…that they can still solve mysteries like this one – the sinking during World War II of the USS Grunion.

The sons of the boat’s commander led the expedition themselves; they found the boat’s remains last year, and confirmed its identity last week.

Relatives of the Navy crew members who perished in the 1942 sinking of the USS Grunion, including the Newton family of its lieutenant commander, had already been planning to gather in Cleveland later this week to memorialize the men.

But an announcement from the Navy on Thursday that it had verified the discovery of the ship’s wreckage has heightened that gathering’s significance.

“It is very valuable to have them do that recognition,” said Bruce Abele, son of the vessel’s commander, Lieutenant Commander Mannert L. Abele of Quincy, who, along with his two brothers, hired the search team that pinpointed the wreckage site in 2006. “It’s everything, because what it says is there’s credibility to [our discovery], and that’s what’s important.”

The Navy’s Pacific Fleet credited the Abele family’s efforts in announcing that the wreckage discovered off the coast of the Aleutian Islands, a volcanic chain in the North Pacific about 1,200 miles southwest of Alaskan Peninsula, was indeed that of the World War II submarine, which was declared lost by the Navy on Aug. 16, 1964, 22 years after it disappeared for still unknown reasons.

“Closure” is a grossly-overused word in our society these days; in this case, it seems to fit.