Savadkin ran track and field and cross-country at Lafayette, where he was majoring in engineering physics.
Larry Savadkin was scheduled to graduate in 1942, he was enjoying "the thrill of a lifetime" at Lafayette College when his education was cut one year short by the call to serve his country in World War II.
Larry joined the navy and volunteered for the Submarine Service.
The submarine that LT Savadkin was assigned to just happened to be the highly successful USS Tang (SS 306) under the command of CDR Richard H. O'Kane. Larry joined the Tang after her 4th and made the final and last 5th war patrol.
On the night of October 24, 1944 in the Formosa Strait near Turnaround Island, the Tang had attacked a convoy and was finishing off a record war patrol. O'Kane fired her last torpedo, (the 24th) at a crippled Japanese merchant ship. The torpedo went erratic and made a deadly circular run, the torpedo struck the Tang in the stern. The damage to the submarine's stern sank it to the bottom and the bow remained surfaced at a tremendous angle. To avoid capture of the submarine's vital secrets, the Tang's ballast was fully flooded down and she went to sit on the shallow bottom, some 160 feet below the surface.
As the submarine was going down Larry was trapped in the darkened conning tower, the hatch wasn't dogged down and Larry made his way through the hatch, through the super structure and was carried to the surface in an air bubble some 90 feet, executing a free ascent to the surface without a Momsen Lung or line to regulate his assent to the surface. "The secret is that you don't hold your breath, or your lungs will expand and burst," he explains.
Only 9 crew members out of 87 survived through the night. The 9 men were picked up the following morning by a Japanese destroyer. The men were then taken to a interrogation camp at Ofuna, Japan where they were tortured for information and eventually transferred to a priority POW camp at Omori, Japan for the remainder of the war.
He was liberated two weeks after the end of hostilities.
After the war, Savadkin went on to complete a 31-year Navy career, which included command of several vessels. He retired at the rank of captain, finishing in Brussels as part of the multinational planning group that devised ways to prevent Berlin from being blockaded again by the Soviet Union.
Sailor rest your oar.
Larry Savadkin was scheduled to graduate in 1942, he was enjoying "the thrill of a lifetime" at Lafayette College when his education was cut one year short by the call to serve his country in World War II.
Larry joined the navy and volunteered for the Submarine Service.
The submarine that LT Savadkin was assigned to just happened to be the highly successful USS Tang (SS 306) under the command of CDR Richard H. O'Kane. Larry joined the Tang after her 4th and made the final and last 5th war patrol.
On the night of October 24, 1944 in the Formosa Strait near Turnaround Island, the Tang had attacked a convoy and was finishing off a record war patrol. O'Kane fired her last torpedo, (the 24th) at a crippled Japanese merchant ship. The torpedo went erratic and made a deadly circular run, the torpedo struck the Tang in the stern. The damage to the submarine's stern sank it to the bottom and the bow remained surfaced at a tremendous angle. To avoid capture of the submarine's vital secrets, the Tang's ballast was fully flooded down and she went to sit on the shallow bottom, some 160 feet below the surface.
As the submarine was going down Larry was trapped in the darkened conning tower, the hatch wasn't dogged down and Larry made his way through the hatch, through the super structure and was carried to the surface in an air bubble some 90 feet, executing a free ascent to the surface without a Momsen Lung or line to regulate his assent to the surface. "The secret is that you don't hold your breath, or your lungs will expand and burst," he explains.
Only 9 crew members out of 87 survived through the night. The 9 men were picked up the following morning by a Japanese destroyer. The men were then taken to a interrogation camp at Ofuna, Japan where they were tortured for information and eventually transferred to a priority POW camp at Omori, Japan for the remainder of the war.
He was liberated two weeks after the end of hostilities.
After the war, Savadkin went on to complete a 31-year Navy career, which included command of several vessels. He retired at the rank of captain, finishing in Brussels as part of the multinational planning group that devised ways to prevent Berlin from being blockaded again by the Soviet Union.
Sailor rest your oar.
