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Honoring WWII Submariners
The Robalo Monument
By: Abby Ihrke
It was October 30, 1944, when Damage Control Officer Hal Wright from Antler, North Dakota,
realized that his submarine, the U.S.S Salmon, was in great danger. She was under attack by the
Japanese navy and was damaged heavily. The Salmon lost two of her four engines and was unable to
dive. Hal made it his mission to return back to the United States without being damaged any further,
which proved to be a task in itself. She left Japan and embarked on an 8,000-mile journey to San
Francisco.1
The U.S.S Archerfish was under command of Capt. Joseph Enright, from Bismarck, North Dakota,
when she came into contact with what he did not know at the time was a 75,000-ton Japanese aircraft
carrier. They went into battle on November 29, 1944, and after three separate attacks, and twelve
hours, the Archerfish finally sank the ship. When Enright got back to Midway, no one believed him that
the Archerfish had just sank the aircraft carrier, as no one knew that Japan even had one that big. After
the war was over, the navy did some research to see if this was really true. They found out that Japan
had been working on this ship throughout the entire war and kept it a secret by denying that it existed. 2
Lieutenant Commander Vern Skjonsby was from Hickson, North Dakota, and served as the
Executive Officer on the U.S.S Wahoo. The Wahoo was lost on her seventh patrol during a battle against
the Japanese in late 1943. Throughout her patrols, the submarine was known for the number of ships
1
Jim Brenan, interview with Abby Ihrke, October 27, 2008.
2
Ken Henry and Don Keith, Gallant Lady: A Biography of the USS Archerfish (New York: Tom Doherty Associates,
LLC, 2004).
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that she sunk, which totaled twenty-seven. The sunken ships and the ones she damaged brought her
total to 24,900 tons.3
Even though Wright, Enright, and Skjonsby did not serve on the U.S.S. Robalo, they are honored
at the monument dedicated to the Robalo.
When the United States Submarine Veterans of WWII erected the Robalo monument in
Lindenwood Park, in Fargo, North Dakota, in 2004, they did so to commemorate not only the
submariners who lost their lives when the U.S.S. Robalo sank, but also the submariners from North
Dakota such as Hal Wright, Joseph Enright, and Vern Skjonsby who served in WWII.
According to Kristin Hass, a professor of American Culture at University of Michigan, “The work
of any memorial is to construct the meaning of an event from fragments of experience and memory. A
memorial gives shape to and consolidates public memory: it makes history.”4 A war monument often is
part of history, however, the memorials help create public memory. There are many monuments
dedicated to wars around the globe. After World War I alone, France erected 36,000 memorials to the
1.5 million men who died during the war.5 One of the more recent monuments established within the
United States was the World War II Memorial. Since the dedication in 2004, there have been thousands
of visitors to pay their respects. Bob Dole, who was the national chairmen for the World War II
monument, made this comment on the importance of the memorial, which is also true on why there are
so many other monuments dedicated to wars across the globe.
3
Forest J. Sterling, Wake of the Wahoo (Placentia: R.A. Cline Publishing, 1999).
4
Kristin Hass, Carried to the Wall: American Memory and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (Berkeley: University of
California Press, 1998,) 9.
5
James Bennett, "From Patriotism to Peace: ." Humanist (September/October 1998), 5-9.
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The National World War II Memorial will speak for the voiceless heroes and for their comrades
who survived the deadliest war ever inflicted on the human family. It will remind today’s
generation and every generation to come that freedom is not free. It must be defended.
Sometimes with our lives. It is worth it. Whatever we may be today as a nation, it is only
because many generations of Americans were willing to make the greatest of sacrifices. We can
never forget that and, because of the World War II memorial, I believe we never will.6
Kristin Hass believes that the importance of a war monument is to, “honor, inspire, and
commemorate. It acknowledges the bravery of our allies, celebrates America’s unprecedented unity and
solidarity in a time of peril, and honors the heroic achievements and sacrifices of the entire nation in the
cause of liberty and freedom.”7 Historian James Mayo suggests that war monuments are created from
events that people want to remember and what aspects they do not include are things that they want to
forget.8
Submariners knew that they were a forgotten about group, and they wanted to change this and
show that they had a different relationship compared to other men in the military. They were confined
in such a small space and they were with the same eighty men for months at a time, with no escape.
