Review by Booklist Review
Calvert's memoirs of his early career in submarines make excellent reading. Fresh out of Annapolis and submarine school, he began his long underwater hitch as an ensign aboard the USS Jack and finished World War II nine patrols later as executive officer of the USS Haddo. During this service, he made a name for himself as a torpedo shooter, helped train dozens of new officers and men in the intricacies of submarine warfare, married his Annapolis sweetheart and fell in love with an Australian girl, and at war's end (which was nearly that of his naval career, too) took an unauthorized sight-seeing jaunt to Tokyo in September 1945. All of this he describes vividly and with what can best be called the qualities of an officer and a gentleman, which he certainly is. --Roland Green
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In nine war patrols, the USS Jack sank 15 Japanese ships and ranked ninth in tonnage sunk by the end of the war. The author of this exciting memoir served as Torpedo Data Computer operator aboard the Jack (he was the one who aimed the torpedoes) and later as its executive officer. Calvert's book ranks with Edward Beach's Run Silent, Run Deep as an accurate, detailed, suspenseful account of submarine operations in the Pacific: the tracking and sinking of tankers, ammunition ships and a transport with a regiment of Japanese troops on board. One convoy commander whose ships crossed paths with the Jack radioed his superiors in Tokyo that he was under attack by a ``wolf pack.'' Calvert also recalls his experiences ashore between patrols, including an unconsummated romance-he was married-with an Australian woman. The memoir climaxes with an unusual account of his unauthorized tour of Tokyo immediately after the Japanese surrender, when he nearly scuttled his naval career by violating occupation rules. Calvert (Surface at the Pole) later served as superintendent of the Naval Academy, Annapolis. Photos. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Another in the recent group of books dealing with wartime memoirs (Point Man, LJ 7/93; Tin Can Man, LJ 2/1/93; Code Name: Copperhead, LJ 6/1/94), this is the story of James Calvert, who was stationed aboard the U.S. Navy attack submarine USS Jack from 1943 to the end of World War II. In a page-turner as good as any war novel, Calvert recounts the history of the eight war patrols that the Jack completed. He also describes the training involved, as well as overcoming problems like faulty torpedoes that hampered early submarine operations against the Japanese. Finally, Calvert tells about an unauthorized sightseeing trip to Tokyo that almost cost him his career. He went on to command the nuclear submarine USS Skate and become superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis. Calvert's memoir should be at home in any type of library.-Terry L. Wirick, Erie Cty. Lib. System, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A sturdy, often affecting memoir of service on and off an American submarine in WW II's Pacific theater. A retired vice admiral and sometime superintendent of the Naval Academy, Calvert recalls joining the USS Jack as a newly married ensign almost fresh out of Annapolis. On its maiden voyage in the waters off Tokyo, the Jack sent at least four Japanese cargo vessels to the bottom despite severe engine damage from an escort's attack. Power-plant woes forced the Jack to cut short its second war patrol. By early 1944, however, a complete refit equipped the ship for battle in the South China Sea; in this target-rich venue, it sank six more enemy craft, including four oil tankers. The Jack went on to compile a record that placed it ninth on the list of the 200-odd US submarines operating against Japan (in terms of tonnage sunk). In addition to engagements with hostile forces, Calvert had to survive a moral crisis. On the first of his shore leaves Down Under he fell deeply in love with the daughter of a local doctor. They eventually decided it would not be right to continue the unconsummated affair at the cost of the author's marriage. Calvert narrates this brief, bittersweet encounter with a sure touch that suggests not quite all is fair in love and war. When two atomic blasts (for which he remains perdurably grateful) accelerated the arrival of V-J day, the war-weary author was on his eighth patrol as executive officer of a new sub, the Haddo. After he and his shipmates escaped courts-martial for an unauthorized tour of defeated Japan's capital city, they were homeward bound, in Calvert's case, to continue his military career in a putatively peaceful world. A standout in a genre notable for first-rate entries. (18 b&w photos, charts)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
