FOR MY GRIFFIN AND NAVY BUDDY, MONTE:
2/16/1994 - Linked by their WWII commanders, the American Silent Service's victory over Imperial Japanese shipping is remembered once more when the XO (executive officer) of the submarine USS Wahoo (SS-238) and the Medal-of-Honor winning commander of the submarine USS Tang (SS-306), Rear Admiral Richard Hetherington "Dick" O'Kane dies from pneumonia compounded by Alzheimer's disease in a Petaluma, California nursing home on February 16, 1994 the age of 83.
O'Kane
Of Irish ancestry, Richard Hetherington O'Kane is born in Dover, New Hampshire on February 2, 1911, the youngest of four children that will make up the family of University of New Hampshire entomology professor (the scientific study of insects), Walter Collins O'Kane, and his wife, Clifford Hetherington. He will be the youngest of four children to grace the O'Kane Family (Allen, Capelle, and Sheldon). Extremely intelligent, in 1930, O'Kane graduates from one of the oldest, and most prestigious college prep schools in the United States, the Phillips Academy located in Andover, Massachusetts (founded in 1778 by local businessman Samuel Phillips, who during the American Revolution will manufacture gunpowder for the Continental Army, the illustrious alumni of the school have so far included Super Bowl championship coach Bill Belichick, actor Humphrey Bogart, Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, U.S. Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush, MLB commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti, Academy Award winning screenwriter Ring Lardner Jr., actor Jack Lemmon, telegraph and Morse Code inventor Samuel Morse, Central Park architect and designer Frederick Law Olmsted, Army Medal of Honor winner James Parker, pediatrician Benjamin Spock, FDR's Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, Douglas MacArthur's Chief of Staff Richard Kerens Sutherland, Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, actress Olivia Wilde, Emmy Award winning television producer Dick Wolf, and singer-songwriter Jesse Colin Young). After Phillips, O'Kane enters the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis as a member of it's Class of 1934.
Annapolis
As O'Kane is graduating from the Phillips Academy, the man that will help mentor him to military greatness, Dudley Walker "Mush" Morton (the nickname comes from his resemblance to a character in the comic strip "Moon Mullins" that has square jaw and a prominent mouth named "Mushmouth") graduates from the Naval Academy in it's Class of 1930. Born into the family of William Dix Morton Sr. and Elizabeth Rebecca "Bessie" Rowe Morton (Mush will have one older brother, William Dix Morton Jr.) in Owensboro, Kentucky on July 17, 1907. With his family relocated from Kentucky, Morton attends high school in Miami, Florida before becoming a member of the Naval Academy's Class of 1930. While at the academy, Morton becomes known for his quick smile, sense of humor, and charming personality, while also excelling at athletics (Mush will be a four year member of the school's football and wrestling squads, and will also letter in gymnastics and rowing crew). Commissioned an Ensign in the United States Navy after his graduation from Annapolis on June 5, 1930, his first ship is the Lexington-class aircraft carrier, USS Saratoga (CV-3) as it makes its way down the east coast of the United States and through the Panama Canal to participate in Fleet Problem war games taking place in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans. His second posting is to the Northampton-class cruiser USS Chicago (he will be aboard the cruiser from its commissioning on March 9, 1931 to June of 1933) as the ship is readied for use as a heavy cruiser at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California. Done readying the USS Chicago for combat, in June of 1933 Morton is sent to the United States naval base at New London, Connecticut for submarine training. Upon completion of his training as a submariner, Morton is assigned to the submarine tender, USS Canopus (AS-9) of America's Asiatic Fleet, operating out of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and the Chinese port of Tsingtao, and he briefly spends time aboard the submarine USS S-37, a boat launched in 1919, the flagship of Submarine Division Ten. In 1937, Morton receives orders to report to the U.S. naval base in Philadelphia (reporting for duty requires Mush to travel from Tsingtao, China to Siberia, cross the vast Russian plains to Europe and then ship back to the United States via passage from England). He is stationed at the Philadelphia Naval Station from February of 1937 to May of 1939, when he joins the Wickes-class destroyer USS Fairfax (DD-93) as the ship's executive officer. His next assignment is the refitting of the coastal and harbor defensive submarine USS R-4, which is completed by April of 1942.
Morton At Annapolis
WWII now on for the United States Navy by 1942, Morton is attached to the United States Submarine Base at New London, Connecticut in May of 1942. A month later he is ordered to join Submarine Squadron Four as a Prospective Commanding Officer (PCO, a supernumerary position to prepare officers for commanding their own fleet submarine). On October 15, 1942, Morton is promoted to lieutenant commander and put in charge of refitting the V-boat submarine USS Dolphin (SS-169) at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The ship he goes to war in however will not be the USS Dolphin, but a new fleet boat fresh from the Mare Island Navy Yard in California, the fish named Gato-class submarine, USS Wahoo (SS-238), one of the most famous fighting ships in the military history of the United States Navy.
The USS Wahoo Is Launched
USS Wahoo Off The California Coast - July, 1943
The USS Wahoo's keel is laid down on June 28, 1941 at Mare Island. The submarine is launched on Valentine's Day of 1942, and with Lt. Commander Marvin G. "Pinky" Kennedy (a member of the Annapolis Class of 1929) in command, is commissioned on May 15, 1942 311 feet and 9 inches in length, with a beam of 27 feet and 3 inches, and a draft of 17 feet, the USS Wahoo, depending on the situation, is powered by four Fairbanks-Morse opposed piston diesel engines, two Sargo batteries, and four General Electric electric motors powering two propellers that allow the sub to travel at 24 mph on the surface and 10 mph while submerged. She has a range of 11,000 nautical miles, can stay submerged for 48 hours, can be on patrol for 75 days, and can go 300 feet below the waves in a submerged condition. Crewed by six officers and fifty-four enlisted men, the sailors of the USS Wahoo fight the ship with armaments of 24 Mark 14 torpedoes (fired from six forward and four aft torpedo tubes), one 76 mm deck gun, one Bofors 40 mm gun, and one Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. After training off the coast of California, she departs for Hawaii on August 12, 1942, and arrives there on the 18th of the month. On August 23, 1942, she leaves Pearl Harbor on her first patrol of the war, a jaunt into the waters west of the Central Pacific Japanese Naval Base at Truk Lagoon, looking for enemy shipping between the Hall Islands and Namonnuito Atoll. Sadly for the sub, her first performance against the Japanese Imperial Navy leaves a lot to be desired ... she will attack a lone freighter on September 6th and miss her with three torpedoes, on September 20th she makes a night attack on a freighter with a lone escort, firing four torpedoes, only one of which hits its intended target (the USS Wahoo will be credited with sinking it's first ship of the war, a 6,503 ton vessel, but it will later be found that no ship was sunk in the area the submarine was operating in (attacked by the Japanese escort, the USS Wahoo will escape from the area by changing course and vanishing into a rain squall). Continuing her patrol, the submarine will miss opportunities to send torpedoes at the unescorted seaplane tender Chiyoda, and a Japanese aircraft carrier being escorted by two destroyers. The submarine returns to Pearl Harbor on October 17, 1942 with a crew distressed by the USS Wahoo's lack of aggressiveness and skill going after Japanese shipping on her first patrol, a feeling that is shared by command, and by the ship's executive officer, Lt. Richard O'Kane.