Charles Lockwood, who is a retired Vice Admiral of the United States Navy says, “Close are the
relationships between submarine officers and their men—and staunch are the mutual loyalties which
bind them into on splendid, fighting line—non sitting on the benches.”9 The confidence level of all the
men on the submarine was high, and according to Ken Henry, who was a submariner on the Archerfish,
6
Thomas Grooms, World War II Memorial: Washington D.C. (Washington D.C., 2004), 15.
7
Grooms, 12.
8
James M. Mayo,War Memorials as Political Landscape (New York: Praeger, 1989), 13.
9
Sterling, II.
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“On a surface ship, if a man makes a mistake during an evolution, it can get people hurt or killed. On a
submarine, one man’s error can cause the entire boat and its crew to be lost.” The submariners often
went without showers while they were at sea, even though the submarine had two shower stalls. One of
the stalls was used to store potatoes and the other one was used to store garbage until it could be
dumped. There were two benefits for being on a submarine, one which was the food. The Navy realized
since submariners were confined to small spaces that they should be able to eat well. The submariners
often had home-cooked meals , with the officers and enlisted men all receiving the same food. The
other benefit that submariners had was better pay while they were in the service. However, the pay was
not the leading factor on why many men volunteered to be on a submarine.
Of course, it wasn’t the hazardous duty pay that made men like Wes Mayhew and John
Potanovic…and the rest of the Archerfish crew volunteer for submarines. The money was a plus
all right, and certainly patriotism was a big factor. It was obvious the submarines were making a
difference in the war, and especially in the Pacific. When a submarine sank a warship, it had an
immediate and visible effect on the enemy’s war effort, far more than capturing a hill on some
island or holding a line on a battlefield. 10
Submarines played an important role in World War II, and especially in the Pacific. Overall, they
attacked almost one-third of all merchant ships that they saw. 11 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
knew that submarines were going to be important, because they would be able to penetrate Japanese
waters. This was stressed at the beginning of the war, as the Navy department built thirty submarines in
1942 alone.12 At the beginning of the war, Japan and the United States were equal in terms of size and
10
Henry, 29,37.
11
Norman Friedman, U.S. Submarines Through 1945 (Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995), 234.
12
Friedman, 234.
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strength of their submarines. However, as the war went on, the Japanese submarine strength declined
to a point that they were barely able to hang on, while the United States submarines grew and became
one of the major instruments in winning the war in the Pacific.13 By the end of the war, being a
submariner meant having one of the most dangerous jobs in the war effort, as one in every four men did
not survive the war. 14
The United States Submarine Veterans group was established in 1963 in order to honor the men
lost on submarines, and also a chance for veterans to unite together. The mission statement is, “to
perpetuate the memory of our shipmates who gave their lives in the pursuit of their duties while serving
their country. That their dedication, deeds and supreme sacrifice can be a constant source of motivation
toward greater accomplishments.” Part of their goal was to establish monuments to honor all the fiftytwo submarines that sank during World War II. Since most submariners are lost at sea when they die,
they wanted to make sure that every submariner who was killed in action had a tombstone to be
remembered by. That means the 374 officers and 3,131 enlisted men who were killed, had a monument
dedicated in their honor.15
After the USSVI decided to construct the memorials for the fifty-two lost submarines, they
needed to figure out where the monuments were going to go. The group decided that each state would
either be assigned a submarine, or they could request a certain one, and that would leave two
submarines left. The New York and California chapters agreed that both of these states would have two
monuments in order to cover all 52. So thus, the construction of the monuments began.
