On the night of February 7, 1943, Commander Howard W. Gilmore faced the kind of decision that leaves no room for fear—and no time for a second chance.
The USS Growler was operating on the surface near the Bismarck Islands when the armed Japanese stores ship Hayasaki sighted the submarine and turned to ram. Gilmore maneuvered to meet the threat. Growler struck the enemy ship at 17 knots, crushing her own bow and disabling her forward torpedo tubes.
Then machine-gun fire swept the submarine’s bridge at close range.
The officer of the deck and a lookout were killed. Two more men were wounded. Gilmore was hit badly—but he was still in command.
He ordered the bridge cleared. Executive officer Arnold F. Schade and the surviving men descended through the hatch while the damaged submarine remained exposed to enemy fire. Gilmore could not follow them below in time. Every additional second on the surface endangered the boat and every Sailor inside her.
From the bridge came the order that would define his legacy:
“Take her down!”
Schade obeyed. Growler submerged with her commanding officer still topside, escaped the attack, and later returned safely to Brisbane for repairs. When the submarine came back to the area after daylight to search for Gilmore, he was gone.
Gilmore had already earned two Navy Crosses for his first two war patrols. For deliberately giving his life so his submarine and crew could survive, he received the Medal of Honor posthumously—the first World War II submariner to receive the nation’s highest military award.
Tenacity is not the absence of danger. It is the clarity to see what must be done when danger has closed every easy path. It is leadership that places duty above survival. And sometimes, it is a final command given so others can return home.
This.... is what Tenacity Is.
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