Al Krause, Jr., served aboard the Cobia from 1951 until decommissioning sometime in 1952. He was a Sonarman striker and eventually made SO3(SS) before leaving for the USS Picuda(384). He now hails from both Texas and Florida and can be reached at Borg1005@aol.com
 

A pleasant surprise when I ran across this page, as I thought the old girl had
been sent to the breakers years ago. I transferred from the USS Fulton(AS11)
in New London to the her in 1951 as a Sonarman striker and made S03(SS) there.
One of the few who never went through sub school -- just transferred over the
side.

Before I was transferred, one of my jobs was to remove the WWII "Blastphones"
(a board lit up showing the direction of the depth charge blast). I could
knock the sensors off the hull with a hammer, they were so rusty. I though,
"Boy, these guys sure earn their hazardous duty pay". A week later I was told
she was my new home.

The pictures were a trip down memory lane as I spent a lot of time cycling
between those bow and stern plane stations.
My bunk was in the forward torpedo room, next to the bow plane motors. Every
so often the planes would hit the stops
and there'd be a loud "THWOCK", accompanied by a brilliant blue-white flash.
Got my attention every time.

I notice some armament changes -- when I was aboard she had a 5"/25 snub-nosed
cannon with a vicious muzzle blast. Unlike other 5" ammo, we used fixed
rounds. Fore and aft of the conning tower she had a single-barrel 40mm, one of
which still sported bullet holes in the shell ejection chute, from the Japs.
There was a platform on the deck, aft of the conning tower where a 20mm
single-barrel cannon used to be. She also had a dent in the hull where a
sampan rammed her. The log book said the quartermaster was killed in that
action.

One time we were the subject of a "rescue" operation where we lay on the
bottom and had divers attach hoses and blow the tanks. We did a "Half
Pickerel" and surfaced with a 26 degree up angle on the bow. We talked about
that for weeks.

When she was decomissioned, I transfered to the Picuda(382)
-- snorkle boat -- and finished my hitch on her in Key West as a target for
the surface craft sonar school students.

Now that I know where the Cobia's berthed, I definitely will be making a trip
to Wisconsin to check her out.