Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

July 9, 2012

Saw your information on the Sickle. My father was an ASDIC operator on the Sickle when she was lost in June 1944. Interestingly I joined the Merchant Navy as a Radio Officer in 1963 working for Marconi and P&O Orient Lines
(RMA Orsova) for 4 years. I lived in Australia, Sydney, working at Sydney airport and then for AWA in Woomera Australia. I took Mum, who is still living in Horsham, Sussex (where my Father was also born) to the Epping
Forest special event they held for the Sickle in 2008.

I also sent the museum some pictures of my father and took some memorabilia with me to the event. I hadn’t realized that there was a survivor (Richard Blake  see "Richard Blake sole survivor of submarine Sickle, 1944") from the Sickle; and I believe that there was another person who was injured who was taken of the submarine prior to her last voyage.

I am still working as an Electronics Engineer in San Jose California, working as a Director of QualityAssurance/Regulatory of a company called Ekso Bionics in Berkeley California that makes an exo-skeleton that helps the paralyzed get out of their wheelchair and walk.

Kind regards,
John Tugwell

John,

Thanks for your mail.

Best wishes,

Mac.

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