Kennedy
Japanese Seaplane Tender Chiyoda
Graduating from Annapolis in 1934 and commissioned an ensign in the United States Navy on May 31st, O'Kane's first assignment is as the Deck and Gunnery Officer aboard the Northampton-class heavy cruiser USS Chester (CA-27), where he will serve from June of 1934 to June of 1935. From that start he is next sent to serve aboard the Clemson-class destroyer USS Pruitt (DD-347), where he will remain until December of 1937. In January of 1938, now a Lieutenant Junior Grade is sent to Submarine School at New London, Connecticut. Graduating in June of 1938, he serves aboard the USS Argonaut (SM-1) as first the submarine's Engineering Officer and then as it's Executive Officer. Operating out of Pearl Harbor before WWII begins, O'Kane is aboard the sub as she carries out minelaying duties, participates in patrol duties, and takes part in joint Army-Navy exercises in Hawaiian waters (May 1939) and Fleet tactical exercises off America's West Coast as the Argonaut becomes the flagship of Submarine Squadron 4 (April 1941). On July 1, 1941, O'Kane is promoted to Lieutenant. Second in command of the sub to Lt. Commander Stephen George Barchet (a two-time Walter Camp Third-Team All-American halfback and the 1924 winner of the Academy's Thompson Trophy Cup for athletic excellence), the USS Argonaut is patrolling off Midway Island on December 7, 1941, when surfacing just after sunset, she receives a radio transmission from Hawaii that the Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor. Now in the war, O'Kane returns to Mare Island to be a part of the pre-commissioning crew of the new fleet submarine, the USS Wahoo.
USS Argonaut
Refitted and overhauled (the submarine will have a four inch 100 mm gun, and two 20 mm guns installed) in Pearl Harbor, the Wahoo begins her second war patrol on November 8, 1942, searching for targets around a portion of the South Pacific near the Solomon Islands of Bougainville and the Buka Islands ... also aboard is PCO Mush Morton. After patrolling the area for 17 days with no results (smoke from a Japanese transport and it's destroyer escort will be spotted, but the sub never gets close enough to attack), Kennedy takes the sub on a route between the Japanese naval base at Truk and the Shortland Islands. Again the search for targets proves fruitless and after a few days Kennedy decides to return to his original patrol area where on December 10th, the Wahoo finds a small convoy of three heavily loaded cargo ships escorted by a Japanese destroyer. Thinking to take out the destroyer first and then feast on the cargo vessels, Kennedy can't get his ship in a firing position to shoot at the destroyer and instead launches a four torpedo spread at the 5,385 ton Kamoi Maru from 700 yards. Three hit home and after two hours the ship goes under and becomes the Wahoo's first victim of the war, but by then the sub has vacated the area after the destroyer closes and sends forty depth charges at the sub (only minor damage occurs and Morton and O'Kane try to convince Kennedy to use the ship's newest technology, SJ radar, to continue attacking the convoy, but their arguments fall on deaf ears and the Wahoo vacates the area). Four days later, the sub claims to sink a Japanese submarine, but will be given no credit for this kill when a postwar analysis is made of Japanese records. Ending it's patrol, the sub will pass by Buka Island and the Japanese base at Kieta Harbor before docking in Brisbane, Australia on the day after Christmas for refitting ... and a command change.
The Kamoi Maru
Bad results again and the crew's morale poor after risking their lives for almost no results, O'Kane contemplates putting in for a transfer, but before he can, on the last day of 1942, Kennedy is relieved of command (the Navy will find more suitable positions for the officer during the war and he will go on to retire as a rear admiral on October 1, 1952) and control of the Wahoo is given to Morton. The change is instantly evident when Morton gathers the sub's crew together and gives them a rousing Henry V "band of brothers" type speech, declaring:
"Wahoo is expendable. We will take every reasonable precaution, but our mission is to sink enemy shipping. . . . Now, if anyone doesn't want to go along under these conditions, just see the yeoman. I am giving him verbal authority now to transfer anyone who is not a volunteer. . . . Nothing will ever be said about you remaining in Brisbane."
No one asks to stay behind. And in another change to how the submarine will operate, thoroughly impressed with O'Kane, Morton allows his executive officer to man the periscope during attacks, allowing Morton to better con the ship and make offensive and defensive decisions more dispassionately (the new methodology works for the USS Wahoo, but it isn't for everyone and few commanders other than Morton will give up the periscope, including O'Kane when he is put in charge of the USS Tang). A match made in Heaven or in Hell depending on your point of view, the two men quickly bond and become close friends readying the submarine for action. On January 16, 1943, accompanied by her escort, the Bagley-class destroyer USS Patterson, the Wahoo puts to sea on her third war patrol with orders to reconnoiter the Japanese supply base at Wewak on the northern coast of New Guinea.
Morton
Using a chart of the area they are to investigate that is provided by Motor Machinist Mate Dalton "Bird Dog" Keeter from an Australian school atlas he purchased while in Brisbane, the Wahoo arrives off Wewak on January 24th and the crew learns first hand how different Morton is from Kennedy as the sub's new commanding officer interprets the order reconnoiter to be the same as attack. Penetrating the western end of Victoria Bay, the submarine spots a Japanese destroyer getting underway and fires a spread of three torpedoes at the target, all of which miss to the aft of the ship. With the wake of the torpedoes marking the way, the destroyer goes after the sub and has a fourth load of dynamite sent it's way, which the destroyer also avoids. Waiting until the destroyer is only 800 yards away, the Wahoo fires it's last bow torpedo at the destroyer and scores a fatal hit amidship that breaks the Harusame in two. Unmolested, Morton is able to slip away and look for fresh targets. Two days later while heading towards the Palau Islands he finds them when the smoke of two freighters is spotted on the horizon. Four enemy ships in all will be encountered, two freighters, a huge transport, and a tanker, and in a series of attacks throughout the day, all four will be sent to the bottom of the Pacific (the submarine however is not credited with sinking the tanker). Unfortunately, in sinking the transport Buyo Maru (carrying 1,126 Japanese soldiers and 269 Indian prisoners of war from the 16th Punjab Regiment), believing they are being fired on by Japanese survivors, the sub will turn her guns on twenty lifeboats before leaving the area to go after the tanker and a damaged freighter from it's first attack of the day (though justified later by the commander of the Pacific submarine fleet, Rear Admiral Charles Andrew Lockwood, it is believed by many that the firing on the lifeboats is what prevents Morton from ever being awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor).
