Ol'Harry

SUMNER SUBMARINER

A U. S. submarine came upon an unsuspecting convoy of Japanese ships in the Java Sea on March 15, 1945.  After the sub torpedoed the lead ship, the second ship peeled off to counterattack, whereupon the submarine torpedoed the third ship and quickly submerged.

After hitting the ocean floor at a depth of 100 feet and miring in 10 feet of mud, the sub became unnavigable – the crew of the USS Bream lay helpless as a five-hour barrage of over 25 depth charges rained around their boat.

HOWARD CLARK -- USS BREAM SS-243

Retired Greensboro businessman, Howard Clark, was a Fireman 1^st Class on the Bream, “I can assure you every crewmember was praying hard that night, only God could have gotten us out of that predicament.”

Six decades later, Clark believes prayers worked for him again, “My wife, Joan, was diagnosed with scleroderma.  Johns Hopkins doctors gave her a year to live.  Submariner prayer chains across the country interceded for her, God gave us seven more years together – she died in 2004 at the age of 69.”

After graduation from Sumner High School at 16, Clark worked in a Newport News, Virginia shipyard, “I came home and decided to join the Navy – it was a chore getting in, since I had just quit a draft exempt job.”

Ordinarily, Clark would have left for the war zone after boot camp at Bainbridge, Maryland, diesel school at Dearborn, Michigan, and submarine school at New London, Connecticut, “However, I heard about a secret two-week testing program, with the caveat of a one-week leave for home.  Twelve of us volunteered.” 

He is quick to admit, “That was the craziest thing I ever did – they tested mustard gas suits on us at Walter Reed Hospital, I still have blisters to show for it, but received no major damage!”  A VA-funded study recently linked the tests with a long list of adverse health effects, and provided a toll-free number for assistance.

Clark took a troop train to San Francisco, a troopship to New Guinea, a freighter to Brisbane, Australia and rail-car to Freemantle, where he eventually went aboard the USS Bream.

Discounting the five-hour barrage of depth charges, Clark has fond memories of his World War II submarine service, “We rescued a P-51 pilot on one occasion and later searched for the crew of a downed B-25.  Even though both planes went down in enemy waters, we were able to rescue five of the six aviators.

Before transferring the aviators to other vessels we were attacked by Japanese bombers.  The aviators became quite antsy, and told us they much preferred dropping bombs from the sky to taking bombs in the water.”

 

Another favorite memory involves landing teams of Australian commandos, “We dropped them off for raids on several islands and recovered those who survived later – they were the bravest men I’ve ever known.  After the war, we learned that two of the commandos had been captured and beheaded.”

 

The USS Bream was being overhauled in San Francisco when Japan surrendered.

“After the war, I joined my dad, who was operating a service station at 535 South Elm Street.  Earl Noble, whose fighter pilot son had been killed in World War II, operated a Hertz truck rental from our station.  He introduced me to the Hertz folks in Richmond.  In 1948, they sent us one rental car.”

Over the next 40 years, Clark’s Hertz rental operations expanded to the point that cars were ordered by the hundreds.  Operations moved through various Greensboro locations -- East Washington Street, the King Cotton Hotel, East Market Street, the airport and Sycamore Street -- as well as several other Triad locations and Fayetteville.  “Our business progressed well, but at a cost, I worked two shifts, seven days a week for at least 15 years.”

HOWARD CLARK LIKED TO SUBMARINE HIS
FRIENDS AT FRIENDS HOME WEST

Howard Clark’s submariner roots still run deep.  At 92 years of age, he is active in the U.S. Submarine Veterans, Inc. and attends numerous submariner functions and reunions. 

Visitors to the Carolina Field of Honor will see numerous submariner pavers – most of them placed there, thanks to Clark’s insistence that World War II submariner service never be forgotten.

He regularly returns to the North Carolina Submarine Memorial for the annual Toiling of the Bells, memorializing the 52 U.S. submarines and 3500 crewmen, “overdue and presumed lost,” in World War II.  The submarine service made up only two percent of Navy personnel, but sank over 55% of all enemy ships sunk in the Pacific.

A search for this Submarine Memorial is well worth the effort, but don’t search along the coast -- it is located on Moonshine Mountain, just outside Burnsville, North Carolina, which is a story to itself.

Another story is for the claustrophobic who insist submariners must live like family while submerged for months at a time.  Clark disagrees, “We couldn’t have lived in those sea-going sewer pipes if we acted like a family – we had to live like we trusted each other with our lives – which we did.”

HOWARD CLARK DIED 17NOV2016, AFTER THIS COLUMN HAD BEEN SUBMITTED FOR PUBLICATION.  THE FAMILY ASKED THAT IT GO FORWARD -- IT WAS PUBLISHED SATURDAY, 19NOV, HIS MEMORIAL SERVICES WERE SATURDAY 26NOV2016.