Richard O'Kane

The last torpedo USS Tang ever fired came back for her.

On the night of 24 October 1944, in the Formosa Strait, Commander Richard Hetherington O'Kane had just torn a Japanese convoy apart when his submarine's final weapon broached, curved hard to port, and began running a circle back toward the boat that had launched it. Tang went down in minutes. Nine men survived. O'Kane was one of them, and the two nights of fighting that came before that moment earned him the Medal of Honor.

He is still the most successful American submarine commander of the Second World War.

From Dover to the submarine force

Richard O'Kane was born in Dover, New Hampshire on 2 February 1911 and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in May 1934. He served in the cruiser USS Chester and the destroyer USS Pruitt, took submarine instruction in 1938, and was serving aboard the submarine USS Argonaut through the tense months before Pearl Harbor. That pre war service is what the American Defense Service Medal on his rack represents.

Learning the trade in USS Wahoo

O'Kane joined the pre commissioning crew of USS Wahoo as executive officer under Commander Dudley "Mush" Morton, the most aggressive skipper in the Pacific submarine force. Morton handed him the periscope during attacks, a job most captains kept for themselves. It was an extraordinary vote of confidence, and O'Kane repaid it.

Three Silver Stars came out of those patrols, for actions from 16 January to 7 February 1943, from 23 February to 6 April 1943, and from 25 April to 21 May 1943. The Secretary of the Navy also commended him in writing for that service, an award his ribbon bar carries as the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat V. He left Wahoo after her fifth patrol, trained by a master and ready for a boat of his own.

Command of USS Tang

USS Tang was commissioned in October 1943 with O'Kane in command, and he took her through every one of her five war patrols. Three Navy Crosses followed, for the patrol beginning 22 January 1944, for 8 June to 14 July 1944, and for 31 July to 3 September 1944.

Not every honour came from sinking ships. For the patrol of 16 March to 14 May 1944 he received the Legion of Merit with Combat V. On that patrol Tang stood lifeguard duty during the carrier strikes on Truk and pulled 22 downed American airmen out of the water, one of the most celebrated rescues of the Pacific War. Ten war patrols in that theatre, five in Wahoo and five in Tang, stand behind his Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal.

Two nights in the Formosa Strait

On 23 and 24 October 1944, on Tang's fifth and last patrol, O'Kane attacked two heavily escorted convoys on the surface, at night, from inside the formation. His Medal of Honor citation records what that looked like:

"Boldly maneuvering on the surface into the midst of a heavily escorted convoy, Comdr. 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."

Twenty four hours later he found a second convoy carrying reinforcements to the Philippines and went in again, firing at ranges under 1,000 yards while enemy ships bore down from every side. The citation ends with the circling torpedo left unspoken but its result plain: "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."

Prisoner of the Japanese

O'Kane and the other survivors were picked up by a Japanese escort and held in secret for roughly ten months, first at the Ofuna interrogation centre and then at Omori. He was liberated in 1945 weighing a fraction of his normal weight, suffering from beriberi and scurvy. His Prisoner of War Medal marks that captivity.

President Harry S. Truman presented him the Medal of Honor at the White House on 27 March 1946.

After the war

O'Kane did not leave the Navy. He commanded USS Pelias, served as executive officer of USS Nereus, led Submarine Division Thirty Two, and taught and then ran the Submarine School at New London. Promoted Captain in July 1953, he commanded the submarine tender USS Sperry and then Submarine Squadron Seven. He retired in July 1957 and was advanced to Rear Admiral on the Retired List on the strength of his combat awards.

He later wrote two of the finest first hand accounts of the submarine war, Clear the Bridge! on Tang and Wahoo on the boat that taught him. Richard O'Kane died on 16 February 1994 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 59, Site 874.

The name still goes to sea

The Navy commissioned the guided missile destroyer USS O'Kane (DDG-77) at Pearl Harbor on 23 October 1999, fifty five years to the day after his final battle began. Her motto is "A Tradition of Honor."