• Gato Class Submarine
• Keel laid: March 6, 1942, at Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, ME
• Launched: July 20, 1942
• Commissioned: September 18, 1942
• Displacement: 1,526 tons surfaced; 2,410 tons submerged
• Length: 311′ 8″
• Beam: 27′ 4″
• Operating depth: 300′
• Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
• Armament: ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine guns

Scamp set out on her eighth war patrol on 16 October. She fueled at Midway Island on 20 October, then set course for the Bonin Islands. On 9 November, she acknowledged a message changing her patrol area. She reported her position to be about 150 miles (280 km) north of the Bonin Islands with all 24 torpedoes aboard and 77,000 US gallons of fuel remaining. On 14 November, she was ordered to take up the life guard station off Tokyo Bay in support of B-29 Superfortress bomber strikes, but failed to acknowledge the message. Scamp was never heard from again. From records available after the war, it appears that Scamp was sighted by Japanese planes and reported depth charged by a coast defense vessel to the south of Tokyo Bay on 11 November 1944. Scamp was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 28 April 1945.

Naval Historical Center

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Jack Treutle.

Is anyone else like me and scratching your head at the post-election analysis? “This election was not about bringing in ideas more representative of the mainstream, it’s about making a statement of disapproval for the [war, economy, etc.].”, “This election was not about issues it was about getting rid of those the voters are happy with.”

The mentality of the “average voter” never ceases to amaze. They have the attention span of a 3 year old with a sugar rush. What in the world does anyone think they will accomplish by throwing out the old just because you don’t like it? What about bringing in that which you stand for? Anyone that’s looked at the two major parties from a general perspective can see that they are pretty much the same. Sure specific platforms are markedly different on some issues, but isn’t that more of a “political” distinction rather than any real difference in core beliefs. I say that neither of the two major parties represent the majority any better than the other. Fundamentally they are both appealing to “get the vote” rather than standing on a belief system.

Maybe this is cynicism, but not matter how much the incoming promises to clean house, they will be JUST LIKE the last guys that promised to clean house. They are the same. The special interest lobbyists are really the ones in power, they make the calls, they put the candidate in office, they can replace them with another. In a few years, maybe 2, maybe the voters will throw them out and bring the other party in. It’s just one big cycle where not much really changes except the names.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the system. I think the problem is not in the politician, it’s in the voters. When will they (you and me) understand we’re the ones that are broke. We have a choice and we can make the change. The ones WE put in office are only the result of the problem.

• Gato Class Submarine
• Keel laid: February 10, 1941, at the Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT
• Launched: November 22, 1941
• Commissioned: March 20, 1942
• Displacement: 1,526 tons surfaced; 2,424 tons submerged
• Length: 311′ 9″
• Beam: 27′ 3″
• Operating depth: 300′
• Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
• Armament: ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine guns

February 7, 1943 when GROWLER stealthily approached a gunboat for a night surface attack. The small fast ship suddenly turned to ram, Comdr. Gilmore then took the only move to save his ship; he brought GROWLER left full rudder and rammed the enemy amidships at 17 knots. Machine gun fire raked the bridge at point blank range. The courageous sub seemed lost. Comdr. Gilmore cleared the bridge except for himself. Desperately wounded, he realized that he could not get below in time if his ship were to be saved. “Take her down” he ordered; and, as he floated in the sea, he wrote another stirring tale of inspirational naval history. For his heroic sacrifice to ship and crew, Comdr. Gilmore was awarded the Medal of Honor, one of six submariners to receive this medal of valor.

Lost in this 7 Feb 43 engagement: CDR Howard Gilmore, F1 W. F. Kelley, ENS W. W. William

GROWLER’s 11th and final war patrol began out of Fremantle 20 October in a wolfpack with HAKE and HARDHEAD. On 8 November the wolfpack, headed by GROWLER, closed a convoy for attack, with GROWLER on the opposite side of the enemy from HAKE and HARDHEAD. The order to commence attacking was the last communication ever received from GROWLER. After the attack was underway, HAKE and HARDHEAD heard what sounded like a torpedo explosion and then a series of depth charges on GROWLER’s side of the convoy, and then nothing. All efforts to contact GROWLER for the next 3 days proved futile, and the gallant submarine, veteran of seven successful war patrols, was listed as lost in action against the enemy, cause unknown.

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Mike Smolinski.

Times drags, time flies. What is it that causes me to become to involved or dis-involved in my surroundings that can make time move at either a snails pace or fly by so fast I simply don’t have time for all I am trying to get done?

Today is one of those work days. I look down at my watch and it’s only 2:10, it felt like at least 7 or 8 o’clock. What’s up with that?

• Gato Class Submarine
• Keel laid: April 21, 1941, at the Electric Boat Co., Groton, CT
• Launched: February 17, 1942
• Commissioned: June 1, 1942
• Displacement: 1,526 tons surfaced; 2,424 tons submerged
• Length: 311′ 9″
• Beam: 27′ 3″
• Operating depth: 300′
• Complement: 6 officers, 54 enlisted
• Armament: ten 21″ torpedo tubes, six forward, four aft, 24 torpedoes, one 3″/50 deck gun, two .50 cal. machine guns, two .30 cal. machine guns

Albacore left Pearl Harbor on 24 October 1944, topped off her fuel tanks at Midway on 28 October, and was never heard from again. According to Japanese records captured after the war, a submarine assumed to be Albacore struck a mine very close to the shore off northeastern Hokkaido on 7 November. A Japanese patrol boat witnessed the explosion of a submerged submarine and saw a great deal of heavy oil, cork, bedding, and food supplies rise to the surface. On 21 December, Albacore was assumed to have been lost. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 30 March 1945.

Albacore won nine battle stars for her service and the Presidential Unit Citation for her second, third, eighth, and ninth patrols during World War II.

Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet

Patch(es) were obtained from:
NavSource Online (Submarine Photo Archive).
Originally contributed by Mike Smolinski.

Today commemorates 6 months of blogging. As I suspected would happen, my proclivity to blog almost daily has waned with time and other interests grabbing my attention. My desire has not diminished in the least and topics, or should I call them ramblings, are no more difficult to procure. The problem, if you’d call it that, is simply one of time management/interests.

I had hoped for a greater number of comments to my posts but I realize that of the many blogs I have perused, I have felt an urge to post only a miniscule number of comments. Additionally in the scheme of international, national, local and even just my little world I really don’t have anything important to say.

Here’s to my little world of banter made available to the estimated 1 billion privileged people that have some access to the Internet.