Silent Running / USS Jack SS-259 USS Haddo SS-225 WWII / James F. Calvert / Submarine Book Store / SubmarineBooks.com

My Years on a World War II Attack Submarine

by Vice Admiral James F. Calvert, USN (Ret.)

Foreword by Captain Edward L. Beach, USN (Ret.)

New Softbound Edition

282 pages, 16 black and white photographs, 6 maps

New $18.95

During World War II, James Calvert served aboard two American submarines; USS Jack (SS-259) and USS Haddo (SS-255). In nine war patrols, Jack sank 15 Japanese ships and ranked ninth in tonnage sunk by the end of the war. Aboard Jack, Calvert served as Torpedo Data Computer (TDC) operator and later as Executive Officer. Calvert tells an accurate, detailed and suspenseful account of American submarine operations in the Pacific during World War II. One Japanese convoy commander whose ships crossed paths with USS Jack radioed Tokyo he was under attack by a "wolf pack." Calvert also recalls his experiences ashore between patrols, including an unconsummated romance with an Australian woman. The memoir climaxes with an unusual account of his unauthorized tour of Tokyo immediately after the Japanese surrendered. James Calvert received the Silver Star during his Navy duty during World War II.

New Softbound (9 X 6 inches) edition. 282 pages, 16 black and white photos, 6 maps and an index.

New Book --- $18.95

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The Author

Born in Ohio in 1920, James F. Calvert graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June of 1942 and went straight to submarine duty. A veteran of nine Pacific World War II submarine war patrols, Vice Admiral Calvert's submarine, USS Jack (SS-259) ranked ninth in total tonnage sunk during the war. Calvert was present at Tokyo Bay (Japan) in September 1945 for the surrender of the Japanese. One of the first two skippers chosen by Admiral Rickover for his nuclear submarine program, Calvert took the USS Skate (SSN-578) on two voyages under the Artic ice to the North Pole. His was the first ship in history to reach the Pole on the surface—by surfacing through the ice at the North Pole. Calvert was Superintendent of the Naval Academy for four years from 1968 to 1972. James Calvert wrote two books; "Silent Running" and "Surface At The Pole." After retiring from the Navy, Calvert worked as an assistant to the chairman of Texaco Oil. He also was a senior executive at Combustion Engineering in Stamford, Connecticut. Vice Admiral Calvert passed away, June 3, 2009, he was 88.

"I am just one of many who experienced life on a submarine during World War II. "Silent Running" is a story sincerely told—and I commend Vice Admiral Calvert for sharing this dramatic personal account of that difficult and exciting time." President George Bush

"Hardened old sub vet that I am, I still felt the need for two weeks R and R after reliving Jim's only too realistic war patrolling adventures." Rear Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Jr., USN (Ret.).

"I knew Jim Calvert throughout the war, and in this book he has told the submarine story in a way that catches the flavor and tang of the real thing. This is the way it really was." Rear Admiral Frederick B. Warder, USN, (Ret.).