This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Blaine Cole, MM1
to remember
Pennington, Roscoe, EMC.
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Contact Info
Last Address Fort Worth
Date of Passing Apr 10, 1963
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Other Comments:
Currently under construction.
I am searching for details of Chief Pennington's career. The dates of his promotions are estimates.
Currently unable to add stars to the combat patrol pin to denote Chief Pennington's six combat patrols.
Description The plan of the Pacific subseries was determined by the geography, strategy, and the military organization of a theater largely oceanic. Two independent, coordinate commands, one in the Southwest Pacific under General of the Army Douglas MacArthur and the other in the Central, South, and North Pacific (Pacific Ocean Areas) under Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, were created early in the war. Except in the South and Southwest Pacific, each conducted its own operations with its own ground, air, and naval forces in widely separated areas. These operations required at first only a relatively small number of troops whose efforts often yielded strategic gains which cannot be measured by the size of the forces involved. Indeed, the nature of the objectivesùsmall islands, coral atolls, and jungle-bound harbors and airstrips, made the employment of large ground forces impossible and highlighted the importance of air and naval operations. Thus, until 1945, the war in the Pacific progressed by a double series of amphibious operations each of which fitted into a strategic pattern developed in Washington.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1945
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories Spikefish began her last war patrol on 8 July with an uneventful patrol in the Yellow Sea and lifeguard duty off Shanghai. On the 24th, she bombarded Surveyor Island, off the China coast, in an attempt to destroy an enemy radar station. Shortly after midnight on 11 August, she located a small Japanese cargo ship near her lifeguard station but could not make positive identification at night. The ship was dead in the water; so Spikefish waited until morning, identified it as enemy, and sank it with gunfire. Three survivors were brought on board. On the night of 13 August, she made radar contact with a surfaced submarine. After tracking it for about an hour, the submarine submerged and disappeared from Spikefish's scope. At 0007, contact was regained and the submarine was tracked until morning, when she was sighted on the surface. Her silhouette proved her to be Japanese. Spikefish fired six torpedoes. Two hit the target which sank in a cloud of smoke. The sole survivor, who was taken prisoner, identified the submarine as 1-373.
On 15 August, an order was received to cease all attacks as Japan had agreed to surrender. The submarine delivered her prisoners to Saipan on 21 August and proceeded to Pearl Harbor.
Spikefish received three battle stars for World War II service.
On 18 March 1960, Spikefish became the first United States submarine to record 10,000 dives.
Spikefish was decommissioned on 2 April 1963 and was struck from the Navy list on 1 May 1963. She was subsequently sunk as a target.
Information courtesy of; Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs