Lt. Svan, Russian Navy
Baltic Fleet NAF

This is not to belittle in any way the contributions of the USS Flier or of efforts to bring her story to light. But saying that the USS Silversides contribution was “average” is like saying SEAL Team 6 is “just a bunch of sailors.”

In the Silversides, we are talking about one of the first submarines of her class to enter combat and take the fight to the Japanese while the rest of the US Navy was rusting on the bottom of Pearl Harbor, fighting the Germans in the Atlantic or on the building ways. Her officers and crew established tactics and set an example for the rest of the submarine fleet to follow. While many submarines were able to return to the U.S. for overhaul after five patrols, Silversides soldiered on for 10 patrols and 2 1/2 years before her crew earned a stateside break and she earned a well deserved overhaul.

To assert that the Silversides’ reputation is somehow rooted only in the successful underwater appendectomy is short-sighted. The patrol on which that heroic, risky procedure was performed was one of the most successful of any sub during the war. But it wasn’t the last for the Silversides. On two more occasions, she sank three ships with a single salvo of torpedoes, sailed into the middle of convoys and blasted them apart, doggedly pursued them over hundreds of miles of ocean and looked for enemy targets right under the enemy’s nose at Guam (it’s even on film).

Also, I must question the flawed logic that says a submarine (the Silversides) that survived 14 war missions with a Presidential Unit Citation (highest award any Navy unit can earn) plus 12 battle stars and brings home a bag with at least 29 ships sunk and dozens damaged is somehow “average” while another submarine that did not survive two patrols with maybe one confirmed sinking is “remarkable.” This is not to minimize any effort by Flier’s officers and crew. But the Silversides record is remarkable by any measure.

I admire the effort to give the Flier her due. All submarines that served deserve and command our respect. But let’s not minimize others in the process. Ill-informed statements against one of the Submarine Force’s and US Navy’s legendary fighting ships tarnishes the Silversides’ shining reputation and minimizes a record that earned envy during the war years. There was never a shortage of sailors wanting to sail on board her. And why not? Out of more than 300 men who called her home, only one never returned home safely.

Minimizing the Silversides as “average” does a disservice to her and why she is even more important today than ever before.