Posted on 11/14/2004 4:09:50 PM PST by SandRat
HUACHUCA CITY - The name of the U.S.S. Albacore was called, followed by the tolling of a bell Saturday.
The U.S. Navy submarine went down in the Pacific on Nov. 7, 1944, taking all the crew after the boat hit Japanese mines.
On Nov. 8, 1944, the U.S.S. Growler was sunk by unknown causes taking all hands to the deep six.
On Nov. 9, 1944, the U.S.S. Scamp's crew did not survive after being attacked by Japanese surface ships and aircraft.
In 1943, three submarines went down.
The U.S.S. Corvina was destroyed by a Japanese submarine taking all hands to Davy Jones' locker on Nov. 16.
On Nov. 19, the U.S.S. Sculpin was sunk by Japanese surface ships, causing the deaths of 63 sailors. The 21 survivors became prisoners-of-war.
On Nov. 23, the U.S.S. Capelin, was sunk by Japanese surface ships, with all hands killed.
After the names of American submarines lost in the November months during the war were called out, retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Harry Wilson chimed a ship's bell once for each of the boats.
Every month, members of the Tucson-based Cactus Chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans of World War II meet and honor the boats - submarines are called boats, not ships - and crew members lost from December 1941 through August 1945.
The ceremony lists only the boats that went down in time-frame of the monthly meeting. Most of the 52 boats lost during the war - and 3,505 sailors on them - were sunk in the Pacific.
The first American sub to be sunk was the U.S.S. Sealion that went down on Dec. 10, 1941, after being hit by Japanese airplanes. Four sailors were killed in the action.
The last sub to be sunk was the U.S.S. Bullhead on Aug. 6, 1945, when Japanese planes hit the boat. All of the crew was killed.
More than 75 people attended the November meeting at the Tombstone Territories RV Park, owned by John "Jack" Robson, 80, himself a World War II submariner. He retired from the Navy as a chief petty officer and was awarded a Bronze Star Medal with Valor device during one of his war patrols.
Retired Navy Capt. Frank Kay, who enlisted in the Navy in 1934 and became a submariner in 1939, also was at Saturday's meeting.
Kay, who has lived in Sierra Vista for the past six years, was awarded the Navy Cross, the nation's second highest decoration for bravery in combat while on patrol off of Wake Island.
Kay and Wilson jokingly said they would not have volunteered for submarine duty if they had known the United States was going to be pulled into World War II.
"I didn't know they were going to start a war," Wilson said of the Japanese, who attacked the United States on Dec. 7, 1941.
Kay left surface warships to enter the Silent Service, as the submarine duty was called. He first served aboard the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Chester.
"If I had known war was coming, I would have volunteered for recruiting duty," he said, laughing loudly.
But Kay, Wilson and Robson said they never once regretted serving abroad the boats. To this day, each of them proudly wear the insignia of the submarine service, the double dolphins.
At 86, Wilson said he was made a torpedoman because he had a strong and wide back.
He sailed aboard three different subs - the Sailfish, the Seadragon and the Muskallunge. Of the nine war patrols he went on, Wilson said seven of them were successful because Japanese warships and merchant ships were sunk.
On one patrol, his submarine crippled a Japanese aircraft carrier and trailed the ship as it limped away, hoping to put another "fish" - torpedo - into the stricken vessel, the 21-year Navy veteran said.
But another sub got to claim the sinking when it fired torpedoes into the carrier, said Wilson, who lives in Tucson.
Robson, who enlisted in the Navy right out of high school in 1942, had five war patrols aboard the U.S.S. Ray.
He was a radar man aboard the submarine, noting the technology in the 1940s was not as sophisticated as today's technology. The radar was good enough to allow American submarines to pop up in the middle of Japanese convoys at night to make surface attacks. Then the subs had to dive quickly to avoid attacks by Japanese destroyers.
Like Wilson and Kay, Robson experienced more depth charge attacks by the enemy than he wanted.
