Bo Kendrick-Holmes’s Reviews > Clear the Bridge!: The War Patrols of the U.S.S. Tang > Status Update

“But what is doctrine anyway? I believe it is a set of procedures, established through experience, that provides a guide. But doctrine should be flexible, never rigid, for circumstances often dictate complete departures.”

Tang’s first mission of her first patrol was to pull lifeguard duty for 2 bomber strikes of Wake Island. It went off without a hitch.

“I’m sure the Navy’s doctors knew what constituted a balanced diet, but they had misjudged what a submariner would eat by a mile. On patrol it had turned out to be about twice the quantity of baked goods”

Tang did a training patrol off the coast of Mexico without the Commodore’s knowledge. When he exclaimed that they could have caused an international incident if sighted, O’Kane replied, “Sir, if Tang can’t avoid the Mexican fishing fleet she doesn’t have any business going on patrol.”

“In time of peace I might have accepted the stipulated test depth of 438 feet, but knowing that there would be destroyers overhead dropping depth charges and that extra depth could mean survival, establishing a maximum depth closer to the hull’s true capability seemed in order.” The crew conducted controlled deep dives and repaired leaky components. The final test depth was 612 feet.

Tang would use Wahoo’s unique firing method. This consisted of firing a series of single shots, each directed by a separate periscope bearing to hit a selected point along the side of the enemy ship. Most submarines used one firing bearing and the spread knob on the TDC to direct their torpedoes on slightly divergent tracks.

“Of all the men in our ship, Fraz (XO Lt. Murray B. Fraser Jr.) would spend the most time on his feet, but his availability would insure that exhaustion would never interfere with my carrying out my duty to put the enemy on the bottom.”

Tang was the first deep-hulled submarine in the Pacific, with O’Kane estimating it could take twice the pressure of the stipulated 438 feet.

O’Kane was the XO of USS Wahoo under CO Mush Morton for 5 war patrols before taking command of USS Tang. Of his time on Tang he writes: “In war there can be an inverse moral: Tue greater the performance, the harsher the consequence.”