USS Catfish SS339 Home Page

For additions or corrections, contact Ron Martini who rode the boat in 1961. Email: rontini@bresnan.net

CREW LIST is at: 339 Crew Information

NEW! PHOTO ALBUM 339 Photo Albumn

OPERATION WISE TIGER
As the sun rose over the Tonkin Gulf, fishing boats ventured out onto the sparkling sea. Behind them lay the verdant coast, sharply outlined in the clear morning light. Fishermen came here regularly to cast their nets, taking advantage of the rich waters near the mouth of the Gianh River, about 40 kilometers miles north of Dong Hoi, North Vietnam's southernmost town of any note. But this was wartime, and the peaceful appearance was merely a facade. A kilometer upriver, on the south bank. lay Quang Khe naval base, home to part of Hanoi's fledgling coastal defense fleet.
On 16 May 1962. the scene looked much the same as on any other day. No one suspected that just below the surface lurked an American submarine, the U.S.S.Catfish, carefully watching the naval base. A few days earlier, the submarine had sailed from the Philippines toward the mouth of the Gianh River on a mission codenamed WISE TIGER. Remaining in international waters, the Catfish was collecting data on Hanoi's fleet. The submarine was interested in Swatow gunboats, a Chinese-made vessel that formed the backbone of the North Vietnamese navy. Measuring 83-feet long, the boat packed up to three 37mm automatic cannons, two twin 14.5mm heavy machine guns, and eight depth charges. With a crew of 30, a Swatow could travel at 28 knots and use its surface-search radar to detect incoming boats. A trio of Swatows was thought to be harbored at Quang Khe. After patient monitoring, the Catfish confirmed the presence of all three and sent word back to Manila. This was then relayed to Saigon. where the CIA was finalizing plans for a bold maritime strike against the gunboats. A story related on Ron's BBS-3-14-98: "It was in early '59. There were several boat sailors in EN "C" school and one of them was off the CATFISH. Of course we all went to chow together so one evening we're sitting there in the mess hall and this CATFISH sailor didn't have a rate badge on his undress blue jumper. Only thing on it were his dolphins and dandruff. Up walks the mess deck master at arms, a salty little seaman who had to have been in the Navy oh, 10 or 14 months. He looks at us and then he looks at me and says "you mean you're a 3rd class petty officer and you let this man come to the mess hall without a rate badge on his jumper?" to which I replies "WTF am I supposed to do? He's a 2nd class." MAA walks off shaking his head mumbling something about damn submarine sailors..............."
From:
OPERATION VULCAN--The Secret Side of Tonkin Gulf Incident
Soldier of Fortune magazine, May 2000
The following article is excepted from a new book by Ken Conboy and longtime SOF contributor Dale Andrade titled:
Spies and Commandos: How America Lost the Secret War in North Vietnam
(University Press of Kansas; 2000).

Commissioning Crew donated by Clarence Olswold

Commissioning Crew donated by Clarence Olswold

Image supplied by: William Tiffany. Circa WestPac 1959. Do you know these guys?
A picture supplied by Larry Derouin of the Catfish in the Falklands after the war.