13
W.J. Holmes, Underseas Victory (Garden City: Doubleday and Company, 1966), xiii.
14
Jim Brenan, interview.
15
U.S. Naval History Division, United States Submarine Losses: World War II (Washington D.C.: Office of the Chief of
Naval Operations, 1963), 1.
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One of the important aspects to the USSVI is the ringing of the submarine bell. Every time the
members of the group get together for a meeting, or even a dedication, they have the ringing of the
bell. They have a map of all 52 submarines that were sunk during World War II, and they announce each
one in the order sunk. After each name a light turns on where the sub went down and then a bell rings.
They do this until every submarine location has been lit up. This is significant, as it is a remembrance to
every single submarine lost and the crews of the subs. During the dedication of the Robalo monument,
this was one of the important parts.
The U.S.S. Robalo was launched from Manitowoc, Wisconsin, on May 9, 1943. She went on two
successful missions in the Pacific.16 In the first mission she damaged a large enemy freighter, and on her
second mission, she sank a 7,500-ton tanker carrying cargo badly needed for the Japanese war effort.
With these two missions, the Robalo earned two battle stars. Then she departed on her third mission on
June 22, 1944, and headed to the South China Sea. Her destination was to be waters near the Natuna
Islands. A contact came in from the Robalo on July 2, stating that she had sighted two destroyers and
aircraft escorting a battleship east of Borneo. After this message, there was no other correspondence
from the Robalo, and she was believed to be lost. However, that was not the case. On the night of July
26, 1944, the U.S.S. Robalo hit an enemy mine and was sunk. Four men were able to swim ashore to the
Paláwan Island, and were captured by the Japanese Military Police. They were taken as prisoners of war,
and on August 15, they were evacuated and put onto a Japanese destroyer. After this point, these four
men were never to be heard from again. One of these men wrote the information about the sinking
while he was a prisoner of war and threw it out the window of his cell. It was found by another
American soldier who was on work detail. There were 81 men under the command of M.M. Kimmel,
16
Naval Historical Center, USN Ships- U.S.S. Robalo (SS-273), January 19, 2003.
http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-r/ss273.htm (accessed November 21, 2008).
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who perished on the U.S.S. Robalo on that fateful night. 17 To this day, the U.S.S. Robalo has never been
found, nor is it known what actually happened that fateful night.
The USSVI assigned North Dakota to have a monument in dedication to the Robalo, and with
that, the leader of the North Dakota UUSVI chapter, Jim Brenan, went to work. In 2002, Jim met with
Roger Gress, who is the Executive Director of the Fargo Parks Board, about putting a monument
someplace in Fargo. It was decided that with the design and meaning behind the monument, it should
be placed in Lindenwood Park, which is the second oldest park in Fargo. Jim went to the Fargo Parks
Board in February of 2003 to approve the placement of the monument.18 During all of this, Jim worked
on getting private donations (with none of the money coming from the City of Fargo) and the design
finalized for the monument. He worked with two other submarine veterans from World War II. They
included Bob Newton from Moorhead and Dave Boisjoile from Fargo. As a group, these men received
funding from the Illinois-Missouri chapter located in St. Louis, and the national organization also
provided some funding. The rest of the money came from individuals and some businesses that helped
create the monument, by donating some of the parts that it took to build the monument. None of the
money came from the Fargo Parks Board, and with their approval, they were able to establish the
monument. The Parks Board agreed that they would maintain the monument for the group.19
The cost estimate for creating the monument was set at $25,000. With the help of Dakota
Monument Company, the three men were able to pick out what they wanted the monument to look like
exactly. When it came time to put the monument up, the cost for all the cement was $7,000. However,
with all of the generous donations from the local businesses, they were able to keep the cost to around
17
U.S. Naval History Division, United States Submarine Losses: World War II (Washington D.C.: Office of the Chief of
Naval Operations, 1963), 100.
