Dalton Christopher Keeter – On Eternal Patrol Aboard the Submarine USS Wahoo

Dalton Keeter was born in Hugo, Oklahoma on April 17, 1913. From the 1930 US Census we learn that Dalton’s father, William, 53, was an electrician for electric company. His stepmother, Lula, 44, lived with William and Dalton, then 16 years old. They lived at 101 East Second Street in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (The transcriber misspelled the written name as Kuter, when closely examining the original written census document, it can be seen as Keeter. That is the reason to search other data such as birth place, date of birth, father’s name, etc.) Ancestry.com lists his mother as Myrtle E. Holland, William’s first wife.

Keeter joined the Navy sometime in 1932. His first recorded duty was to muster aboard the submarine S-23 on June 30, 1939. The keel of USS S-23 (SS-128) was laid down on 18 January 1919 by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, a subcontractor of the Electric Boat Company of New York City, New York, at Quincy, Massachusetts. The submarine was launched on 27 October 1920. The S-boat was commissioned on 30 October 1923 with Lieutenant Joseph Y. Dreisonstok in command.

Initially assigned to Submarine Division 11, Control Force, USS S-23 (SS-128) was based at the United States Naval Submarine Base at New London/Groton, Connecticut, through the 1920s. During that time, the submarine operated off the New England coast of the United States from late spring until early winter; then moved south for winter and spring exercises. From 1925 on, her annual deployments included participation in fleet problems; and those maneuvers occasionally took her from the Caribbean into the Pacific. With the new decade, however, the S-boat was transferred to the Pacific; and, on 5 January 1931, she departed her Connecticut submarine base for the Panama Canal, California, and the Territory of Hawaii. En route, she participated in Fleet Problem XII and, on 25 April, she arrived at her new homeport, Pearl Harbor, whence she operated, with Submarine Division 7, for the next ten years. In June of 1941, Submarine Division 7 became Submarine Division 41; and, on 1 September, USS S-23 departed the Hawaiian Islands for California. An overhaul and operations off the West Coast of the United States took her into December…when the United States entered World War II following the Japanese attack on the Territory of Hawaii on 7 December 1941.

According to the Connecticut Marriage Records, Dalton married Gertrude Lavasseur on April 3, 1941. The marriage took place in Norwich, Connecticut, probably when he was stationed at the sub training facilities in New London, Connecticut.

On September 30, 1940, Keeter was assigned to the submarine, USS Thresher (SS-200). The USS Thresher, a Tambor-class submarine, was the most decorated United States Navy submarine of World War II. Her keel was laid down 27 May 1939 at the Electric Boat Company of Groton, Connecticut. She was launched on 27 March 1940 and commissioned on 27 August 1940, with Lieutenant Commander William Lovett Anderson (U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1926) in command.

**First and second War Patrols - **Litchfield promptly set off to join American light forces departing from the harbor, leaving Thresher alone to conduct her first real war patrol. However, the destroyer was ordered back to escort; radio contact was established, and a rendezvous arranged, with Thresher. At the pre-appointed time, Thresher poked up her periscope to have a look, and noticed a destroyer—similar to Litchfield—approaching bows-on. Instead of a warm reception from friends, she got a hot reception from the destroyer's forward gunners, who opened fire on her as soon as her black conning tower broke the surface. Thresher immediately went deep to avoid. She again tried to enter the harbor on 8 December, but was driven off by depth-bombs from a patrol plane, before Thornton (AVD-11) finally arrived to provide safe conduct for the boat at midday.

Departing Pearl Harbor on 30 December 1941, Thresher headed for the Marshall and Mariana Islands. Reconnoitering Majuro, Arno, and Mili atolls from 9 to 13 January 1942, she shifted to waters off Japanese-held Guam in the early morning darkness of 4 February. A little before daybreak, a small freighter was sighted 7 miles (11 km) north of Agana Harbor and Thresher closed for the attack. She loosed a three-torpedo spread, holing the ship and sending it down by the bow and dead in the water. Thresher then fired another spread of torpedoes, but all missed. Upon returning to the scene one-half-hour later the ship was gone and Thresher thought she had scored a kill; postwar accounting did not substantiate it.

While en route home to Pearl Harbor on 24 February, an overzealous Navy plane attacked Thresher but did no damage and the sub safely returned to port on 26 February.

Third and fourth War Patrols - After refit, Thresher departed 23 March 1942 for a patrol area near the Japanese home islands. There, she was to gather weather data off Honshū for use by Admiral William Halsey's task force (the carriers Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8), then approaching Japan. Embarked in Hornet were 16 United States Army Air Forces B-25 Mitchell medium bombers, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel James H. Doolittle, intended to attack Tokyo on 18 April.