A History 1944-1953
The keel of the Catfish was laid down January 6, 1944. The cost of building was defrayed by war bonds purchased by the people of Newton, Mass. On Nov. 19, 1944, the Catfish was launched. Mrs. John J Crowley, wife of foundry foreman of EB was sponsor, this being one of the many submarines sponsored by the employees of the building company. Mrs. Crowley was chosen by an election held by employees of the firm. The Catfish was launched on the first day of the 4th War Bond drive.
Recent email received from Jim Crowley who is Grandson of Mrs. Crowley. Lieutenant Cmdr William A Overton, USNR, assumed command when the ship was commissioned at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base, New London, CT on Mar. 19, 45.
Training occurred in the New London area, Ft. Lauderdale, Key West and Panama and then she proceeded to Pearl Harbor to arrive on Jun 29, 1945.
After intensive training she departed on patrol to effect a special mission off Kuyushu, Japan on 8 August, 1945. She arrived on station two days before hostilities ceased. Returning from patrol, Catfish stopped at Guam and then returned to the West Coast of the U.S.
The Catfish left the San Diego area for Subic Bay, Philippines with her squadron on 2 Jan, 46 going via Pearl Harbor and Guam. Shortly after her arrival at Tsengtae, China she assisted in the training of anti-submarine ships. This duty lasted until March 17, 1946. She returned to the U.S. via Shanghai and Pearl Harbor and arrived in San Diego on May 11, 46.
In the first 19 months of her service, the Catfish covered over 50,000 miles conducting operations in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
From May 46 until October 46, the Catfish conducted training operations and provided services in the San Diego area. On October 24, 46 the 339 proceeded to Portland, Or to participate in that city's Navy Day celebration. On Navy Day, Oct 27, she submerged in the Willamette River to permit the flowers placed on her deck in honor of the naval dead to float seaward with the tide.
From Oct 29, 46 until Feb 13, 47 the Catfish conducted local operations in the San Diego area. On 13 Feb, 47 the Catfish proceeded to San Francisco and upon arrival was given an inspection by Admiral Edwards and his staff. Upon completion of this material inspection, the boat proceeded to Mare Island Shipyard for a regular overhaul. The overhaul was completed June 19, 47 and the 339 returned to San Diego on 21 June 1947.
On July 7, 1947 the boat embarked on a simulated war patrol to the Western Pacific. On 21 July 1947, Neptune Rex admitted the Catfish, her Captain, 4 other officers and 3/4th of the crew into his domain.
During the sourthern swing of the patrol the ship stopped at Samoa and Ngatik Atoll. At the latter the Captain received a large sea turtle shell from the island chief as a token of friendship. The liberty party wadded ashore due to the lack of dock facilities.
The months following were devoted to operations in the San Diego area with a pause for interim docking at Terminal Island Naval Shipyard on March 8, 1948 and a special mission.
On July 20, 1948, Commander Overton, the original CO was relieved by Lt. Cmdr. CG Mendenhall who as of this writing in 2001 was still well and living in Texas.
On 29 August, 48 the Catfish completed operations in San Diego and proceeded to Mare Island for conversion to Guppy II class. The converstion required about 9 months and completely altered the external appearnace of the 339 as well as much of her interior. The boat arrived back in San Diego on 24 May, 1949. The period until October 13, 49 was devoted to furnishing services to destroyers and aircraft type training.
During the period 15 Oct 49 until 18 Nov 49, the boat participated in the joint Army-Navy-Air Force exercise Miki centering around the Hawaiian Islands and Catfish served as a member of the attacking force.
After a stay in San Diego over the holidays, the boat resumed operations in the San Diego area furnishing services and conducting type training.
On April 18, 1950, the Catfish began her third cruise to the Western Pacific. She was in Subic Bay when the Korean Conflict began on 25 June 1950. The Catfish and the Pickerel were the first two boats to make a patrol under the UN Flag and she served in those efforts until returning to San Diego on 20 October, 1950.
On 17 August, 1950, Cmdr Mendenhall was relieved by Lt. Cmdr CJ Zurcher.
In Jan 51 the Catfish departed San Diego for San Francisco. While there the boat embarked on a one-day cruise training Naval Reserve personnel from the SF area. At the same time, the Mutal Broadcasting Co made a tape recording which was a general story of the Submarine Navy and the Submarine reserves. The Catfish returned to San Diego and continued type training and special services on 27 Jan 51.
The Catfish arrived at Mare Island Shipyard on 30 April 1951 for a regular overhaul. The yard overhaul was completed on 31 July 51 and from then until 6 Aug, 51 the boat conducted exercises in the San Francisco area. It was during this overhaul that the Portsmouth step sail was installed. The following pictures are from Truman Winnett who was aboard at that time.
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> On 6 August, 51 she returned to San Diego while snorkeling all the way and arrived in San Diego on 11 August 51.
On 19 July 52 Cmdr Zurcher was relived by Lt. Cmdr NC Nash.
After arrival at San Diego the boat conducted type training and furnished special services to other units in the area and in the Alaskan area and departed for regular Navy yard overhaul at the SF Naval Shipyard on 9 Feb 53.
She returned to San Diego on 18 June, 53. And then she participated in the Seattle Sea Fair later that year.
Thanks to Bob Dabbs for the above history..

Class: Balao Variant; Perch
Built At: EB, Groton, CT

1526 Tons-2425 tons (fully loaded)
Length 311.5' Width 17-27'
Tubes-6 forward-4 aft and 24 torpedoes
15 boats in the Balao class were converted to Guppy II in 1948-1950. Displacement was then 1870 standard and 2420 submerged and length was 307.5 feet.