18
Roger Gress, interview by Abby Ihrke, October 22, 2008.
19
Terry DeVine, "Submariners Honor Lost Comrades," The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, September 21, 2003: A18.
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$25,000.20 Much of the support came from Dakota Monument, as they even donated one of the
benches at the monument. Some of the other businessmen who supported the monument included
John Gunkelman from Fargo Construction and Jim Heyer of Heyer Engineering.21 Jim Brenan stated that,
“The monument would have been more expensive if people were not as nice.”
The actual monument dedicated to the Robalo is unlike other monuments around the United
States established by this group. Many other monuments have a torpedo as the main centerpiece for
the monument. Jim and the others did not want this, as they “did not want to relive their youth, and
wanted it to be a true memorial.” Instead, what they did was make the monument very simple and has
on one side the story of the Robalo, and on the other the names of every submariner who was killed
when she sank. In addition to this, Jim and the others wanted to honor the submariners from North
Dakota who served in World War II. They did this by placing their names on a stone that is directly
behind the main monument. When they first put the names on the stone, they had extra room on the
stone, however, as time went on, more men came forward that they were submarine veterans and thus,
the stone is now completely full of veterans. 22
The third aspect that Jim and the others decided was to honor three submariners from North
Dakota who were particularly important during the war. These three men were Hal Wright, Joseph
Enright, and Verne Skjonsby. Hal Wright was on the U.S.S. Salmon, and he successfully maneuvered the
submarine on the surface across the entire Pacific Ocean without being damaged anymore. This was an
8,000-mile journey during the height of the war. When she got to San Francisco, she was determined to
be unrepairable and was decommissioned in September of 1945.
20
Jim Brenan interview.
21
DeVine, “Submariners Honor Lost Comrades.”
22
Jim Brenan interview.
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Joseph Enright was on the U.S.S. Archerfish, which is credited with sinking the largest ship ever
sunk by a United States submarine. This was a 75,000-ton Japanese aircraft carrier that the United
States did not know Japan even had. However, before this great accomplishment, Joseph actually
decommissioned himself as a captain of another submarine after he failed on a mission and felt that he
was not ready for such a big task. According to the book Gallant Lady, “It eventually took a sudden
death and a fortuitous poker game to get Captain Joseph F. Enright back on the bridge of a submarine
where he belonged.”23
Verne Skjonsby served on the U.S.S. Wahoo, which is credited with sinking seventeen ships
before she sank. This was the second-best record for submarines in sinking ships. Verne actually did not
come aboard the Wahoo until her last patrol, and was excited to become the new Executive Officer such
a successful submarine. According to the book Wake of the Wahoo, the captain saw this in Verne. “He
handed me a slip of paper and went forward, looking about him with the satisfied expression of an
officer who has been on shore duty for some time and just returned to a boat. I looked at the slip. He
was from Hickson, North Dakota.”24
To commemorate these three men, Jim and the two other men decided to place a bench on
each side of the monument with their names on it. They also had their stories put on three separate
rocks that are placed by the walkway up to the monument.25
The importance of creating this monument was not only to honor the submariners who served
in World War II, but also to honor the families of the submariners. When many families found out that
23
Henry, 60.
24
Sterling, 186.
25
Jim Brenan, U.S.S. Robalo Monument. Lindenwoood Park, Fargo.
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their loved one was killed during the war on one of the submarines, that is all they found out. They
never received a body, and hardly received any more information than that they were no longer alive.
