Zeke Zellmer's Correspondence from the USS Cavalla

THE USSS STEWART: Length: 306 ft Compliment: 201 enlisted sailors, 8 officers Power: Diesel Class: Edsall Commissioned: May 31, 1943 Decommissioned: January 1947 USS Stewart (DE 238) is an Edsall-class destroyer escort built by Brown Shipbuilding in Houston. Destroyer Escorts were designed to be antisubmarine surface vessels that protected slow-moving convoys. They were small, unarmored, and thin hulled to maximize maneuverability, characteristics which earned them the nickna

THE US CAVALLA (SS 244) Length: 311 ft 9 in Compliment: 54 enlisted submariners, 6 officers Power: Diesel-Electric Class: Gato Test depth: 300 ft Commissioned: February 29, 1944 Decommissioned: June 3, 1968 On her first patrol, USS Cavalla’s crew spotted Japanese forces while in transit to her station in the Philippines. The crew was given strict orders to observe and report only. Several hours later they made their report of the convoy’s location, which led to American succe

USS TAUTOG: Length: 292 ft Compliment: 95 enlisted men, 15 officers Power: Nuclear Operating depth: more than 400m Commissioned: August 17, 1968 Decommissioned: March 31, 1997 USS Tautog was a Sturgeon-class submarine that served during the Cold War, and whose primary objective was to monitor the Soviet Union’s operations in the Pacific. Following a successful patrol surveilling Soviet cruise missile testing near Petropavlovsk in 1969, Tautog was sent to monitor a Soviet subm