Wreck Of The Harusame
Buyo Maru Sinking
Morton And Lt. Roger Paine In USS Wahoo Conning
Tower During The January 26th Attacks
Lockwood
The next day, the Wahoo encounters an eight ship Japanese convey, and out of torpedoes, Morton decides on a novel attack to sink an unarmed tanker among the ships that seems to be struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. By surfacing behind the tanker, Morton believes the convoy will panic and scatter, leaving him enough time to sink the oiler with the Wahoo's deck gun. The first part of the plan works, but before the sub can put its gun into action, an enemy destroyer suddenly charges out of a nearby rain squall and Morton and his crew are forced to dive (they will be depth charged six times but suffer no damage ... and the crew receives doses of "depth charge medicine" for their nerves, shots of three-star cognac from the private stash of Morton and O'Kane) and flee, resulting in a famous message Mush sends to Pearl Harbor: "Another running gun battle today. Destroyer gunning, Wahoo running!" Plans to fire on the Japanese phosphorite refinery on Fais Island scrapped due to bad weather and the sighting of an enemy inter-island steamer in the area, out of torpedoes, the sub heads for Pearl Harbor and refitting. Victorious at last, she enters the United States Navy base on February 7, 1943 with topside embellishments to note her new status ... lashed to the head of her periscope will be a broom signifying her clean sweep of the ocean, on her signal halyard she will bear a tiny Japanese flag for each of the eight ships she believes the ship has thus far sunk, and above the flags, a pennant which reads "Shoot the sunza bitches." And when medals are handed out later, the now nicknamed "One-Boat Wolfpack" Morton will receive a Navy Cross, and from General of the Army Douglas MacArthur the Army Distinguished Service Cross, while O'Kane will be honored with the first of his three Silver Stars.
The USS Wahoo Bridge Entering
Pearl Harbor - Morton Is The Figure
At The Right
O'Kane And Morton On The Bridge Of The
USS Wahoo - February, 1943
Refit and training complete, the Wahoo leaves Pearl Harbor on February 23, 1943 for her fourth war patrol with orders this time to explore a region no America submarine had thus far entered, the northern reaches of the Yellow Sea near the Yalu River and the Japanese controlled Chinese port of Dalian (an extremely dangerous area due to its closeness to both the Chinese and Korean coasts and because the water depth of the region averages only 120 feet). During the subs passage to the area, Lt. Commander Morton will keep his men sharp by conducting crash drive exercises, fire control drills, and battle surface practices. Sighting no enemy aircraft during its run to the East China Sea, most of the journey is spent surfaced. On March 19, the Wahoo begins dishing out more carnage to the Japanese, blowing up the freighter Zogen Maru with a single torpedo and severely damaging another freighter, the Kowa Maru (the ship survives being hit amidships by a dud torpedo and is able to maneuver enough to cause two misses). Two days later, now off the Korean coast south of the port of Chinnampo, the sub sends the Hozen Maru to the bottom (the ship sinks in four minutes) and then four hours later fires a spread of three torpedoes at the Nittsu Maru, two of which hit the freighter under her bridge and mainmast, sinking the vessel in three minutes. Satiated for the time being, the Wahoo then heads for the Laotiehshan Channel (also known as "Sampan Alley") off Port Arthur. There, on the 23rd of the month, the sub sinks the collier Katyosan Maru with one torpedo (it takes the ship 13 minutes to vanish). The next day it takes seven torpedoes to send the tanker Takasan Maru to the bottom (two torpedoes blow up prematurely after launching, two are misses, and a three torpedo spread finally causes the ship a mortal wound when one hits the vessel's engine room, sinking her in four minutes). When two more torpedoes detonate prematurely the next day while the freighter Satsuki Maru is being attacked. Morton surfaces the sub and sends his opponent to the bottom courtesy of a pounding of over 100 rounds from the Wahoo's deck gun. The next day the deck guns are used again to eliminate another freighter, on fire and dead in the water, the second slow death in two days allows Morton to have every member of the crew get a look through the sub's periscope at the deadly results of all their hard drilling. Later that same day, the sub encounters a 100-ton trawler and puts her deck weapons into use again, but when the 20 mm guns jam, the crew gets a chance to use unusual weapons against their opponent ... pulling alongside the stricken trawler, the men hurl Molotov cocktails received as a gift from the Marines on Midway Island on to the vessels deck. The following day with her jammed guns cleared, two motor sampans are turned into flaming wrecks. The Wahoo then ends the most successful submarine patrol thus far in the war by using her stern torpedo tubes to blow the freighter Yamabato Maru in two (her forward section will take only two minutes to vanish below the waves). Extremely happy that the Wahoo has brought shipping in the area to a standstill with the Japanese believing a wolfpack of multiple subs has been on the attack, for her fourth patrol Morton will be awarded another Navy Cross for sending 36,693 tons of enemy shipping to the bottom of the ocean, along with damaging a 5,973-ton freighter. while O'Kane gets another Silver Star.
Goodby To The Nittsu Maru
After the fourth patrol however there will be no brooms raised. Heading back to Pearl Harbor, the Wahoo will instead be re-routed to Midway for its refitting when United States codebreakers determine that Admiral Mineichi Koga has been ordered to sortie out of Truk to counter the American invasion of the Aleutian Island of Attu. For it's fifth patrol of the war (unbeknownst to Morton, there will be no fleet action against American naval assets off Attu as with the death of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto on April 18, 1943, Koga becomes the Commander in Chief of the Combined Fleet and adopts a more conservative and defensive strategy for fighting the war), Morton and his crew are ordered to intercept Koga's fleet. Arriving at Midway on April 6, 1943, the Wahoo is ready to go after the Japanese again on the 25th of the month. The fifth Wahoo war patrol begins with a reconnaissance of the Kuril Islands in the Northern Pacific but she finds nothing of note and after a few days turns to the southeast. On May 4, 1943, the sub encounters the seaplane tender Kimikawa Maru and sends a spread of three torpedoes at the Japanese ship, damaging the vessel (scoring only one hit between the stack and the bridge, listing, the vessel is able limp away). Three days later, the Wahoo fires at a freighter and her destroyer escort, but only sends the Tamon Maru to the bottom, then proceeds down the coast of Benton Saki. Still in the Kurils, off Kobe Zaki a three-ship convoy of two escorts and a large naval auxiliary are attacked with a spread of three torpedoes but two explode prematurely and though the third hits its target, it proves to be a dud and a stewing Morton is forced to leave the area. On the night of May 9th, the Wahoo discovers an unescorted tanker and freighter off Kone Saki, and with two three-torpedo spreads, they become the Wahoo's latest victims. The lieutenant commander's ire and that of his crew is rekindled however when the Wahoo fires off her last six torpedoes at two Japanese freighters from a distance of 1,200 yards, all prove to be duds. Under attack from the freighters' deck guns, Morton is forced to leave the area and sets course for Pearl Harbor.
