Silent Running: My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine

by James F. Calvert

Overview

"I am just one of many who experienced life on a submarine duringWorld War II. Silent Running is a story sincerely told—free of anyrevisionism or cynicism—and I commend Vice Admiral Calvert forsharing this dramatic personal account of that difficult andexciting time." —President George Bush

"Hardened old sub vet that I am, I still felt the need for twoweeks R&R after reliving Jim's only too realistic warpatrolling adventures." —C. W. Nimitz, Jr., Rear Admiral, USN(Ret.)

"I believe it is the best personal account yet written on U.S.submarine operations in the Second World War. [Calvert] writes withlucidity and a rare candor. We get an extraordinary sense of whatit was like, feeling the tensions and emotions, sharing thesuccesses and disappointments, ... This is a true story with tealpeople, always gripping and sometimes tender. It is exciting toread and hard to put down. —J. L. Holloway, Admiral, USN (Ret.)President, Naval Historical Society, Chief of Naval Operations,1974-1978.

"I knew Jim Calvert Throughout the war, and in this book he hastold the submarine story in a way that catches the flavor and tangof the real thing. This is the way it really was." —Frederick B.Warder, Rear Admiral, USN (Ret.) Legendary W.W. II skipper of theSeawolf.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780471127789
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/30/1995
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 9.57(h) x 1.06(d)

About the Author

JAMES F. CALVERT, Vice Admiral, USN (Ret.), was one of the Navy's most decorated officers in World War II. After the war, he became the second skipper to command a U.S. nuclear-powered submarine. In 1959, his ship, the Skate, broke through the ice to surface at the North Pole—the first ship of any kind to reach that part of the earth on the surface. In 1964, he became the second-youngest rear admiral in the Navy's history. Admiral Calvert served as superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and head of the Pacific fleet. After his retirement from the Navy, he became assistant to the chairman of the board of Texaco. Admiral Calvert is the author of Surface at the Pole, The Naval Profession, and A Promise to Our Country.

Table of Contents

Training for the Big Show.

On to Pearl Harbor.

Patterns of War in the Deep.

At the Gates of Tokyo.

Fighting Wounded.

A Taste of Defeat.

The Tanker Sweep.

Australia and Admiral Jay.

The New Skipper.

A Gallant Retreat.

Farewell, Forgiveness, and Tragedy.

Decisions at Guam.

Deliverance by the Bomb.

Tokyo—Hail and Farewell.

Afterword.

Index.

Editorial Reviews

In nine war patrols, the USS Jack sank 15 Japanese ships and ranked ninth in tonnage sunk by the end of the war. The author of this exciting memoir served as Torpedo Data Computer operator aboard the Jack (he was the one who aimed the torpedoes) and later as its executive officer. Calvert's book ranks with Edward Beach's Run Silent, Run Deep as an accurate, detailed, suspenseful account of submarine operations in the Pacific: the tracking and sinking of tankers, ammunition ships and a transport with a regiment of Japanese troops on board. One convoy commander whose ships crossed paths with the Jack radioed his superiors in Tokyo that he was under attack by a ``wolf pack.'' Calvert also recalls his experiences ashore between patrols, including an unconsummated romance-he was married-with an Australian woman. The memoir climaxes with an unusual account of his unauthorized tour of Tokyo immediately after the Japanese surrender, when he nearly scuttled his naval career by violating occupation rules. Calvert (Surface at the Pole) later served as superintendent of the Naval Academy, Annapolis. Photos. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Another in the recent group of books dealing with wartime memoirs (Point Man, LJ 7/93; Tin Can Man, LJ 2/1/93; Code Name: Copperhead, LJ 6/1/94), this is the story of James Calvert, who was stationed aboard the U.S. Navy attack submarine USS Jack from 1943 to the end of World War II. In a page-turner as good as any war novel, Calvert recounts the history of the eight war patrols that the Jack completed. He also describes the training involved, as well as overcoming problems like faulty torpedoes that hampered early submarine operations against the Japanese. Finally, Calvert tells about an unauthorized sightseeing trip to Tokyo that almost cost him his career. He went on to command the nuclear submarine USS Skate and become superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Calvert's memoir should be at home in any type of library.-Terry L. Wirick, Erie Cty. Lib. System, Pa.

Library Journal

Calvert's memoirs of his early career in submarines make excellent reading. Fresh out of Annapolis and submarine school, he began his long underwater hitch as an ensign aboard the USS "Jack" and finished World War II nine patrols later as executive officer of the USS "Haddo". During this service, he made a name for himself as a torpedo shooter, helped train dozens of new officers and men in the intricacies of submarine warfare, married his Annapolis sweetheart "and" fell in love with an Australian girl, and at war's end (which was nearly that of his naval career, too) took an unauthorized sight-seeing jaunt to Tokyo in September 1945. All of this he describes vividly and with what can best be called the qualities of an officer and a gentleman, which he certainly is.

Roland Green