![]() The next morning, the Tang was at periscope level on its way to Turnabout Island when radar identified another heavily escorted enemy convoy. O'Kane ordered the sub to fire its remaining torpedoes on two of the ships, a move that sank one and helped the Tang get away. The Tang then raced toward the open ocean to escape the rest of the convoy's wrath. Soon after, the Tang fired four shots at the tanker and sank it. That caused the transport to swing around to avoid hitting one of its own tankers, which was also trying to ram the Tang. The sub didn't have room to dive, so O'Kane ordered it to whip around. submariners of the war however, it was his ship's fifth and final patrol that cemented his place in history.Īs the Tang readied itself to fire on one of the tankers, O'Kane noticed the transport coming toward them at ramming speed. The Tang was retrofitted and overhauled in the summer of 1944, but it was back in action by September when it sank two Japanese cargo ships.īy this time, O'Kane was already considered one of the most successful U.S. aviators, whom the Tang then shuttled more than 3,000 miles back to Pearl Harbor - a feat O'Kane made possible by cutting both crew and aviator ration in half for the trip, O'Kane's Washington Post obituary said. Over the next several months, the Tang sank several enemy ships and earned a Presidential Unit Citation. He served on five patrols with the Wahoo before taking command of the newly commissioned USS Tang, which began its first patrol in January 1944. ![]() entered World War II, the USS Wahoo was launched, and O'Kane was chosen as its executive officer. O'Kane spent the next few years on surface ships before becoming a submariner and serving a four-year stint on the USS Argonaut.
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