Basil Martinez Abad was born on 25 September 1920 to Basilo and Dolores "Lola" Martinez Abad in Miami, Gila County, Arizona. Basil was the third of four children the couple raised while Basilo made a living as a miner at a local copper mine. The 1920 Census also identified Basil had two older sisters named Odielia (2 years of age) and Elvira (1 year old). After Basil was born in 1920, Basilo and Lola had a third child, Emma, who was born in 1923.  The town of Miami where the Abad family resided is located approximately 60 miles east of Phoenix.

   Navy Muster Records and a newspaper article published in the San Diego Union on 21 October 1940 indicate Basil enllisted in the U.S. Navy on 17 October 1940 in San Diego, California.  After completing his basic training at the Naval Training Center there, he was sent to the submarine tender, USS Griffin (AS-13) where he reported aboard on 9 February 1942.  The Griffin was a converted cargo ship named Mormacpenn which became a submarine tender.  The muster reports further reflect he spent time aboard the oiler USS Platte (AO-24), the Troop Transport USS Wharton (AP-7), and the submarine tender, USS Fulton (AS-11) before reporting to his first submarine, the Gato Class diesel electric submarine, USS Scamp (SS-277) on 15 October 1943.  The following week on 22 October 1943, Scamp departed for it 5th combat war patrol.  Basil Abad, a Radioman, also made Scamp's 6th and 7th combat war patrols. During its seventh combat war patrol while in the South Pacific Scamp received heavy damage and eventually returned to Pearl Harbor where she underwent repairs at the shipyard. On 16 October 1944 with Basil on board now as a Radioman Second Class Petty Officer, the Scamp departed Pearl Harbor for its eighth war patrol.  Under the command of John C. Hollingsworth, a 1931 Naval Academy Graduate, Scamp stopped at Midway for fuel and headed for Japanese waters.  During its patrol off Inubo Sake near Tokyo Bay, Scamp and its crew of 83 enlisted men and officers was never heard from again and is thought to have been sunk by a mine on or about 16 November 1944.

   One of Abad's shipmates on the Scamp was another Arizonan by the name of Frank Wesley Rodriguez a Seaman First Class who was born in Morenci, Arizona and later raised in Tucscon. By the time Basil arrived, Frank who had reported aboard Scamp two months earlier had completed a combat patrol #4 2 September 1943 to 1 October 1943.  

   More information about Scamp and the names of its crewmembers, go to the following links:

• http://www.oneternalpatrol.com
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Scamp_(SS-277)
• https://submarinememorial.org/lostboatsfinished/ss277scamp.html