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After Three Decades, Historic Sub Comes Home
Story Number: NNS040708-02
Release Date: 7/8/2004 10:21:00 AM
By Max Uphaus, Naval Historical Center Public Affairs
WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The last remaining operational World War II submarine returned to the United States in June after more than 30 years abroad.
USS Razorback (SS 394), sold to the Turkish navy after being decommissioned in 1970, was reacquired in March of this year by the city of North Little Rock, Ark., where it will become the centerpiece for a planned maritime museum.
“If the children that are starting school this year can go aboard and see the engineering, the cramped living space, learn of the 52 submarines and 3,500 men that were lost in WWII to maintain our freedom, then [Razorback’s return] has been worthwhile,” said Jim Barnes, a member of U.S. Submarine Veterans, Inc., and commander of that organization’s Razorback base.
Besides educating posterity, Razorback’s preservation will also memorialize the many men who, in two navies over more than half a century, endured the same hardships and dangers and formed a strong attachment to the boat on which they saw them through.
“When you hear the former crewmen say the time on the USS Razorback changed their life, it must have been something special,” Barnes explained. “The diesel submarine Sailor was something special. For a group of men to seal themselves in a steel pipe with the smell of diesel fuel, stinking feet, cooking odors and whatever else gave it that smell, and sail thousands of miles in pursuit of an enemy, took guts in anybody’s book.”
June 19, the boat arrived in New Orleans, its second stop in the United States. Numerous veterans of Razorback and other submarines, as well as the mayors of North Little Rock and New Orleans, were present for the ceremony. Hundreds of spectators were also in attendance, all eager to view the historic vessel.
“We had people standing in line for two hours in the hot sun with no water or shade just to go on a tour,” Barnes said. “In three days, we took 1,500 to 2,000 people through the boat.”
Decommissioned for the second time in August 2001, the boat was slated to be scrapped, a plan forestalled by the intervention of some of its former crew members.
“She was my first submarine,” said Max Bassett, a submariner on Razorback from 1959 to 1962 and one of the veterans who set out to save it. “After what she had done for us all these years, we had a chance to pay her back.”
Bassett and his fellow supporters convinced North Little Rock Mayor Patrick Hays to give Razorback a home in the forthcoming museum, and Hays in turn, assisted by the State Department, negotiated with the Turkish government for the vessel.
Initially, the Turks were willing to give Razorback away, asking only the symbolic sum of $1, but government regulations complicated the deal. The boat was ultimately purchased for $37,500 in salvage costs, money put forward largely by a local North Little Rock firm. Voluntary contributions by veterans helped fund a large part of the cost of towing the vessel across the Mediterranean and Atlantic. Razorback left Istanbul, Turkey, May 5 and attracted tremendous popular interest during its voyage, making high-profile stops in Gibraltar and Key West, Fla., before its climactic arrival in New Orleans.
Balao-class submarines like Razorback, commissioned in 1944, were crucial to the allied victory in the Pacific in World War II. Incorporating the lessons of the interwar period "fleet" submarines and the latest technological advances, such boats were faster, better armed, and most importantly, able to dive more than a hundred feet deeper, putting them out of the range of Japanese antisubmarine warfare tactics. As a result, “They were used to wipe out the Japanese commercial fleet and sink an extraordinary number of the battle fleet,” said Dr. Gary Weir, a specialist with the Contemporary History Branch of the Naval Historical Center.
Besides being “the perfect submarine platform for World War II,” as Weir put it, Razorback and its fellow vessels were also “the jumping-off platform for the more improved boats of the Cold War.” Many boats of the period, including Razorback, underwent so-called GUPPY (Greater Underwater Propulsive Power) conversions, which allowed them to perform at maximum while submerged and to remain submerged for much longer. In this way, Razorback is one of the precursors of the modern submarine fleet.
Alongside this general historical significance, Razorback itself had a colorful 26-year U.S. naval service. The boat performed five combat patrols during World War II and with 11 other submarines, was present at the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay. After the war, it went on to carry out many Cold War missions, including convoying Chiang Kai-shek and his entourage out of mainland China, before closing its U.S. service with four tours of duty in the waters off Vietnam.
Renamed Murat Reis after its transfer to Turkey, it became the longest-serving GUPPY-class submarine in the Turkish navy and distinguished itself in combat once again, this time by sinking two Greek ships during the 1974 war over Cyprus.
All told, Razorback saw more than 58 years of active duty for the United States and Turkey, “the longest any submarine has ever served any navy,” Barnes pointed out. “She deserves a final resting place of honor.”
Razorback is scheduled to arrive in North Little Rock July 18.
For related news, visit the Naval Historical Center Navy NewsStand page at www.news.navy.mil/local/navhist.
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