Name: USS Tang SS-306
Class/Type: Balao-class diesel electric submarine
Birthday: June 12, 1942
Died: October 24, 1944 (aged 2)
Patrols: 5
Scorecard: 33 ships sunk for 116,454 tons of shipping. Ranked #1 of most successful submarines of WW2

Tang was born in Mare Island Naval Shipyard as part of the US Navy's newly introduced 'Extended Submarine Breeding Program' put into effect after Pearl Harbor. During the first few months of the war, many submarines were going into combat pregnant as the winter breeding season had just passed when the Japanese attacked in December. This, coupled with inexperienced captains and ineffective torpedoes, resulted in heavy casualties. The navy still needed new boats however and combined the year's previous two breeding seasons into one that ran from early March through the end of September. Tang was one of the first submarines born in this new program and was quickly given to a nurse mother as her birth mother, Sculpin, was needed back on the front line. Sculpin would be sunk by enemy action a year later.

For some reason, the tender never took to Tang and the feeling seemed to be mutual. Tang was fed just enough to keep her alive but received no affection and was often bitten ruthlessly by the tender. Seeing this, the navy decided a change was in order and she was given to Clifford Hetherington-O'Kane to be raised for the war effort. It was unusual for the navy to gift a submarine to a civilian in those days but the navy had an ulterior motive. For Mrs. O'Kane was the mother of Tang's future skipper!

As a pup, Tang was described as being "small and lanky, with barely enough meat on her bones to feed a child!" But what she lacked in brawn she more than made up for in brains. She was shown to be highly intelligent and sociable, spending long hours playing with children's toys or napping next to Mrs. O'Kane as she knitted. By 4 months of age, she also became a bit mischievous, honing her stealth skills by stealing cookies from the pantry or leaving presents in the neighbor's yards! But above all, she was loyal. Loyal and very, very affectionate. Being handled by humans from such a very young age caused her to imprint upon Mrs. O'Kane and her family so when her future skipper, Dick O'Kane finally took command, she recognized him as she would a family member and was all the more protective as a result.

Submarines in general were still a new thing for the navy. Barely 4 generations prier, the US Navy had not one in its fleet and its one experiment with it (Hunley) had gone horribly wrong. Although we know now that mistreatment and abuse played a large role in Hunley's aggressiveness, the US Navy to this day does not use male submarines in its fleet. It does hold the lion's share of reproducing male submarines for breeding purposes however and often loans them out to other nations for them to breed their own submarines. Submarines today are known as much for their fierceness as they are for their gentleness and loving kind nature. But back in 1942, they were still very much a wild card. These were the early days of domestication and there was just enough trust built up between human and submarine to keep the subs in line. But these submarines could and would often lose control, going after men in the water. This was particularly true after a transport had been sunk as submarines are 10 times more likely to respond in a feeding frenzy to the smell of blood than sharks are. Their brains are wired to respond to the easy pickings. Submarines such as Pampinito, Bowfin, and Wahoo all were known to do this. Tang, despite her impressive record, proved to be the exception.

Handrearing a submarine had never been tried before and the navy really didn't know how things would turn out. Would Tang still be too aggressive to handle at times, or would the extra exposure to humans soften her too much for combat. There were some in the navy who wanted her kept off the front line altogether for fear of this unknown. Very quickly Tang answered many of their questions, filling in the gaps in this new science.

Tang was known to be a very friendly submarine, even by 1940 standards. Her relationship with Dick O'Kane can only be described as "warm and loving, like that of a sister to an older brother". She loved and respected him. Anyone he liked, she liked. And anyone he trusted, she trusted. But when it came to strangers, she was wary. And with people whom her captain was not fond of, she was downright nasty! Tang would go out of her way to ensure those people stayed well clear of her captain and actually ended up putting one man in the hospital from her aggressiveness. She calmed down a bit after that, a strict scolding by O'Kane doing the trick. But she wouldn't hesitate to show her teeth to anyone untrustworthy.

In port, Tang was a docile, big teddy bear. She hated being left behind and would often follow O'Kane around town, a feat only made possible by a submarine's natural ability to shrink themselves. No one really knows how this is done as the sub's weight becomes proportional to her new size. More recent tests have detected an increase in the submarine's EMP field upon shrinking and it is believed the extra mass entered into an energy like state around the submarine although this has not been proven yet. Tang, using this new size to her advantage, would stay with O'Kane in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. "She would either follow me into the room or if I was hitting the bar first, she would wait until I got to the hotel and then find her way in. She was very good at sneaking around but was very polite and made sure to check with the hotel desk first. Then she'd use her own key and slip in, often after I'd gone to sleep. Then she'd hit the shower to clean herself off and ensure no grime existed on her hull because I never liked smelling that in my sleep. I'd usually only know she'd come in when I heard that water running! After she'd dried off, she'd climb onto the bed and I'd pull back the covers for her. She'd crawl in, put one fin on my shoulder and take my hand in the other and fall asleep with her muzzle pressed against my hairy chest. I'd sometimes wrap my arms around her and she'd purr up a storm. She was just so lovable! You'd think she was a pet instead of a war machine!"