Unlike what is shown in movies about submarines being attacked, Kay said he never once herd the "click-click" sounds used in the movies to indicate a depth charge was about to explode.
When the war broke out, he was serving as a gunner's mate on the U.S.S. Sargo in the Philippines. He took part in five war patrols during his time on that boat. A patrol could last for months.
To this day, the 88-year-old man is proud he is a mustang, meaning an enlisted man who received a direct commission. While serving on the U.S.S. Skate, "the old man" - the captain - recommended Kay for a Navy Cross.
The Skate was given a special assignment to rescue aviators who had been shot down over the water. The boats mission took them to Wake Island for the lifeguard duty.
The Japanese on the island fired at the submarine. The captain put as much of the boat under the water as possible. Then Ensign Kay and two sailors rushed to rescue an aviator.
The captain told him that if the Japanese fire started to come too close he would have to take the boat down, leaving Kay, two sailors and the pilot they were trying to rescue in the water.
Fortunately, the Japanese had not found the sub's range. After the pilot and the two sailors went below, Kay joined the captain on the conning tower as the Japanese brought more fire power to bear on the boat. The boat submerged beforethe Japanese found their range.
Six aviators were rescued by the Skate's crew on that patrol.
Kay noted that submarine crews in the Pacific rescued 502 aviators during the latter part of the war.
In 1950, Kay was named the skipper of the U.S.S. Puffer, a diesel sub he commanded for two years.
There is something special about sub sailors, Kay said. The closeness caused by the small spaces on a boat "means you get pretty well acquainted fast." That closeness is made even tighter during depth charge attacks.
On one patrol, the boat he was on spotted a convoy and the boat went after a freighter and blew it up, Kay said.
The next target was one of the protecting Japanese destroyers, which was sunk, he added. That made the sailors aboard two other Japanese destroyers angry, and they attacked for more than two hours dropping heavy depth charges.
"I think we kind of pissed off the two other guys," he said.
BTTT
ping
They are not to ever be FORGOTTEN!
Lost, you say? I thought they were considered to be "still on patrol".
USS DORADO (Skipper) Earl Schneider and Crew RIP Hero's
Let's not forget the Scorpion and the Thresher.
And Yes they are on eternal Patrol.
Remember the Maine.
Membory = Memory
As a sub vet myself, I should note that the 'tolling of the lost boats' is not a 1-off Veterans Day deal. We do this every month, for boats lost during that month, at our sub vets meeting. This is done to maintain 'institutional memory' of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the WW II submarine force.
>50 subs and > 3,000 men were lost during the war, but we were able to 'take it to the enemy' while the fleet was being rebuilt after the devastation of Pearl Harbor.
As an aside, the submarine I first qualified (earned my dolphins) on was USS Scamp (SSN 588) which was named for the boat lost in WW II.
BTTT....for dad (USS Jallao) and great-grandpa (unknown WWI U-boat). Family tradition.
I know I shouldn't read articles like this because they always upset me. But I keep doing it. I still know very little about the Kursk because I can't bear to hear about it. And I know more than I want to about the Scorpion and the Thresher. It's tough to be a submariner's wife and think about your husband dying like that.
Service wives are special, submariners wives, and SPECOPS are especially so.
Thank you. But it's the men that calmly go into the depths of the murky, cold ocean because it's their job that really deserve admiration. I don't think I could do it and stay sane.
These men and the sub service, in particular the Pacific submarine fleet, never rec'd the credit they deserved for kicking the stuffing out of the Japs. It was the Submariners who won that war by the relentless interdiction and destruction of supplies and troop transports.
You couldn't dream up the real life sagas lived by these men and their able commanders.
I lived in New London during the war and all of my folks were sub people. Even though I was very young, I remember my relatives, including my father, who worked at EB. One of my uncles was a pig boat sailor before serving on fleet boats. He retired as a chief torpedoman.
I have proud memories and despite appearing to glorify war, I am filled with admiration and envy when I read first hand accounts of the exploits of those submariners who served so valiantly. They were a unique bunch; brave, dedicated, and capable.
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