Laid Down: 6-Jan-44
Launched: 19-Nov-44
Sponsor: Mrs. John. Crowley
Commissioned: 19-Mar-45. Boat made 1 war patrol during WWII under the command of William Overton in the Empire area with no sinkings as the War ended. At the outbreak of the Korean Conflict she was in Guam under the command of Corwin Mendenhall. She remained in the Far East until late 1950. She made an Alaskan training cruise in 1952 and made addition WestPac cruises every 18 months since 1952. and two during the Korean Conflict under Corwin Mendenhall and Norman Nash.
Catfish was given the opportunity to sink a hulk in October 1966. She fired two torpedoes at the ex-USS Suisan AVP-53 off the Southern California Coast. The sinking was successful.
Awarded "E" in 1967.
Catfish under Lcdr CL Coleman made her 6000th dive- 1219pm on Sept 5, 1968
First CO: Lcdr William A. Overton
Decommissioned: 10-Dec-48
Also in Commission: 24-Oct-50 to 1-Jul-71-Refit at Hunter's Point-1966.
Strike Date: 1-Jul-71
Sold to Argentina above date and renamed Sante Fe-
Guppy II Conversion: four 126-cell Guppy Batteries; aux. engines removed; motor and reduction gear replaced with 2 direct drive motors of 2700 HP each. In 1960 she was installed with a new plastic sail.

*****Photo courtesy of Ken Ambrose/Ledyard, CT
Crew Listing. Need names and addresses for any former crew members of the 339. E-mail to rontini@wavecom.net .Would appreciate any pictures, stories, facts and figures you may have. I should be able to read anything you send if done in Word/Word Perfect or any other word processor that can save text as an ascii file. Pictures may be sent in .jpg/.gif/.bmp or any other format you have. I cannot handle uuencoded files or material saved on a 'Mac'. I do have a new scanner and will scan your pictures and mail them right back if you want to do it that way. I will give your name world wide attention at the bottom of the page for any material received. My address is Ron Martini-1723 Desmet-Sheridan, WY 82801.

Pictures below from Darrel Wagner.
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1961 WestPac by Richard/Dick Reichner TMC

Argentinian Page What happened to the USS Catfish/Sante Fe? This page unfortunately is in Spanish. I have the translation thanks to Cdr Gifford Wilcox in NH and it will put up shortly. Thanks Cdr!
*** An e-mail from Alejandro Amendolara in Argentina:
Dear friends: The "Santa Fe" was attacked on April 25th, 1982, when it was on surface, by FIVE british helicopters (one Wessex, two Wasp, and two Sea Lynx), dropping on it one torpedo, two anti-submarine bomb charges, at least four AS.12 missiles, and thousands of MG bullets. Due the lack of AA defenses, the submarine replied only with old rifles that had on board. The submarine returned and later sunk by its own crew. You can read the whole story in: http://www.lanacion.com.ar/suples/enfoques/970409/en-01.htm (which I linked above).
***An obituary:
Captain of 'Endurance' during the Falklands war whose warnings of Argentina's invasion plans were ignored by Whitehall: CAPTAIN NICK BARKER, who has died aged 63, was the captain of the Antarctic ice-patrol ship, survey vessel and Falkland Islands guardship, Endurance, during the conflict of 1982. After the main Argentine invasion on April 2, Endurance's first concern was to avoid the Argentine navy, which she did by hugging the coast of South Georgia, "hiding behind a rock by day, pretending to be an iceberg" Barker said, "not easy for a red-painted ship". When Barker telephoned Northwood by satellite to clarify the rules of engagement, should he encounter an Argentine missile destroyer around the next iceberg, he was told "to phone back after two o'clock as the particular staff officer was at lunch". Later in April, Endurance took part in Paraquat, the operation to recapture South Georgia, which, in Barker's opinion, was "in military terms, a monumental cock-up", although it was ultimately successful. Endurance's helicopters joined in harrying the Argentine submarine Santa Fe (former US submarine Catfish) (whose captain was a friend of Barker's) with missiles until it ran itself aground."
***Another e-mail from Jim Mandelblatt (jimm@ewaprg.com ):
I've got two photos of CATFISH taken in 1945, (see below) which I received from Capt. David H. Green USN (Ret.). CATFISH was sold to the Argentinians in 1971 and was later caught by a British ASW helo on the surface (and crippled) at South Georgia in May of 1982, during the Falklands War. After the war, the British, after considering keeping CATFISH (then known as SANTA FE) as a war prize, ended up sinking SANTA FE in Grytvyken Sound, due to the extensive damage to the sub.
***Photos of the Catfish: You can buy a photo of the USS Catfish 3"x4" from the US Naval Memorial Wash. DC Giftshop at 202-737-2300 ext 731. B&W is code DCJBB and Color is EAABB for $6 each. You can also call the Navy Yard Ships Historical Dept at 202-433-3643.
***Trivia: Which two submarines were the first to make war patrols under the United Nations flag during the Korean Conflict? USS Catfish and USS Pickerel. The 339 was under the command of Corwin Mendenhall (author of book Submarine Diary who made 7 war patrols on the USS Sculpin and 4 on the USS Pintado. The Pickerel was under the command of Paul Schratz. This patrol lasted from 19 July, 1950 to 2 August 1950. They patroled off the China coast keeping 7th Fleet appraised of any threat to Formosa and changes in naval activity in the area.

