Robert Edward Welch was born on June 26, 1922 in Hartshorne, Oklahoma. At a young age Robert moved with his mother and step father (Author Ross) and younger brother (John) to Detroit, MI. After graduating High School Robert worked at the National Bank of Detroit and his step father's grocery store located on Essex Ave., Detroit.

Robert entered the United States Navy in November 1942. He trained at the Navy submarine school in Groton, Ct. After training Quartermaster Second Class Welch was assigned to USS Tang a 311ft Balao-class diesel electric submarine home ported in Pearl Harbor, HI.

The USS Tang was one of the most successful submarines to serve during WW2. The Tang and her crew were credited with sinking thirty three enemy ships along with rescuing twenty two downed allied pilots during her short wartime service.

On September 24, 1944 Quartermaster Second Class Welch and the crew of the Tang departed for her fifth wartime patrol to the dangerous Formosa Straight a body of water between China and the island of Taiwan. The area was heavily defended supply route used by the Japanese Navy. On October 24th the _Tang __attacked and sunk several Japanese freighters and a Naval Destroyer. Down to it's last torpedo the Captain of the ___Tang _ordered one final attack on the morning_ of October 25th, 1944. The _Tang_ _surfaced and the last torpedo was fired at an enemy ship. The torpedo broached and curved in a circular run. The _Tang attempted to maneuver away from the malfunctioned torpedo but was struck abreast of the aft torpedo room. Several crewman were able to jump of the conning tower before the Tang sank to the sea floor 180ft below the surface. Five other crewman miraculously escaped using the emergency escape trunk of the of the stricken submarine. All the surviving crew members were captured by the Japanese and spent the reminder of the war in captivity.

Quartermaster Second Class Robert E. Welch and seventy seven other crewman of the Tang died onboard the sunken submarine and were buried at sea. Robert and his fellow crew members are memorialized at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Manila, Philippines.

Sources:
findagrave.com
ancestry.com
Navy.mil

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project 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.

Quartermaster 2nd Class Robert E. Welch, U. S. Navy - USS Tang