How did a sixteen year old Arkansas plowboy with an eighth-grade education find his way into the United States submarine service and onto the frontline of America's naval war against Imperial Japan? For George Jones that path lay through the hardships of the Great Depression, around some of the rules and restrictions of enlistment, and into a Navy unprepared for the battles that lay ahead. During his service on a supply ship in the Asiatic Fleet, he watched the Japanese war machine grind across the Chinese mainland. Hard work, brains, and savvy helped George transfer to the submarine service where he made three war patrols on antique "S" boats and four more on the USS Pogy, a modern fleet-type sub. Firsthand accounts of the seldom told pre-war Navy, of life on a World War I era submarine, and of the terror and triumph of undersea battle are detailed in this autobiographic tale.
How did a sixteen year old Arkansas plowboy with an eighth-grade education find his way into the United States submarine service and onto the frontline of America's naval war against Imperial Japan? For George Jones that path lay through the hardships of the Great Depression, around some of the rules and restrictions of enlistment, and into a Navy unprepared for the battles that lay ahead. During his service on a supply ship in the Asiatic Fleet, he watched the Japanese war machine grind across the Chinese mainland. Hard work, brains, and savvy helped George transfer to the submarine service where he made three war patrols on antique "S" boats and four more on the USS Pogy, a modern fleet-type sub. Firsthand accounts of the seldom told pre-war Navy, of life on a World War I era submarine, and of the terror and triumph of undersea battle are detailed in this autobiographic tale.