Harley Davis and brother at Pearl in late 60's. Harley has a personal home page at Harley's Home
***The following old clippings came to me from John D/Jack Shuron via James Graver. Thanks to you both. There are no dates on the clippings but they are interesting.

"The Legion of Merit will be presented today to the skipper of a San Diego-bases submarine for his performance of duty in a classified mission in the Far East earlier this year. Cmdr. James F. Varley, of Cornado, commanding officer of the Catfish will receive the medal in a 10 a.m. ceremony aboard the submarine. It will be presented by Capt. John M. Barrett, commander of SubFlot 1. The Catfish returned to San Diego recently from a western Pacific deployment. Varley, according to the citation, was "directly responsible for the highly successful accomplishment of a mission of great importance." Details of the mission were not announced by the Navy, although it is known that submarines in the South China Sea are engaging in surveillance and intelligence activities in support of the war in South Vienam. In this mission, the Catfish had sailed from the Philippines toward the mouth of the Gianh River on a mission codenamed WISE TIGER. Remaining in international waters, the Catfish was collecting data on Hanoi's fleet. The submarine was interested in Swatow gunboats, a Chinese-made vessel that formed the backbone of the North Vietnamese navy. Three Swatows was thought to be harbored at Quang Khe, at the mouth of Gianh River. The Catfish confirmed the presence of all three and sent word back to Manila. This was then relayed to Saigon, where the CIA was finalizing plans for a bold maritime strike against the gunboats.
After an absence of 194 days, the Squadron Five submarine USS Catfish (SS-339) and her 88-man crew returned to San Diego this week from the Western Pacific. During Catfish's deployment, she visited Yokosuka, Sasebo, and Kagoshima, Japan; Buckner Bay, Okinawa; Hong Kong; and Batangas, Philippines. Catfish was the first submarine ever to viit Batangas, according to MCdr. JM Patton, the Executive Officer. He said, too, that Catfish was the first SubPac unit to visit Kagoshima since 1965. Also during the deployment, 19 enlisted men and one officer received their dolphins and 14 Catfish crewmen were advanced in rate. Before her return, Catfish was notified that she had won the Combat Efficiency "E" and the annual SubDiv 52 Torpedo and Fire Control Award.
The Navy Commendation Medal will be presented to Captain John M. Barrett, U.S. Navy, Commander SubFlot One, today, during a formal ceremony on board the submarine Catfish (SS339). The award will be made by RAdm John Maurer, ComSubPac.
The men of the submarine Catfish have known for a long time that their chief cook, Ramon Cabalona, makes a good pie. But this week the whole world knows it as the chief steward walked off with $1000 in Pillsbury's annual bake-off contest. He's the first military man to ever cop such a prize. His winning entry: "Sub Meringue" pie, an orange-flavored cream pie that's been a hit aboard the Catfish for quite some time.
**Thanks to Jim Rolle for the drawing and insignias.
From Joe Galaske comes the following short stories from the 50's:
We went on patrol for over two months up in the Bering sea and returned to Pearl Harbor after running out of food. (I have an article written in the paper regarding this patrol I will send when I find it)) While up there we hit bottom and tore off some of our sonor gear. We called it "Pilorz' Bump" on the chart. On another occasion we were laying a mine field where we had to fire a mine every minute and a half from the torpedo tubes in a very specific sequence. The gunnery officer got the sequence confused and fired the wrong tube. This opened up a 16 inch poppet valve which caused the forward torpedo room to flood sending the boat to the bottom, which fortunately was only 250 feet or so at the time. Of course they locked us in the room and we closed all the valves to sea which actually stopped the flooding but the boat was taking such a down angle that it looked like we were still taking on water. It was one of the scariest moments in my life. This whole episode was so chaotic it would take a small book to describe it. Commander C. J. Zurcher was CO at the time.
Again; should you have any material for inclusion on this page, contact me at rontini@attbi.com