The monument helps give families some closure with the loss of their loved ones. In terms of the
submariners from North Dakota, Jim and the others wanted to make sure that there was somewhere
where the veterans could be remembered and respected, and this is exactly what was achieved. The
remembrance is important to Brenan and the others, as one in every four submariners did not survive
World War II. That equaled 3,131 crewmen who did not survive.26
When the monument was completed, Jim and Roger picked a date for the dedication, July 23,
2005, at 3:30pm. This was nearly a year after the monument was completed. The Fargo Parks Board was
hoping for thirty-five people to attend the dedication, and they ended up having over 350 people
attend. Jim thought that there would have been more, but some people turned around and went home
as they could not find a parking space.27 The dedication featured remarks from Jim, Roger, and also Art
Randall, who was the Vice President of the USSVI. At this time, there were nine submarine veterans of
World War II from North Dakota who were alive, and eight of them were present for the dedication. The
ninth member would have been there, however, due to his health, he was not allowed to travel. The
number of people who attended showed everyone how important the monument was not only to
veterans of World War II, but also the community of Fargo-Moorhead.28
This monument continues to be important to the area, as it is still visited regularly by people.
The monument is placed in a well-seen area and right off the walking path, which makes people
interested in what it is when they walk by. In addition, the Parks Board regularly has flowers around the
monument and makes the area a peaceful and attractive place. With being such a new monument, the
26
Jim Brenan interview.
27
Roger Gress interview.
28
Jim Brenan interview.
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idea behind the monument is still fresh in peoples’ minds. Jim and the others hope that in ten to fifteen
years, the monument will not be forgotten about, like so many other monuments in this area.
When the United States Submarine Veterans of WWII erected the Robalo monument in
Lindenwood Park, in Fargo, North Dakota, it was not only to commemorate the submariners who lost
their lives when the U.S.S. Robalo sank, but also the submariners from North Dakota such as Hal Wright,
Joseph Enright, and Vern Skjonsby who served in WWII.
The Robalo monument was created to commemorate the past, which is exactly what Kristin
Hass believes the importance of memorials are. Most importantly, this monument serves to honor and
commemorate the submariners who lost their lives in the war. The Robalo monument follows what
historians in general say about historical monuments, it was put in place to remember an event and was
shown in a way that promoted the United States.
Submariners have a sense of pride for their service to the country, and they are not afraid to tell
their stories, as they realize that they are a forgotten about group. The monument gives people a
broader knowledge and may spark interest in submarines during wars. This is what the Robalo
monument and all of the other monuments that the USSVI has taken time to establish.
So, why should the public care about this monument, and especially the Robalo? The story
behind the Robalo is interesting and shows the importance of submarines in the war in the Pacific. The
Robalo submariners were faced many times with dangerous situations and when they sank, the four
men were brave when they were prisoners of war. In addition, the monument gives the public a chance
to see the bravery of the submariners from North Dakota. The stone that has all the submariners from
North Dakota on it shows the public that North Dakota is proud of the submariners who served their
country during the war. The benches represent three people who held important positions on
submarines, and the impact that they had on the war.
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The wartime contributions of submariners in general are frequently forgotten. When people talk
about World War II, they generally focus on the War in Europe, and when they do talk about the war in
the Pacific, it is mainly the land assaults, destroyers, and the atomic bomb. This monument is different
compared to other monuments across the United States, as it will continue to serve the purpose of
remembering the fallen and forgotten submariners of World War II. On the monument, there is an
explanation of the importance of the Robalo, and in addition, the three submariners from North Dakota
that are honored. Submariners know that they are a forgotten about group, and in order to educate
others on their importance during the war, they knew they had to include extra information on the
monument. The addition information will help future generations when they come across the
monument be able to understand what happened to the Robalo and why the monument was
established.
One theme that comes from this monument, along with other war monuments, is the
democratic sense that they portray. Most monuments are created to remember a general, or a
significant person in the war, however, the Robalo monument was created to honor every submariner
that perished when she sunk.
Investing in the memorial and honoring the men who served our country on a submarine is
important to the public. With submarines being a forgotten about group, taking the time to
commemorate them and their actions is important to show respect that we have towards them. The
Robalo monument helps with this as an individual can go and pay respects to the men that served on
not only the Robalo, but also the men from North Dakota who served on a submarine during World War
II.
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