Admiral Koga
The Death Of Yamamoto
Back in Pearl Harbor, on May 22, 1943, the commander of America's Pacific Fleet, Admiral Chester William Nimitz visits the Wahoo and passes out awards and commendations to Morton, O'Kane and the crew of the sub (though the results of the Wahoo's fifth war patrol are less than they could have been due to faulty torpedoes, the powers-that-be at Pearl are happy and Morton receives another Navy Cross, while O'Kane gets another Silver Star). Two days later, the Wahoo is on her way to Mare Island for an overhaul which also includes losing its executive officer, the recently promoted Lieutenant Commander Richard O'Kane who becomes the PCO for a new Balao-class submarine, the USS Tang. Ready to return to action after weeks of refitting and training, with 32-year-old Lt. Commander Verne Leslie Skjonsby of Hickson, South Dakota now the sub's executive officer, the Wahoo arrives in Hawaii on July 27, 1943, and departs for her next patrol area, arriving in the Sea of Okhotsk (an area of wet bordered by Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, and the Japanese island of Hokkaido) on August 14th when it begins attacking shipping in the area ... though not with good results. Over the next four days, the Wahoo will spot twelve Japanese vessels, launch attacks on nine, and will have each torpedo fired found to be faulty, exploding prematurely, not exploding on contact, making erratic runs, or broaching before arriving at it's target. Too much failure, Wahoo is ordered back to base, but Morton, his blood and dander up, takes out the only targets he can as he exits the region, decimating with the Wahoo's deck guns three sampans, while capturing six Japanese fishermen. By August 29th the sub is back at Pearl Harbor. This time there will be no awards or commendations for the patrol.
Skjonsby At Annapolis
Stinging from the failures of the Wahoo's sixth war patrol, upon returning to Pearl Harbor, Morton requests that his sub should be sent back to the Sea of Japan (for the patrol, posthumously, Morton will receive his fourth Navy Cross), and that she returns with no more dud Mark 14 steam torpedoes and is instead equipped with a full complement of the new Mark 18 electric torpedoes. Command is more than happy to agree to it's #1 submarine chief. On September 13, 1943, the USS Wahoo tops off it's fuel and supplies at Midway and then heads out La Perouse Strait and it's patrol zone. The plan for Morton's sub is for the Wahoo to enter the Sea of Japan around the 20th of the month, with the Gato-class sub USS Swordfish a few days in her wake, take out as much Japanese shipping as possible, then exit the area by the 21st of October, reporting in to Pearl by radio on results of the patrol once she passes through the Kuril Islands. The new torpedoes appear to work fine and during the sub's penetration of the Sea of Japan the Wahoo will be credited with sinking four vessels, including the 8,128 ton Konron Maru. Whatever transpires in the Sea of Japan, the Japanese go after the intruder in their midst with everything they have. Spotted on the surface, the sub is fired on by shore batteries on the morning of October 11th, dives to escape while reversing course to the west and is thought to be damaged hitting a mine, damage that causes an oil slick that can be seen from above and tracked. Spotted by a Japanese patrol plane, other Japanese assets are vectored to the Wahoo's location, and between 9:45 in the morning and 4:30 in the afternoon, the Japanese will drop 40 bombs and 69 depth charges on the area where it is believed the Wahoo is trying to hide, killing the submarine and its entire crew of 79 (sunk by a direct hit near her conning tower, the international Wahoo Project Group will locate the sub lying intact in 213 feet of La Perouse Strait water in 2005, with wreath commemorations and a plaque drop taking place for Morton and his lost crew taking place thus far in July of 2007 and May of 2024). The most victorious vessel in the submarine fleet at the time with 20 Japanese ships of a tonnage of 60,038 tons sunk, the loss of the USS Wahoo horrifies the naval command at Pearl Harbor (Vice Admiral Lockwood will write in his diary, "This is the worst blow we've had. I'm heartbroken. God punish the Japanese!" and it will be two years before U.S. subs will be allowed to patrol the dangerous waters of the Sea of Japan again (firs into the area is a nine sub wolfpack all armed with newly developed FM sonar arrays for detecting mines, that calls itself "The Hellcats," USS Sea Dog, USS Crevasse, USS Spadefish, a grouping known as the "Hepcats," USS Tunny, USS Skate, USS Bonefish, a grouping known as the "Polecats," USS Flying Fish, USS Bowfin, and USS Tinosa, a grouping known as the "Bobcats" ... over 17 days in the Sea of Japan the wolfpack will sink 28 Japanese ships, but the Bonefish and her crew of 85 submariners are lost). One man takes the death of the Wahoo particularly hard for losing so many good friends among the crew and for realizing he could have been a part of the disaster but for his being given his own command, Lt. Commander Richard O'Kane.
USS Wahoo Under Attack
On The Bottom - Eternal Patrol
The USS Tang Launching
USS Tang
On February 17, 1944, the USS Tang begins compiling a resume that will have the submarine ranked #1 in total tonnage sunk (116,454 tons) and number of vessels sunk (33), and make it one of only two submarines to win two Presidential Unit Citations, by surviving a depth charge attack and then from 1,500 yards, with O'Kane maintaining control of the periscope, sinking the freighter Gyoten Maru with three torpedo hits. Five days later, she makes her first successful surface attack of the war, blowing up the Fukuyama Maru in the evening and then following that victory up with the next morning sinking of the Yamashimo Maru. On the 24th of the month, the Tang spots a freighter, a tanker, and a destroyer and takes the day closing on the small grouping of ships before putting down the freighter in the night, then blowing up the Echizen Maru from a distance of only 500 yards (the ship sinks in four minutes) the next morning, before surviving a depth charge attack in which a water leak develops in the forward torpedo room and the sub exceeds its maximum depth, going down to a depth of 612 feet. On the 26th of the month, she expends her last four torpedoes sinking the cargo ship Choko Maru (on the patrol, O'Kane's aiming is exceptional and out of 24 firings the sub will score 16 hits), then she heads back to Midway for refitting.
The USS Tang's Battle Flag
Patrolling around the Palau Islands, the Davao Gulf, and the approaches to Truk in March, the Tang will make five contacts with enemy shipping but never fires a torpedo. Instead, she is assigned rescue duties and will pull 22 downed airmen out of the Pacific before heading back to Pearl Harbor in May of 1944. For his first patrol aboard the Tang, O'Kane will be awarded a Navy Cross and for his second, the lieutenant commander will add Legion of Merit to his growing collection of medals and commendations, and the entire crew receives Navy Air Medals.
Too Heavy To Fly - Waiting For Rescue Inside Truk Lagoon
Rescue
The Rescued With O'Kane
For her third patrol of the war, the Tang is back to firing torpedoes, and she does it quite well. Searching for targets in the East China and Yellow Seas, on June 24 the sub attacks a convoy of six large ships guarded by sixteen escorts. Launching a surface attack on the cargo ships the sub fires two three-torpedo spreads at the freighters and sinks the Tamahoko Maru, Tainan Maru, Nassusan Maru, and Kennichi Maru, 16,292 tons of enemy shipping. Keeping an eye on the shipping lane between Kyushu and Dairen, on June 30th, from a range of 750 yards, the Tang puts a torpedo in the Nikkin Maru that blows the ship in half and sends 3,200 Japanese soldiers to Davy Jones' locker. The next day, July 1st, the sub sinks a freighter in the morning and a tanker in the evening. Celebrating the Fourth of July on Tuesday, O'Kane and his crew sink a freighter in the morning with two torpedo hits, and another, also with two hits, in the afternoon, while also plucking one Japanese survivor out of the water as a POW. The next night she expends her last two torpedoes on the Dori Maru, ending the patrol with a total of ten ships sunk (39,160 tons of shipping). For the success of the patrol (the ten ships sunk will be the most during a single patrol of the war), now a commander, O'Kane will receive another Navy Cross.
