Operation Storm: Japan's Top Secret Submarines and Its Plan to Change the Course of World War II by John Geoghegan Page A

just take 80 guys, plop them in the middle of Portsmouth Navy Yard, and hope they’d form a team; a captain had to work at it. But training a crew while a sub was under construction was “like training a racehorse locked inside the barn.” 19 Fortunately, Fulp didn’t have to do it alone, he had an executive officer (XO) to help him.
    Lt. John E. Balson had a sharp mind and an unflappable manner. He also had a sense of humor so dry, it could run a sub aground in the middle of the Pacific. Balson didn’t talk much, which led Fulp to nickname him “Silent Joe.” But if Fulp calling Balson quiet was the pot calling the kettle black, there was no mistaking Balson’s aptitude. He was the same kind of XO Fulp had been aboard the
Sargo
. The two were well matched.
    One important way Fulp shaped his crew was by not playing games with them. He might not have talked much, but what he said counted for a lot. A man always knew where he stood with Captain Fulp. Best of all, he radiated the kind of quiet confidence sub crews just lapped up.
    Fulp taught his crew how a “hot running” boat operated, and they learned to take pride in a job well done. Fulp’s legacy left a lasting impression aboard the
Segundo
, a legacy his replacement would rely upon when it came time to face the
I-401
.
    T HE
S EGUNDO
WAS finally ready for commissioning on Tuesday, May 9, 1944. Fulp officially assumed his first command in a formal ceremony lasting only ten minutes. At the rate Portsmouth was turning out submarines, there wasn’t time for anything longer.
    Ten days after he took command, Fulp took the
Segundo
out forthe first time. 20 Five days later the navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey officially accepted the boat into the U.S. submarine force.
    Fulp spent the next few weeks running battle station exercises and torpedo-firing simulations. As his crew grew proficient, he progressed to high-speed maneuvers, including collision drills and dive alarms. Soon, the
Segundo
’s crew developed the speed and confidence Fulp was looking for.
    The men weren’t beyond getting in trouble though. Some of the more curious wondered what the colorful buoys were in the harbor. When they hauled one up and discovered it was a lobster trap, they began nightly raids to supplement their dinner. Only when they learned that lobster thieves are treated in Maine the same way cattle rustlers are in Texas did the practice stop. 21
    Finally, the
Segundo
departed Portsmouth for the Naval Torpedo Station near Newport, Rhode Island. After taking on a load of “fish,” Fulp’s fire control party practiced their attack approach in Narragansett Bay, launching 30 torpedoes in two days. As a reward, half the crew was given leave to enjoy themselves in Middletown. Unfortunately, they got into a brawl with the locals and returned to the sub with a variety of shiners. When Fulp learned his remaining crew planned revenge, he restricted all hands to ship. 22
    After the
Segundo
spent a week at New London, she was ready to head south to the Panama Canal. Transiting the eastern seaboard promised to be uneventful. U-boat sinkings had been a problem at the start of the war, but by June 1944 the situation was under control.
    There were surprises along the way though. One evening while the
Segundo
was surfaced, one of her senior officers spotted a half dozen torpedoes heading for the sub. When he saw their wake, he cried out an alarm. The torpedoes turned out to be nothing more than playful dolphins. Needless to say, the officer took a ribbing.
    Another day Ens. Rod Johnson had the four-to-eight-A .M . watch. Johnson was scanning the horizon when a sudden flash caught his eye. Training his binoculars off the port bow, Johnson saw the feathered wake of a long, thin periscope a few feet above water. No sub was supposed to be there, so Johnson immediately called fora dive. Moments later the
Segundo
’s sound man tuned in to the receding vibrations of a sub screw. So much for being in