Savadkin ran track and field and cross-country at Lafayette, where he was majoring in engineering physics.
Larry Savadkin was scheduled to graduate in 1942, he was enjoying "the thrill of a lifetime" at Lafayette College when his education was cut one year short by the call to serve his country in World War II.
Larry joined the navy and volunteered for the Submarine Service.
The submarine that LT Savadkin was assigned to just happened to be the highly successful USS Tang (SS 306) under the command of CDR Richard H. O'Kane. Larry joined the Tang after her 4th and made the final and last 5th war patrol.
On the night of October 24, 1944 in the Formosa Strait near Turnaround Island, the Tang had attacked a convoy and was finishing off a record war patrol. O'Kane fired her last torpedo, (the 24th) at a crippled Japanese merchant ship. The torpedo went erratic and made a deadly circular run, the torpedo struck the Tang in the stern. The damage to the submarine's stern sank it to the bottom and the bow remained surfaced at a tremendous angle. To avoid capture of the submarine's vital secrets, the Tang's ballast was fully flooded down and she went to sit on the shallow bottom, some 160 feet below the surface.
As the submarine was going down Larry was trapped in the darkened conning tower, the hatch wasn't dogged down and Larry made his way through the hatch, through the super structure and was carried to the surface in an air bubble some 90 feet, executing a free ascent to the surface without a Momsen Lung or line to regulate his assent to the surface. "The secret is that you don't hold your breath, or your lungs will expand and burst," he explains.
Only 9 crew members out of 87 survived through the night. The 9 men were picked up the following morning by a Japanese destroyer. The men were then taken to a interrogation camp at Ofuna, Japan where they were tortured for information and eventually transferred to a priority POW camp at Omori, Japan for the remainder of the war.
He was liberated two weeks after the end of hostilities.
After the war, Savadkin went on to complete a 31-year Navy career, which included command of several vessels. He retired at the rank of captain, finishing in Brussels as part of the multinational planning group that devised ways to prevent Berlin from being blockaded again by the Soviet Union.
Sailor rest your oar.
Larry Savadkin was scheduled to graduate in 1942, he was enjoying "the thrill of a lifetime" at Lafayette College when his education was cut one year short by the call to serve his country in World War II.
Larry joined the navy and volunteered for the Submarine Service.
The submarine that LT Savadkin was assigned to just happened to be the highly successful USS Tang (SS 306) under the command of CDR Richard H. O'Kane. Larry joined the Tang after her 4th and made the final and last 5th war patrol.
On the night of October 24, 1944 in the Formosa Strait near Turnaround Island, the Tang had attacked a convoy and was finishing off a record war patrol. O'Kane fired her last torpedo, (the 24th) at a crippled Japanese merchant ship. The torpedo went erratic and made a deadly circular run, the torpedo struck the Tang in the stern. The damage to the submarine's stern sank it to the bottom and the bow remained surfaced at a tremendous angle. To avoid capture of the submarine's vital secrets, the Tang's ballast was fully flooded down and she went to sit on the shallow bottom, some 160 feet below the surface.
As the submarine was going down Larry was trapped in the darkened conning tower, the hatch wasn't dogged down and Larry made his way through the hatch, through the super structure and was carried to the surface in an air bubble some 90 feet, executing a free ascent to the surface without a Momsen Lung or line to regulate his assent to the surface. "The secret is that you don't hold your breath, or your lungs will expand and burst," he explains.
Only 9 crew members out of 87 survived through the night. The 9 men were picked up the following morning by a Japanese destroyer. The men were then taken to a interrogation camp at Ofuna, Japan where they were tortured for information and eventually transferred to a priority POW camp at Omori, Japan for the remainder of the war.
He was liberated two weeks after the end of hostilities.
After the war, Savadkin went on to complete a 31-year Navy career, which included command of several vessels. He retired at the rank of captain, finishing in Brussels as part of the multinational planning group that devised ways to prevent Berlin from being blockaded again by the Soviet Union.
Sailor rest your oar.
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