Heading Home After Last Sinking Of The Tang's
Fourth Patrol
In Port For Refitting
Crew Of The USS Tang
On September 24, 1944, the USS Tang leaves on her fifth and last patrol of the war. Topping off her fuel at Midway, Radioman Third Class Roy J. Miletta is removed from the sub after he gets his thumb caught in one of the Tang's waterproof doors and loses the end of the digit. The sub is off for her patrol area off Formosa Island on the 27th. Passing through the narrow, heavily mined, Japanese patrolled waters of the Formosa Straits, on the evening of October 10th, she sinks the cargo ships Joshu Go and Oita Maru. On the 23rd of the month the sub makes contact with a large convoy of ships delivering supplies to the Philippine Island of Leyte consisting of a number of escorts protecting four freighters and a transport. Surfacing in the middle of the Japanese ships, Commander O'Kane fires torpedoes at numerous targets ... one freighter takes hits under her stack and against her engine room, another is hit in it's stern, and two more hits are scored on another freighter. On fire or already sinking, O'Kane avoids being rammed by the transport, which runs into the last freighter of the group, and at a range of 400 yards, fires four torpedoes at the two vessels from her stern tubes, sending both to the bottom before bolting out of the area before escorts and a destroyer closing on her port quarter, port bow, and beam can catch the murderous sub. The next day in the vicinity of Niushan Island, the Tang encounters an escorted convoy of tankers and transports running along the island's coast and sets up for taking multiple shots again. Ranges varying from 900 to 1,400 yards, O'Kane fires two torpedoes at a three-deck transport, a smaller transport, and a large tanker, then she moves off and fires stern torpedoes at another transport and tanker to her aft (one hits a destroyer that has passed around the stern of the transport to get at the Tang). Chaos, all Tang's targets are down or on fire except for the transport which is dead in the water. His last two torpedoes loaded into the bow tubes, at a range of 900 yards, at 2:30 in the morning, O'Kane fires on the crippled transport. The first torpedo runs straight and normal, and hits the transport amidships, but her last one of the patrol and the war runs only 300 yards before it broaches the water and curves to it's left on a circular run back at the Tang. Calling for emergency power, the Tang fishtails and almost escapes the abnormal run, but is struck abreast of it's aft torpedo room only twenty seconds after being fired (during the war, only one other American submarine will be sunk in a similar manner, the Gato-class SS-284 USS Tullibee on July 29, 1944 off the Palau Islands with only Gunner's Mate Second Class Clifford Weldon Kuykendall surviving the incident when he is knocked off the bridge by the impact of the circling torpedo).
Miletta
A catastrophic explosion occurs when the circling torpedo hits the Tang with instant death coming to the men in the aft three compartments (those that don't die in the explosion are soon drowned as the compartments flood), On the bridge, nine men, including O'Kane are swept into the water, where three will swim for eight hours before being plucked out of the water by the Japanese (one of the three is Commander O'Kane, the others are Chief Boatswain's Mate Bill Leibold and Radio Technician Floyd Caverly), along with one officer (Larry Savadkin) who is able to escape the conning tower as it floods. The rest of the men in the conning tower are not as lucky and fall headfirst down the passage to the steel deck of the control room below with one unfortunate suffering a broken back, another a broken neck, two men breaking their arms, and yet another coming to rest in the pitch black dark with a broken leg. Sinking by her stern at a 45-degree angle in 180 feet of water, the sub comes to rest with her bow at an incline that will render the forward escape hatch inoperable ... inoperable until Motor Machinist Mate Clayton Decker from Colorado turns on the Tang's emergency lights and then crawls onto the chart desk and is able to pull the level overhead that floods the forward ballast tanks and allows the sub to level out on the bottom with thirty men crowded into the forward torpedo room. Estimating there are only four to five hours of air left on the sub, in batches of four because of the size of the escape tube (roughly that of a phone booth), the men are able to (the wounded unable to move are placed in the hammock berths of the compartment) begin escaping from the Tang, but not before destroying important papers within the ship using sulfuric acid from the sub's batteries. Wearing Mae West life preservers and fresh out-of-the-box Momsen lungs (an ingenious device that for a time allows exhaled air to be recycled, the Tang disaster will be the only time during the war that the breathing apparatus is actually used), the men use a system in which the escape hatch is entered and sealed (done, the exit is flushed of water before the process begins again), and once the right air pressure is reached to allow the outer door to be opened, one at a time the escapees go out a portal roughly three feet square where gripping a line they ascend to a buoy launched from the sub ... lose your grip on the line or ascending too fast and the survivor instead becomes a casualty. It is a complicated system made even more so by the convoy escorts dropping depth charges on the crippled sub, the darkness, flames within the ship, and two men fatally using the hatch without wearing Momsen lungs, ascending simply holding the breath. Of the first four men to use the Momsen lungs, only Decker survives the experience. In all, thirteen men will go out the hatch, eight of those make it to the surface, and five of those manage to swim until they are picked up by the Japanese (the rest of the men below perish when a gasket on the torpedo room door fails and the door blows open drowning the remaining complement of survivors. Of her crew of 87, 78 men die with the Tang, including 15-year-old Second Class Cook Rubin MacNiel Raiford, thought to be the youngest American military fatality of WWII.
At The Escape Chamber
Raiford
Plucked from the water the next morning by the Japanese destroyer escort P-34, the ordeal of the nine survivors rescued (the nine are Commander O'Kane, Lt. Commander Lawrence Savadkin, Lt. (jg) Henry J. Flanagan, Radio Technician Floyd Caverly, Chief Boatswain's Mate William Leibold, Motor Machinist Mate Jesse DaSilva, Motor Machinist Mate Decker, Torpedoman's Mate Hayes Trukke, and Torpedoman's Mate Peter Narowanski) continues aboard the escort. Carrying Japanese survivors of the Tang's attacks aboard, many of them wounded, for five days and nights the eight men will be assaulted over and over, with some suffering through having lit cigarettes stuck up there noses. They will also receive no food or water and will be forced to sit on the hot steel deck of the ship in their shorts. Landing on the island of Formosa (now known as Taiwan), the nine survivors have their hands tied behind them, have black hoods placed over their heads, and are paraded through the streets of Taipei where they are beaten on with sticks by old ladies and children. With an overnight stay in a potato cellar, the men are taken across the island by train and then placed on a Japanese cruiser and destroyer (officers on the destroyer) carrying sugar to Yokohama, Japan. From there, the men are taken to a naval intelligence POW camp for high-value enlisted men and officers (most are submariners or pilots and at the camp at the same time as the nine are Medal of Honor winner Marine aviator Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and Olympic distance runner and B-24 bombardier Louis Silvie Zamperini) called Ofuna outside of Yokohama (the men kept captive there will call it "The Torture Farm"). At the prison camp the nine are given a fresh pair of pants, a shirt, a pair of tennis shoes, and like its other residents, within a barracks, sleep in small individual cells that are six feet long and ten feet wide with a barred window at one end, a raised floor with a 3x6 foot mat, three blankets, and a grass mat. And like everyone else, they will be beaten and tortured for the slightest offenses and gradually starve receiving less than 500 calories a day, and fight to survive the diseases of beriberi, scurvy, dysentery, cholera, and malaria (the nine submariners will only receive three Red Cross boxes containing a mix of sundries like soap, cigarettes, gum, chocolate bars, powdered milk, canned fish, meat, cheese, raisins, and canned butter during their captivity ... the first to come their way are received just before Christmas of 1944) For entertainment, the men watch the American air strikes on nearby Japanese targets, race various forms of vermin, and talk constantly of food (Zamperini will be a favorite of all the American captives for his descriptive ways of talking about his mother's Italian recipes).