Warned by ULTRA of four Japanese submarines operating off Tokyo Bay, Thresher was detected by one of them and fired on, without damage.[7]

On the morning of 10 April, Thresher sighted a large Japanese freighter. A three-torpedo spread was fired and all missed as the target escaped in the mist. When the target emerged from the murk, Thresher was not in a position to launch another attack and proceeded on her way.

A second target was sighted later that day, and this time the hunting was better. One torpedo broke the back of freighter Sado Maru (3,000 tons) off Yokohama, sending it to the bottom in less than three minutes. The subsequent depth charge attack was delivered by three or four patrol vessels (one of the most severe of the war),[8] caused Thresher to lose depth control and she plunged to 400 feet (120 m).[9] before control was regained. She then disobeyed orders and remained to assist Halsey.[8]

On 13 April, running on the surface to recharge her batteries, Thresher took a wave over her conning tower. Water cascaded down the open hatch and rushed into the boat, shorting many electrical circuits. For a short time, there was a significant danger that chlorine gas would be released, but quick thinking and damage control prevented any hazard. Eventually, all shorts were repaired and the boat pumped out.

The next day, Thresher departed her assigned patrol area and turned her attention to gathering weather data. She conducted periscope patrols in the advance screen of Halsey's task force, searching for any enemy craft that could warn the Japanese homeland. She was detached from this duty on 16 April and, after evading two Japanese patrol planes, returned to Pearl Harbor on 29 April.

Keeters’s next duty was to muster aboard the submarine USS Wahoo (SS-238) on May 31, 1942. As a crew member he participated in all of the boat’s war patrols into the South Pacific, from the first in August of 1942 to the seventh, and final, war patrol that began in October of 1943. He attained the rating of Chief Motor Machinist's Mate. His Navy service number was 355 82 16.

Dalton Keeter, along with 79 other sailors, was tragically lost on October 11, 1943, when a Japanese antisubmarine air and sea force holed the Wahoo and she sank with all hands on board. A memorial to the men of the Wahoo is called Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial - Honolulu, Hawaii. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart posthumously.

++Wreck site found:++ Beginning in 1995, the Wahoo Project Group started the search for her location based on available evidence. In 2005 electronic surveys showed what turned out to be a US Gato class submarine in the strait. On October 31, 2006 the US Navy confirmed the wreckage of the Wahoo in 213 feet of water in the La Perouse Strait.

On July 8, 2007, the US Navy held a wreath laying ceremony at the confirmed site of the sinking of the Wahoo. On October 11, 2007, the US Navy held an official remembrance ceremony for the crew of the Wahoo. The ceremony was conducted at the USS Bowfin Museum and Submarine Park at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

**Details of Wahoo’s amazing war history and final patrol (see **https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/about-us/leadership/director/directors-corner/h-grams/h-gram-022/h-022-4.html for more details) are given below:

**Sixth patrol, August 1943 - **On 13 August, Wahoo entered the Sea of Okhotsk, having completed the passage through the Etorofu Strait. She arrived in the Sea of Japan the following day and sighted three medium freighters headed south. The submarine launched one torpedo at the trailing ship; it missed. The next day (15 August), while still on the trail of those three freighters, Wahoo sighted a large freighter on a northerly course. Deciding to attack the larger, single target, the submarine broke off the pursuit of the three freighters, surfaced, and commenced tracking the new target, diving to make a submerged approach. Wahoo launched one torpedo; it hit at the point of aim but was a dud. She fired two more torpedoes. Both missed. Wahoo then swung around to bring her stern torpedo tubes to bear and headed directly for the target. The submarine fired another torpedo which missed and must have broached and exploded before the end of the run. Wahoo soon sighted an Otori-class torpedo boat and commenced evasive action, letting the large freighter escape. She decided to move over on the Hokkaidō-Korea shipping route and spend the night and the following day transiting to that area.

On 16 August, Wahoo sighted a freighter headed south, but made another contact in a better position for attack. Shifting targets, she launched one torpedo at a medium-sized freighter. It missed. The next day, the scene was repeated with the same results. No pursuit was undertaken, in hopes of a loaded target heading south. However, Wahoo sighted a freighter heading north in ballast and commenced a submerged approach. Morton launched one torpedo which missed. Just as the torpedo left its tube, a southbound freighter passed close aboard this target, but the torpedo missed. Wahoo then surfaced and chased the southbound freighter. While pursuing this ship, the submarine sighted another target well ahead and away from the coast, so she again shifted targets. While tracking this new target, she passed two small northbound ships – one looked like a tug and the other resembled a tanker. Wahoo made a submerged approach and launched a torpedo at the medium-sized freighter. It was a miss. She fired again; still a miss, but this torpedo, probably broaching, exploded. The submarine surfaced and headed further out to sea.

