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C. J. "Jim" Newman grew up in the Mooresville fast inside a submarine. When attacking the enemy, the
community in Falls County. torpedoes would be fired in a spread toward the target.
"After graduation from high school in 1942, I The submarines would then dive to deeper depths, into
l started trying to find a job," he recalls. When my the wind and toward deeper sea. ..
brother Louis, who was in the Army Air Corps came "When the Japanese were hunting for you, we
home on leave, he decided I should go to Texas A &M would rig for silent running or even stop completely.
.. University. He paid for my first semester's tuition and When we were being depth charged, everyone listened
• helped me get a job on a hog farm, which is now the intently. If you heard a 'click- click' sound, that was the
golf course. sound of the detonators making contact on the depth
"I had just turned 17 after I entered A &M and was charge. Thr also meant they were real close and the
in the horse calvary. I didn't mind the marching, the next sound would be the blast, which would cause the tii
• '• orders, cleaning the barns or taking care of the horses. boat to shake, tremble and groan. If you couldn't pray
What got to me at A &M was chemistry. After flunking before going aboard a submarine, when you got depth il
chemistry, I decided the Navy was the place for me and charged, you learned rather quickly. There were no
joined in January 1943." atheists on board." AI
Newman was sent to San Diego for "boot camp" Near the end of the war Newman and his crew
and from there to quartermaster school. That soon were put on rescue duty. They were stationed off the <:
• changed because the Navy needed more landing -craft coast of Japan and their job was to locate and rescue lt
4 sailors than quartermasters so that was where he was B -29 pilots who were shot down. This duty had special
headed until he heard about an opportunity to become meaning for Newman because his brother, Louis, was
a submariner. one of those B -29 pilots. One pilot they rescued had to
"I thought submarine duty would be a lot better sty aboard the sub for almost a month and became like
deal than operating a landing craft so I volunteered. one of the crew. ,
They had all the volunteers take some tests and they "0n August 14, 1945, we were off the coast of
selected four of us. All four were from Texas," he says. Formosa and I was just coming off the 4 a.m. watch
"I thought I would be going to submarine school; when I passed the radio shack and I heard the
instead they put me aboard an old S class submarine Japanese had surrendered. I gave the message to the
built in the 1920s as a mess cook. I learned how to be control room. They woke the captain and the captain
a submariner on the job. We had to know everyone's woke the crew and everyone had a sip of whiskey and
job except the electricians. We ended up in Dutch celebrated," Newman recalls.
' Harbor, Alaska, as our duty station. It was too cold, had He returned to A &M after the war, got his degree,
•, too much snow and the tides were too great to have S with a little help from his friends and professors in
boats operating our of there so they sent us back to chemistry, graduated in 1948. He worked and retired '
San Diego." from Central Freight Lines in Bryan after 38 years on
Newman was eventually sent to Midway Island the job.
on a sub tender. At Midway he transferred to the USS Newman spent 307 days on patrol and made over
Tilefish 307 and remained part of its crew until the end 700 dives as a crew member of the USS Tilefish. Of the '
. of the war. He continues his story: 140 men who served aboard her during � . ' Y� 9 the war, 40 are
"There were 70 enlisted men and 8 officers still alive and they get together annually. The pilot they
aboard ship. There weren't enough bunks for everyone kept aboard for a month also attends the reunion.
': ; so when one sailor got out, another got in. My first "We had a rule on the Tilefish. If you came back
r;; patrol was north of Japan off the Russian coast. The from patrol and hit the shore, you could walk away if fir
seas were heavy and the periscope kept fogging up. It you wanted," he says. "No one ever did."
was standard procedure to put tobacco juice on it to Jim Newman's name can be found on the Brazos
prevent fogging. I got the job of manufacturing and Valley Veterans Memorial. For more information, to
7 applying the tobacco juice, in heavy seas. make a contribution, or if you know a World War 11 vet -
"The submarine would stay submerged during eran whose story needs to be told, contact the BVVM
the day and come up at night to recharge the batteries at www.veterans- memorial.org, or Bill Youngkin at
and refresh the air inside. It could get real rank, real 979 - 260- 7030.