Category: USSVI-WWII Veterans

They Saved the World One Life at a Time

The photograph shows young men, weary but smiling, crowding the deck of the USS Tigrone as she lies quietly in Apra Harbor, Guam. Behind them, the harbor waters reflect the early morning light. Beyond that, the haze of a world still at war. The camera captures aviators in patched uniforms and borrowed gear, the crew of Tigrone standing near them with the same sea-worn posture common to submariners. It’s a moment frozen in time, but the story behind the picture runs deeper than the Pacific waters they traversed.

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Shortest and Saltiest

On June 27, 1970, a reporter with a poetic bent described Admiral John S. McCain Jr. as the shortest, saltiest, and most incorrigible admiral in the Navy. That reporter was Col. R.D. Heinl Jr., and he was not exaggerating. McCain, standing barely five-foot-seven, paced the floor of his headquarters in Pearl Harbor with a cigar clenched in his teeth. He commanded the largest forward-deployed force in American history. His authority reached across 500 ships, 7,500 aircraft, and nearly a million servicemen scattered throughout the Pacific from the Golden Gate to the Indian Ocean.

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There’ll Be a Commotion Down Under The Ocean

With the war over and things finally settled down, US Submarine Veterans began to return to their homes and family. They were still keenly aware of the deep sacrifice the Sub Force had made, and the reasons why so many had died there was still a reluctance to talk about how they had carried out the destruction of the Japanese Empire.

But in newspapers around the country, stories began to appear that gave the public a taste of what the Sub force had been through and what it had accomplished. In Bogalusa, LA, a multi-part series was run, telling the stories of submarine veterans from the area who had served on the USS Ray SS-271.

On June 6, 1946, almost a year after the war had ended, one of these articles appeared. In it were the lyrics to “The Submarine Song,” without attribution or any author listed.

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