Calvert relates his experience in the Pacific as a submariner. ( )

Calvert, skipper of the Skate, the first submarine to surface at the North Pole, and third person chosen by Admiral Rickover to command a nuclear submarine, describes his Annapolis studies and eventual choice of submarine duty as his service during World War II. He is uncommonly forthright in this memoir, describing his terror and mistakes on what would become nine combat patrols: eight on the U.S.S.Jack and the last on the Hado.

He was very lucky. He had some excellent skippers, the first being Tommy Dykers, from whom he learned a great deal, and he had a very forgiving Captain Warder, (later Admiral) who saved him from making a serious career move late in the war. After eight combat patrols, Calvert decided he wanted to become a naval aviator, and he went through all the tests and physical examinations in preparation to be sent back to the states for retraining. He had accumulated all the necessary endorsements except from Warder who was commander of the task force Calvert’s sub was assigned to. Warder, saying that Calvert would thank him for it later, tore up all the paperwork with little explanation. It turned out to be a very smart career event for Calvert. Had he returned to Pensacola for retraining, his career as a naval officer would have hit a dead end because the war ended soon thereafter and there were hundreds of flyers whom the navy had no room for. Instead, he ended the war as the exec on an active sub. The submarine force had lost more than twenty-five percent of its officers and men, so his future was much more secure.

Calvert was with the Jack from the beginning, and coupled with some rigorous training and an obvious talent, he became a superb TDC operator. (The TDC operator set the torpedo’s course based on the approach officer’s readings.) On their first patrol in June 1943, the Jack had five hits and four confirmed kills, despite problems with the dreaded HOR engines, which were a constant nuisance always breaking down, and faulty torpedoes detonators. The sub continued to take its toll on enemy shipping. At one point, Calvert hit an enemy vessel at 5,000 yards, roughly three times the maximum distance recommended for accurate torpedo shooting. A Japanese admiral radioed for assistance during one attack, claiming he was under attack by a wolf pack when it was only the Jack earning for the sub the nickname, "Jack the Pack."

Calvert’s last mission was to Tokyo Bay, but the surrender was announced as they were on their way there. Because there had been some attacks on ships by Japanese forces even after the stand down announcement, they received a message from Admiral Halsey to shoot down any Japanese planes they saw “in a friendly fashion.” Once in Tokyo Bay, they tied up with hundreds of other allied ships. It was here that Calvert and some other officers of his crew almost caused an international incident. They had been given permission to leave the sub and visit the Japanese submarine base, but they had been given explicit verbal and written orders not to leave the base. Seeing a large hole in the wall around the sub base, they decided to take a trip in to Tokyo, so they hopped aboard a train. They were fortunate to find a friendly railroad guide in the Tokyo station who agreed to show them around the city. He warned them several times of remaining together and not to go certain places, because many of the Japanese troops were considering disobeying the Emperor’s surrender and had said they would continue to defend the homeland. When they returned, they were met by an angry MP colonel who placed them all under arrest and promised swift courts-martial. Calvert’s luck held, and his old mentor got him off the hook. There would be no charges. The formal surrender took place the next day, and they sailed for home.

Calvert relates his memoirs with sensitivity and great affection for his shipmates — the scene when he desperately tries to see the chief-of-the-boat following a terrible car accident is truly poignant. He combines an intimate knowledge of the nitty-gritty technical details of submarine warfare with the fast-paced action and nail-biting tension that Tom Clancy will never be able to duplicate (having never been there). He recounts the perilous nighttime cat-and-mouse games that Dykers played with convoy escorts, accompanied on the bridge by a crewman renowned for his night vision—and the disconcerting habit of singing "Nearer My God to Thee" whenever the situation got tense. He was only 24 at the end of the war, and retired as an admiral many years later.

( )