Entrance To Ofuna
In February of 1945, the Tang survivors are transferred to the Omari POW camp located on a small island in Tokyo Bay (the camp is connected to the mainland by a small causeway built by American prisoners in 1943) where they are housed in a single building and subsist on barley, rice, an occasional piece of fish and a small bowl of watery soup provided three times a day (they also pick through the garbage nearby for fish heads and scraps of vegetables, so hungry that they actually discuss killing and eating an old dog before voting down the idea). And at Omari, they also face the daily wrath of Sergeant Mutsuhiro "The Bird" Watanabe (an infamous guard that will be deemed a war criminal by General Douglas MacArthur for the tortures he inflicts on American captives like Zamperini). Almost walking skeletons (as an example, Narowanski will only weigh 100 pounds when the war ends), the group eventually wakes up to a glorious day in which all the guards save one are gone as the war comes to an end. For two weeks the prisoners at Omari take over running the camp as overhead daily, American planes drop food, clothing, and other supplies to the men. All nine men and the rest of the American captives are finally liberated when an American cruiser arrives. Adding yet another honor to the history of the Tang and the leadership of O'Kane, despite the punishing circumstances of their captivity, none of the nine will ever provide the Japanese with any information that can be used against Allied forces or their fellow POWs.
Omari POW Camp - Barracks Are The Dark
Rectangles At The Left
Watanabe
Celebrating Liberation - Clay Decker
Is The Circled Figure In The Bottom Row
This Guy!
Already the #1 American submarine of the war in ships (33) and tonnage sunk (116,454), and holder of the most successful single patrol of the war (10 ships worth 39,100 tonnage) according to the Joint Army-Navy Assessment Committee of the United States (JANAC), the conduct of the nine survivors of
the sinking of the Tang does nothing but add further luster to the legendary fighting ship's illustrious record (by war's end the Tang will hold four battle stars and two Presidential Unit Citations).
*Upon arriving back in the United States, Motor Machinist Mate Clayton O. Decker will be awarded a Silver Star, a Purple Heart, and a POW Medal, but also discovers that thinking him dead, his wife has married again. Returning to his home state of Colorado, he will marry Anne Reinecker in 1947 (the couple will have a son and a daughter), spend 15 years as a district supervisor with Skelly Oil, before starting his own company, Decker Disposal before retiring in 1986. He dies at the age of 82 on the Memorial Day weekend of 2003 (his second wife will pass in 2007).
Anne & Clay
*The track-and-field runner from Lafayette College, Lt. Commander Lawrence Savadkin will receive a Navy Cross and a POW Medal upon returning home and spend 31 years in the Navy and retire as a captain. He passes away in Snohomish County, Washington in 2007 at the age of 86.
Savadkin
*Lt. (jg) Henry J. Flanagan will receive his second Silver Star of the war and a POW Medal before passing away after his return to the States.
*Minnesota Radio Technician Floyd "Friar Tuck" Caverly will be awarded a Silver Star and a POW Medal upon the war's conclusion. Though he remains in the Navy until 1960, retiring as a Chief Petty Officer, he settles in Oregon where with his bride of 28 years, Betty Louise Day Caverly, he brings up their two children, Mary Ann and Richard. He dies in February of 2011 in Oregon at the age of 93 and is buried at the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California.
Caverly
*California Chief Boatswain's Mate William "Boats" Leibold returns to his home state where he finds his high school sweetheart and wife, Grace, waiting for him, despite being told the Navy believed him dead (they will raise three children, Bill Jr., Erika, and Jim in the San Diego area). Becoming a legendary figure himself, he will retire from the Navy in June of 1970 after thirty years of service with the rank of Commander having experienced a career that after the war included becoming a diving expert, testifying in Japan to some of the war crimes he survived (and helping square away the first post-war Japanese submarine), serving aboard the USS Florikan (ASR-9) and the USS Pruitt (DD-347), captaining the Chanticleer-class Submarine Rescue Ships USS Coucal (ASR-8) from April of 1959 to July of 1961, USS Greenlet (ASR-10) from July of 1963 to July of 1965, commanding the Navy's Experimental Diving Unit, working on the Navy's Deep Submergence Submarine Rescue Project, and helping form the Navy's first SEAL Teams in 1962. Upon retirement, his medals and commendations include a Silver Star, a Navy and Marine Corps Medal, a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, two Presidential Unit citations, a POW Medal, a WWII Victory Medal, a Navy Occupation Service Medal, and a National Defense Service Medal. The last of the Tang crew to go on eternal patrol, he passes away in March of 2023 at the age of 98, just three weeks short of his 99th birthday. Back to the sea once more, he is cremated and has his ashes scattered by the Navy off the shores of San Diego.
Leibold
*Angeleno Motor Machinist Mate Jesse Borges Da Silva receives a Silver Star and a POW Medal upon his return to California. In 1946 he leaves the Navy and spends the rest of his life in Los Angeles with his wife Joyce as a press supervisor for the Los Angeles Times. He dies at the age of 73 in September of 1998 and is buried in Whittier, California's Rose Hills Memorial Park.
Da Silva
*Torpedoman's Mate Hayes Oliver Trukke from Flagstaff, Arizona will receive a Silver Star and a POW Medal after being liberated. After the war he remains in the Navy, serving on the shore patrol of the San Diego Naval Base before retiring and joining the Los Angeles Police Department. He marries twice (Wanda Cleo and Mildred Mae) upon his return to Los Angeles and dies in a drowning accident in Riverside, California at the age of 55 in June of 1981. He is buried at the Riverside National Cemetery.
Trukke Tombstone
*Baltimore, Maryland Torpedoman's Mate Peter Narowanski gets a Silver Star and POW Medal (he also is missing several of his teeth, gone as a result of the multiple beatings his Japanese hosts give him during his months of captivity) and leaves the Navy when his enlistment time runs out in 1946. Returning to Baltimore he goes to work for the AIA Corporation. He dies in the city of his birth in February of 1994 at the age of 76.
Silver Star
As for the ninth Tang survivor, rescue reaches Commander O'Kane just in the nick-of-time. A walking skeleton of only 88 pounds as a result of beatings, malnutrition, dysentery, jaundice, and a life threatening fever, the submariner collapses shortly after American help arrives at the camp. Placed in a stateroom on the Navy hospital ship USS Benevolence (AH-13), O'Kane drifts in and out of consciousness and doctors give the commander only a 50-50 chance of surviving. Helped along by an iron will and the support of a number of American medical teams though, and the presence of his wife, over a period of several months in which he journeys from Tokyo Bay to Pearl Harbor before finally arriving back in San Diego he slowly regains his strength and is ready to report back to duty before the year 1946 comes to a conclusion. On March 27, 1946, in a ceremony that takes place on the White House lawn, O'Kane rightfully receives America's highest military award, the Congressional Medal of Honor (also so honored is U.S. Army Master Sergeant Charles L. Mcgaha for the heroism he shows on February 7, 1945 in the Philippines during the Battle of Luzon), for guiding the Tang's last patrol with "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" (the medal is kept at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park in Honolulu, Hawaii).