Once at sea, however, the kind hearted personality took a backseat and the real warrior emerged! Tang was a vicious fighter, she lived for the hunt! "Once she got the scent, you couldn't get her off it! The Japanese would try everything but she'd get 'em in the end!" The scary thing was, Tang got better with every patrol as she got more and more opportunities to practice her skills. "She was so good, I think she scared herself sometimes!" laughs Silversides, who served with Tang on her final patrol. "She just had that instinct. Some subs have it and some don't. But the ones that do are true killers! And their the ones who really make the impact felt. We'll never know how many more ships she could've sunk had she survived the war but I think her scorecard could've doubled, easily. She was just that efficient!"

Sadly, Tang like so many submarines of her time, was lost young. At the end of her fifth patrol, her 24th and final torpedo, a new Mark 18 (known for its lack of a bubbly wake) made a circular run and came back at her. O'Kane said that she was very calm, a cool headed professional that night. But while her reaction time was fast, it wasn't fast enough and the torpedo, a credit to American marksmanship, blew a hole in her stern. Tang had no control from the conning tower aft but she nonetheless kept her bow above water long enough to see O'Kane safely to a mat of floating debris. O'Kane stayed with his submarine, trying to convince her to shrink down and join him on the makeshift raft. But Tang, refused. "She knew we were going to be captured. The Japanese were quite keen to get their hands on one of our boats and see how it ticked. She wasn't about to give them the opportunity." Tang, ever the gentle giant, took a hold of O'Kane and pushed him onto the raft with her nose. Although she was bleeding grievously from her wounds, she stayed with her captain until daybreak when she gently pried his fingers off her fin as he gripped it and moved his hand to the raft. Her other fin straightened the cap on his head and brushed off the water on his dolphins, making them shine. Then after a brief inspection, she nodded. With a soft bark of farewell, she left go of the raft, disappeared beneath the surface, and drowned. She'd remained on station an incredible 8 hours after being injured.

USS Flasher, and USS Rasher were older Gato-class submarines and sunk over 100,000 tons and 99,000 tons respectively, being second and third on the list behind Tang. They both survived the war with Flasher sailing 6 patrols and Rasher, an impressive 8. Barb, fourth on the list sunk 96,000 tons but took 12 patrols to do it! Tang's final patrol, her fifth, accounted for the majority of her scorecard and the 100,000 tons and 13 ships she sunk on that patrol has been unequaled by any submarine in the US or any other nation's navy! A crowning achievement for this little lanky submarine with little meat on her bones!

But for those who knew her well, Tang's true legacy lies with her heart. "I'm not going to say she was a pet, because she wasn't. She was a fully fledged man o'war, a fighting submarine. But she was also my submarine, and she was part of my family!" O'Kane was one of the privileged few who saw Tang's true heart but there are others. Most notably, the 22 airman she rescued during her second patrol. She returned to Pearl from that having not expended a single one of her 24 torpedoes. Usually a very reserved submarine on patrol as she was 'in the zone' as submariners like to call it. Tang became the gentle puppy her captain knew her to be when rescuing the airman. "She was very gentle. Usually when there are people in the water she's very active. She wouldn't go after them because she knew I wouldn't approve but I could see that she wanted to. She was champing at the bit so to speak. But not this time. She minded herself carefully and showed no signs of aggression. She was cautious, careful, and I might say a bit of a mother hen to these boys. Anything they asked for, they got." This gentleness, even while on patrol proved to the navy that a submarine hand raised by humans, could be both gentle and aggressive when need be. The cooperation Tang and later submarines raised in the same way, showed with their captains proved it was viable and the Navy soon implemented a foster care system.

Today, a submarine's first commanding officer, usually her commissioning skipper, is given the task of raising the submarine from birth. Tang was just 17 months old when she was commissioned. Nuclear submarines aren't put into service any younger than 20 months old, giving them more time with their future commanders. Although most commissioning skippers don't spend more than two patrols with their submarines, they do teach crucial cooperation skills to these boats for the next set of captains to come. A valuable lesson given the service time of many submarines nowadays which can be up to 50 years!

This hand rearing system has also resulted in an upsurge of protests against scrapping. The families who raised these submarines have come to appreciate them all the more and the navy has given into their demands. Once their service time is up, submarines are decommissioned and gifted back to the families that raised them to live out their golden years. Most submarines don't live longer than 10 years after their decommissioned although a few that were decommed back in the 1990s are still alive today. White muzzled, a bit slower than they used to be, but still as sweet-hearted as ever! And none of this would ever have become possible if it weren't for a spur of the moment ingenuity and a little lanky submarine pup named Tang!