. At one point, he was charged with watching over soldiers who survived the Bataan Death March. But none of those experiences resonated like helping pull those men aboard the Pinto.

In June, Whannel flew with his family to Boston to meet 16 survivors of the ship and one former Pinto crewman, Donald Flynn.

Spoonster, a native of Ohio, found Whannel through the Courier story. He stumbled onto the article while researching the Susan B. Anthony incident. He and Whannel began communicating through e-mail, and eventually, he talked Leroy and his family into coming to Boston.

Veterans of the Susan B. Anthony have been meeting for about 25 years. Spoonster's father was one of the last to leave the sinking ship.

Donna Rumrill, a daughter of a survivor, said Whannel seemed to have an instant connection with the other veterans, even though the men had only a brief encounter in the war. To her, it seemed as though Whannel had attended the reunions for 20 years, Rumrill said.

Rumrill, a native of Connecticut, was glad to hear about the rescue from someone on the event's other side. Rumrill's father died in 2000, but she and her family still attend the reunions ever year, partly because it gives her family a chance to walk with history for three days.

"They are the greatest generation," she said. "Without them, our whole world would have been different.

For Whannel, it was a chance to relive his own history and write a new chapter. He plans on attending future reunions as long as he's able to travel.

Contact Josh Nelson at (319) 291-1565 or josh.nelson@wcfcourier.com.