Freshly Rescued - Pappy Boyington (With Mustache)
And O'Kane At Center
About To Pass Out
Road To Recovery
Medal of Honor
Postwar, in April of 1946 O'Kane joins the Staff of Commander Mare Island Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, while also holding down the additional duty of being the commanding officer of the Griffin-class submarine tender USS Pelias. During this time period until July of 1948, the submarine skipper also attends and testifies at war crimes trials taking place in Tokyo, Japan. His next assignment is to serve as the Executive Officer of the San Diego based Fulton-class submarine tender USS Nereus (AS-17). In August of 1949, O'Kane becomes the commander of Submarine Division Thirty-Two. He also becomes a formal student again, attending the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia from August 1950 to January 1951, then goes on to instruct a command class at the Navy's New London, Connecticut Submarine School before moving up to Assistant Officer in charge of the school and then in July of 1952 being promoted to the rank of Captain and being put in charge of the entire school. From those postings, he moves back into commanding a vessel, the Fulton-class submarine tender USS Sperry from August 1953 to June 1954, before serving as the commander of Submarine Squadron Seven, operating out of Pearl Harbor. In 1955, O'Kane is at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island before being assigned to the Ship Characteristics Board, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington D.C. It is his last stop within the Navy's hierarchy and effective July 1, 1957, O'Kane retires and due to his history and combat awards, is advanced to the retirement rank of Rear Admiral. His most fulfilling moment of his postwar years though comes on June 19, 1951 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine when he is on hand with his daughter Marsha to watch the first in a new line of American submarines launched with the breaking of a bottle of champagne on her bow by his wife, Ernestine ... the second ship in the U.S. Navy's history to bear the name, USS Tang (SS-563).
Postwar, in April of 1946 O'Kane joins the Staff of Commander Mare Island Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet, while also holding down the additional duty of being the commanding officer of the Griffin-class submarine tender USS Pelias. During this time period until July of 1948, the submarine skipper also attends and testifies at war crimes trials taking place in Tokyo, Japan. His next assignment is to serve as the Executive Officer of the San Diego based Fulton-class submarine tender USS Nereus (AS-17). In August of 1949, O'Kane becomes the commander of Submarine Division Thirty-Two. He also becomes a formal student again, attending the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia from August 1950 to January 1951, then goes on to instruct a command class at the Navy's New London, Connecticut Submarine School before moving up to Assistant Officer in charge of the school and then in July of 1952 being promoted to the rank of Captain and being put in charge of the entire school. From those postings, he moves back into commanding a vessel, the Fulton-class submarine tender USS Sperry from August 1953 to June 1954, before serving as the commander of Submarine Squadron Seven, operating out of Pearl Harbor. In 1955, O'Kane is at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island before being assigned to the Ship Characteristics Board, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department, Washington D.C. It is his last stop within the Navy's hierarchy and effective July 1, 1957, O'Kane retires and due to his history and combat awards, is advanced to the retirement rank of Rear Admiral. His most fulfilling moment of his postwar years though comes on June 19, 1951 at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine when he is on hand with his daughter Marsha to watch the first in a new line of American submarines launched with the breaking of a bottle of champagne on her bow by his wife, Ernestine ... the second ship in the U.S. Navy's history to bear the name, USS Tang (SS-563).
At The Launching Party - Front Row L To R - Ceremony Maid Of
Honor Marsha O'Kane, Official Sponsor Ernestine O'Kane, And Commander
O'Kane
Ernestine Christians The Second Tang
Out of the Navy after three decades of service, O'Kane will work for the Great Lakes Carbon Corporation of New York, before moving to Sebastopol, California in 1960 to try his hand at ranching by buying the Red Hill Horse Ranch. There, far from faulty torpedoes, firing deck guns, and exploding depth charges, the commander will write two books about his WWII experiences, 1977's "Clear the Bridge! The War Patrols of the USS Tang" and 1987's "Wahoo: The Patrols of America's Most Famous WWII Submarine." Sadly, in later life he suffers from Alzheimer's disease and has to be placed in a Petaluma, California nursing home where he passes away as a result of a bout of pneumonia on February 16, 1994 at the age of 83 (he is survived by his wife of 57 years and his son and daughter). The greatest American submariner of WWII, responsible for launching the torpedoes on the Wahoo that sink 15 Japanese vessels and the Tang torpedoes that sink 31 more ships (46 downed ships on only seven patrols), O'Kane goes to his rest at the Arlington National Cemetery with a cornucopia of medals, awards, insignia, and commendations that mark the mettle of the man: The Submarine Warfare insignia, the Congressional Medal of Honor, three Navy Crosses, three Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit with a Combat "V" Valor device, a Purple Heart, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with a Combat "V" Valor device, a Combat Action Ribbon, three United States Navy Presidential Unit Citations (one with the Wahoo and two with the Tang), a Prisoner of War Medal, an American Defense Service Medal with one service star, an American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 9 service stars, a World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, a Philippines Liberation Medal with two service stars, and Submarine Combat Patrol insignia.
Tang & Wahoo Books
Submarine Warfare Insignia
Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia
At Arlington
Both the Wahoo and Tang, along with their commanders, Morton and O'Kane, and the crews of both submarines on eternal patrol now, their contributions to America's war efforts in the Pacific still are remembered. During the war, 263 American submarines will go out on war patrols, claiming 1,392 ships sunk with a total tonnage 5,583,400. Of those totals, after post war adjustments, the Wahoo will rank #23 in tonnage (60,038) and #7 in ships sunk (20), with Morton considered the third most successful submarine commander of the war, while the Tang will be #1 in both categories as noted earlier, playing major roles in destroying the Japanese economy, and as the Cabinet of Japan will report to the National Diet, providing "the greatest cause of defeat was the loss of shipping," The victory comes at a heavy cost though as 52 subs are lost, along with 375 officers and 3,131 enlisted men (one in five sailors that serve in the Silent Service during the war, or 22% of the 16,000 men that fight in subs during the war, making submarine service one of the highest casualty percentages of American armed forces during the war. Gone but not forgotten, beyond the books, magazines, documentaries, and Internet sites, the seamen of this story are also honored by the 1958 launching of the Forrest Sherman-class destroyer, USS Morton (DD-948) named after Mush, and the 1998 launching of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, USS O'Kane (DDG-77), named after the Medal of Honor winner. Other remembrances are a building at the the New London submarine school being named after Morton, the Kentucky Historical Highway putting up markers honoring Morton and the Wahoo in front of the Nortonville Municipal Building and Library, and a submarine memorial being unveiled in Owensboro, Kentucky (Morton's birthplace) in 1994. And on the O'Kane side of the ledger, the United States Naval Sea Cadets has an O'Kane Division, there is a plaque honoring both the Tang and Wahoo, and other subs lost in the war, at Bowfin Park in Hawaii, there will be oil paintings of O'Kane produced by artists John Meeks and Commander Albert K. Murray, both submarines are honored at the Seal Beach, California World War Two Submarine Memorial, and at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana there will be an interactive exhibit called "Final Mission: USS Tang Submarine Experience, that allows visitors (27 per patrol) to experience, as one of the members of her crew, the death of the Tang.