Within four days, twelve Japanese vessels were sighted; nine were hunted down and attacked to no avail. Ten torpedoes broached, made erratic runs, or were duds. In light of the poor torpedo performance, ComSubPac ordered Wahoo to return to base.

On 19 August, the submarine sighted a ship and commenced tracking, but she withheld her fire when her crew recognized the flag as Soviet (an ally of the United States at the time). Wahoo made for La Perouse Strait. The next day, she sighted a sampan and fired warning shots across the bow. When the sampan failed to stop, the submarine opened up on it with her 20 mm and four-inch guns. The sampan was soon a wreck. Six Japanese fishermen surrendered and were taken on board as prisoners of war. Eight hours later, Wahoo opened fire on two more sampans, enveloping them in flames. Members of the crews jumped overboard but showed no desire to be rescued. Wahoo completed the passage of Etorofu Strait, and then arrived at Midway on 25 August. She immediately got underway for Pearl Harbor, and she arrived there on 29 August.

**Seventh patrol and loss, September–October 1943 - **Morton, smarting from that last luckless patrol, asked to return to the Sea of Japan, and permission was granted. He elected to take a full load of the newly arrived Mark 18 electric torpedo rather than take the risk that further production runs of the Mark 14 steam torpedoes might still be defective. Wahoo got underway from Pearl Harbor, topped off fuel and supplies at Midway on 13 September, and headed for La Perouse Strait. The plan was to enter the Sea of Japan first, on or about 20 September, with Sawfish following by a few days. At sunset on 21 October, Wahoo was supposed to leave her assigned area, south of the 43rd parallel, and head for home. She was instructed to report by radio after she passed through the Kurils. Nothing further was ever heard from Wahoo.

On 25 September 1943 the Taiko Maru was torpedoed in the Sea of Japan; mistakenly credited to the USS Pompano (SS-181), it was apparently sunk by Wahoo.[25]

Wahoo - On 5 October, the Japanese news agency Domei announced to the world that a steamer, the 8,000 long tons (8,100 t) Konron Maru, was sunk by an American submarine off the west coast of Honshū near Tsushima Strait, with the loss of 544 lives. The victims included two Japanese congressmen of House of Representatives, Choichi Kato and Keishiro Sukekawa. Postwar reckoning by JANAC showed Wahoo sank three other ships for 5,300 tons, making a patrol total of four ships of about 13,000 long tons. The sinking of Konron Maru enraged the Japanese navy, and the Maizuru Naval District ordered a 'search and destroy' operation for US submarines.

Japanese records also reported that on 11 October, the date Wahoo was due to exit through La Pérouse Strait in the morning, Wahoo was bombarded from Cape Sōya. An antisubmarine aircraft (likely an Aichi Jake float plane) sighted a wake and an apparent oil slick from a submerged submarine. The Japanese initiated a combined air and sea attack with numerous bombs and depth charges throughout the day. Sawfish had been depth-charged by a patrol boat while transiting the strait two days before, and the enemy's antisubmarine forces were on the alert; their attacks fatally holed Wahoo, and she sank with all hands. She was declared overdue on 2 December 1943 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 6 December 1943.

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This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Resources:

http://www.oneternalpatrol.com

++https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Wahoo_(SS-238)++

https://navy.togetherweserved.com/usn/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=ShadowBoxProfile&type=Person&ID=502005&source=fold3

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/94616428:6224?tid=&pid=&queryId=4bf0351594f83d44270456bf784f7cf2&_phsrc=tqd5557&_phstart=successSource

https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=1122&h=8011&tid=&pid=&queryId=bf920bf856b0e6a3f17ab0c2d076e873&usePUB=true&_phsrc=tqd5561&_phstart=successSource

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/20391776:1143?tid=&pid=&queryId=bf920bf856b0e6a3f17ab0c2d076e873&_phsrc=tqd5563&_phstart=successSource

https://fleetsubmarine.com/ss-128.html

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/20492425:1143?tid=&pid=&queryId=e1812232508ea240ebff8601fe5f0868&_phsrc=tqd5566&_phstart=successSource

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/44591462:1143?tid=&pid=&queryId=bf920bf856b0e6a3f17ab0c2d076e873&_phsrc=tqd5564&_phstart=successSource

Keeter, Dalton Christopher, CMoMM