Stories From the US Submarine Force
Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations – memo dated 7 Dec 1941
The calm of a Sunday morning in paradise was shattered as Japanese planes descended upon Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Amid the cacophony of explosions, the blazing infernos consuming the battleships of Battleship Row, and the relentless hum of enemy aircraft, a less visible part of the U.S. Navy’s strength lay quietly along the southeastern edge of the harbor. There, the submarines USS Tautog (SS-199), USS Dolphin (SS-169), USS Cuttlefish (SS-171), USS Narwhal (SS-167), and USS Cachalot (SS-170) waited, unprepared for battle but braced for survival. Their actions that day and their escape from destruction would later underscore their importance to a Navy facing a long war in the Pacific. Continue reading “The Pearl Harbor Five”
A Personal Observation
In the middle of Patrol 5, around late October of 1984, I was handed a paperback copy of “The Hunt for Red October.” It was not required reading, but many of the folks aboard who had already read it were effusive in their praise for it. They assured me that it would “help” with the final days of my ships quals, which were quickly coming to completion.
As I recall, it did not provide any specific assistance in my final quals and my board. What it did do was open my eyes to the open discussion of things that I, at least to that point, believed were never to be discussed. Not even the idea that there might be something – anything whatsoever – to even discuss. Continue reading “Spyron”
Patrol Reports 