The USS Flier: Death and Survival on a World War II Submarine

22. Back in the USA

153 22 Back in the USA Before leaving for the United States, John Crowley traveled to Brisbane on 26 September to give a firsthand account of his evacuation from Palawan to the Seventh Fleet command.1 Along with executive officer James Liddell, Crowley was also debriefed at Pearl Harbor in early October 1944. Each man was interviewed about the Flier’s two war patrols, and a verbatim transcript was made of their comments. There are few clues as to how the loss of the Flier affected Crowley. Even during a routine war patrol, submarine commanders were under enormous stress. Decorated skipper Slade Cutter recalled having severe stomach trouble on his patrols and sleeping only a couple of hours a day while in enemy waters. He would drink up to thirty cups of coffee a day and smoke heavily to keep going, no doubt aggravating his stomach problems. A sense of responsibility for the submarine was frequently accentuated by letters from the crew’s family, pleading with the skipper to bring their loved ones home alive.2 Before his assignment to the Flier, Crowley had experienced the extreme conditions of the Aleutians, where the climate, isolation , and boredom could take a heavy toll on mental health. Cases of clinical depression were endemic among servicemen there; one military physician claimed that any man who spent more than six months in the region developed a vacant “Aleutian stare.”3 Some 154 The USS Flier submariners did not realize how badly they were affected by the stress of war patrols; only after extended periods of leave did they become fully aware of their mental states. Some, for instance, were afflicted with nightmares years after their service; others developed a lifelong aversion to loud noises.4 Psychiatric studies of World War II veterans indicate that although men could be hardened by situational stress, they could also be broken by it. During the war itself, however, there was little appreciation of how war survivors reacted to traumatic events. The diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder was not fully recognized by the American Psychiatric Association until 1980.5 In part, reactions to stress and trauma are culturally determined. Whether the combatants of World War II responded to the horrors of war in the same way as Vietnam veterans, for example, is debatable. Reactions to combat stress among World War II veterans were most often characterized by emotional reticence and repression.6 It is possible that Admiral Daubin’s inquiry in Perth helped Crowley to process and cope with the Flier’s loss. As a rite of passage , the inquiry marked a moving on from the disaster, especially since it apparently absolved Crowley of any blame. Psychiatric studies of veterans suggest that the morale and performance of the unit play an important role in maintaining mental health. Crowley took obvious pride in the Flier’s achievements on its first war patrol, and the status of the submarine service as an all-volunteer elite force within the navy may have played a significant role in maintaining sanity under extreme conditions.7 In any case, Crowley and his comrades showed remarkable resilience. Only one of the Flier survivors required medical treatment for trauma after their return to the United States, and they all apparently made quick recoveries.8 On 11 October 1944, Crowley reported for temporary duty at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C.—or BuPers, as it was generally referred to. Liddell was also assigned to temporary duty at the bureau, which was situated on a small hill near both the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery. It is likely that 155 Back in the USA their main responsibility was to verify the men lost on the Flier and write to their families. The general practice, according to Charles Lockwood, was for the navy to write to the families of missing submarine crewmen “only after the loss has been admitted.”9 Even then, the official details released were likely to be extremely sketchy, and the men’s relatives were advised to maintain secrecy for security reasons. Perhaps corresponding with the relatives of his men helped Crowley come to terms with the disaster and assuage any guilt he felt as a survivor. Yet the task of writing to relatives about the death of their loved ones was no doubt a painful process. When rescue efforts failed to save the crew of the S-4 after it...