USS Morton
O'Kane Portrait
Tang Exhibit
And then there is the legendary O'Kane cribbage board (there is a long tradition of playing the game in the Navy, and it is believed that Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson partakes of a game or two on a bone board before his epic victory over a French and Spanish fleet at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805). On the Wahoo's first patrol into the shallow Yellow Sea, to pass the time while moving into the sub's patrol area, and to give the crew something to think about beyond the dangers they will soon be facing, O'Kane breaks out his cribbage board and he and Morton begin playing. During their game, Morton deals O'Kane a perfect hand of 29 (a jack that is the same suit as the cut card, three fives, and a cut card that is also a five ... a hand that has a 1 in 216,580 odds of being dealt) which is deemed to be an omen of good luck by the crew when the next day the Wahoo sinks two freighters. Then, when a few days later Morton deals his XO a 28, the second best hand in cribbage (all four fives and any cut card with a value of 10 ... a hand that has a 1 in 170,984 odds of being dealt) and the sub has another successful freighter sinking (an unhappy Morton vows never to play cribbage with O'Kane again ... signed by the crew of the Wahoo, the famous deck of cards can be seen at the Bowfin Submarine Museum in Pearl Harbor). When O'Kane leaves the Wahoo to take command of the Tang, the lucky cribbage board finds itself aboard the #1 American submarine of the war. It is lost on October 25, 1944 when the submarine sinks itself with it's own torpedo ... a loss that is until it is replaced by another cribbage board presented by the crew of the second USS Tang (SS-563) to Rear Admiral O'Kane on the occasion of his retirement from the Navy in 1957. Wanting her husband's memory to live on upon his death in 1994, O"Kane's wife Ernestine gives the board to the ward room of oldest attack submarine in the fleet at the time, the USS Kamehameha, and a tradition is born in which the board is passed on to the next oldest sub when the vessel keeper is decommissioned in a formal ceremony that includes the XOs and commanders playing each other. To date, the O'Kane cribbage board has moved from the Kamehameha to the USS Parche (April 2, 2002), to the USS Los Angeles (October 19, 2004), to the USS Bremerton (February 4, 2011), to the USS Olympia (May 21, 2018), to the USS Chicago (October 29, 2019), to where it currently resides on the USS Key West (July 25, 2023).
O'Kane & Morton
The Commanders Of The Bremerton And The Olympia
Exchange The O'Kane Cribbage Board
Gone but hopefully never forgotten by the country they served, an era of glory and tragedy ends with Commander O'Kane death (and the subsequent deaths of the balance of the nine Tang survivors) on February 16, 1994 ... sailors, rest your oars! The Wahoo crew: Floyd Anders, Joseph Andrews, Robert Bailey, Arthur Bair, Jimmie Berg, Donald Brown, Chester Browning, Clifford Bruce, James Buckley, William Burgan, John Campbell, William Carr, James Carter, William Davison, Lynwood Deaton, James Erdey, Eugene Fiedler, Oscar Finklestein, Walter Galli, Cecil Garmon, George Garrett Jr., Wesley Gerlacher, Richard Goss, Hiram Greene, William Hand, Leon Hartman, Dean Hayes, Richie Henderson, William Holmes, Van House, Howard Howe, Olin Jacobs, Robert Jasa, Juan Jayson, Kindred Johnson, Dalton Keeter, Wendell Kemp, Paul Kessock, Eugene Kirk, Paul Krebs, Arthur Lape, Clarence Lindemann, Robert Logue, Walter Lynch, Stuart MacAlman, Thomas MacGowan, Albert Magyar, Paul Mandjiak, Jesus Manalisay, Edward Massa, Ernest Maulding, George Maulding, Thomas McGill Jr., Howard McGilton, Donald McSpadden, Max Mills, George Misch, Dudley Walker Morton, Percy Neel, Forest O'Brien, Roy O'Neal, Edwin Ostrander, Paul Phillips, Juano Rennels, Henry Renno, Enoch Seal Jr., Alfred Simonetti, Verne Skjonsby, Donald Smith, George Stevens, William Terrell, William Thomas, Ralph Tyler, Joe Vidick, Ludwig Wach, Wilbur Waldron, Norman Ware, Kenneth Whipp, William White, and Roy Witting. Some of the Wahoo's crew ...
Wahoo
Torpedoman's Mate, Third Class
Oscar Finklestein
Wahoo
Gunner's Mate, First Class
Wendell Wayne Kemp
Wahoo
Fireman, First Class
Arthur Delno Lape
Wahoo
Steward, Third ClassJesus Chargualaf Manalisay
Wahoo
Yeoman, Second ClassWilliam Thomas White
Wahoo
Electrician's Mate, First Class
Forest Lee O'BrienThe Tang crew other than the nine: John Accardy, Ralph Adams, Dwayne Allen, Phillip Anderson, Charles Andriolo, Homer Anthony, William Ballinger, Edwin Bauer, Edward Beaumont, Edwin Bergman, Frederick Bisogno, Wilford Boucher, Bernard Bresette, John Bush, Benjamin Chiavetta, Walter Clark, Robert Coffin, James Culp, Arthur Darienzo, Marvin DeLapp, William Dorsey, Fred Enos Jr., Lawrence Ericksen, Daniel Felicetty, Bruce Finckbone, John Fluker, John Foster, William Galloway, Thomas Gentle, George Gorab Jr., Osmer Gregg, Howard Hainline, Frank Harms, Glen Haws, John Henry, John Heubeck, Albert Hudson, Homer Ijames Jr., Stewart Imwold, Donald Jenkins, Sidney Jones, Louis Kaiser, John Kanagy, John Kassube, John Key, Ralph Knapp, Richard Kroth, Leroy Lane, Paul Larson, Robert Lee, Lindley Llewellyn, Charles London, Chester Loveless, Ellroy Lytton, Robert McMorrow, John McNabb, John Parker, Basil Pearce Jr., Rubin Raiford, Francis Reabuck, Darrel Rector, Ernest Reinhardt, James Roberts, George Robertson, Seymour Smith Jr., Frank Springer, Edward Stepien, Fred Sunday, Paul Vaughn Jr., Charles Wadsworth, Howard Walker, Leland Weekley, Robert Welch, James White, Walter Williams, Paul Wines, George Wukovich, and George Zofcin. Some of the Wahoo's crew ...
Tang
Quartermaster
Robert Edward Welch
Tang
Gunner's Mate, First Class
James Milton White
Tang
Ship's Cook, Third Class
John Andrew Key
Tang
Steward, Third Class
Howard Madison Walker
Tang
Motor Machinist Mate
Louis C. Kaiser
Tang
Chief Pharmacist Mate
Paul Lewis Larson
Thank you all for your service and a job well done ... rest in peace!
October, 1944
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