| TODAY IN UNITED STATES SUBMARINE HISTORY | |
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The last radio transmission received from AMBERJACK was made on 14 February 1943. She related having been forced down the night before by two destroyers, and that she had recovered from the water and taken prisoner an enemy aviator on 13 February. She was ordered north of Latitude 6°30‘S, and told to keep hunting for Rabaul traffic. Any further discussion about her demise is pure conjecture. Seventy-three men were lost with AMBERJACK that day. She was the tenth U.S. submarine loss of World War II. USS ARGONAUT (SS-168) was sunk four months after O'Kane left to become executive officer of USS WAHOO (SS-238). That vessel, too, was sunk after O'Kane left to command his own submarine, TANG. TANG sank 33 ships total - more than any other American submarine - before O'Kane's luck ran out. The commander and other survivors were taken prisoner and spent the last ten months of the war in a prison near Tokyo, where they were subjected to beatings and a starvation diet. He weighed only 88 pounds when he was released from the Japanese prison camp. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. TANG operating against 2 enemy Japanese convoys on 23 and 24 October 1944, during her fifth and last war patrol. Boldly maneuvering on the surface into the midst of a heavily escorted convoy, Commander O'Kane stood in the fusillade of bullets and shells from all directions to launch smashing hits on 3 tankers, coolly swung his ship to fire at a freighter and, in a split-second decision, shot out of the path of an onrushing transport, missing it by inches. Boxed in by blazing tankers, a freighter, transport, and several destroyers, he blasted 2 of the tagets with his remaining torpedoes and, with pyrotechnics bursting on all sides, cleared the area. Twenty-four hours later, he again made contact with a heavily escorted convoy steaming to support the Leyte campaign with reinforcements and supplies and with crated planes piled high on each unit. In defiance of the enemy's relentless fire, he closed the concentration of ship and in quick succession sent 2 torpedoes each into the first and second transports and an adjacent tanker, finding his mark with each torpedo in a series of violent explosions at less than 1,000-yard range. With ships bearing down from all sides, he charged the enemy at high speed, exploding the tanker in a burst of flame, smashing the transport dead in the water, and blasting the destroyer with a mighty roar which rocked TANG from stem to stern. Expending his last 2 torpedoes into the remnants of a once powerful convoy before his own ship went down, Comdr. O'Kane, aided by his gallant command, achieved an illustrious record of heroism in combat, enhancing the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service. After the war, he was promoted to Captain and commanded the Submarine School in New London, CT, before retiring as a Rear Admiral and settling in California. In retirement, he wrote two books about his war experiences: "Clear the Bridge" in 1977 and "Wahoo" in 1987. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1934. He is survived by wife, Ernestine, whom he married in 1936 and who lives in Petaluma. February 2, 1911-February 16, 1994. O'Kane did not talk much about the war, including the 10 months he spent in Japanese prison camps, she said. "The hardest thing for him the rest of his life was that he came home and his men didn't,'' Mrs. O'Kane said. Mrs. O'Kane said she considered her husband a homebody, the father of her children, a man who knew how to cook. She said he did not have much interest in the medals and honors that befell him after the war. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Section 59, Grave 874. MONTPELIER performed in-port tests for the new fire control and sonar system. At-sea testing with Tactical Tomahawk final up evaluation is scheduled for March. MONTPELIER is one of four submarines in the fleet that have received the AN/BYG-1 modernization. USS BOISE (SSN-764) completed the first operational test launch of a Blk. IV Tactical Tomahawk missile using the AN/BYG-1. Both USS HAMPTON (SSN-767) and USS CONNECTICUT (SSN-21) have also received this modernization.
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