During my time at Electric Boat, I was privileged to work with John Borden Hess. John had come to EB after his retirement from the Navy. He was USNA Class of 1937, and had served through the Second World War in submarines in the Pacific. At the war's end, John was Commanding Officer of USS Pomfret (SS391). In that command, John made four war patrols originating from Pearl Harbor in October 1944, and January, April and July 1945. Pomfret was credited with sinking three enemy ships of 14,000 tons total displacement.
The following description of John's actions off the coast of Japan in February 1945 is drawn from Silent Victory by Clay Blair, Jr. (Lippincott, 1975). It speaks, I think, to the nature of the man:
"Pomfret, commanded by John Hess, made a spectacular rescue. A pilot from the carrier Cabot was forced to ditch in the outer waters of Tokyo Bay. Fighters circled over Pomfret, guiding Hess to the rubber life raft. Hess fearlessly took Pomfret into these restricted waters and rescued the pilot, Ensign R. L. Buchanan. During this same bold operation, Hess picked up another pilot, Lieutenant Joseph P. Farrell from Hornet, and a Japanese pilot. War correspondent Ernie Pyle devoted a column to the rescue entitled 'Even If You Was Shot Down in Tokyo Harbor, the Navy Would Be In to Get You'."
When I worked with John, long after those days, he was genial, competent, and always willing to help a young engineer. He exemplified the meaning of the phrase "an officer and a gentleman" and I am proud to have known him.
This is a photograph of USS Sterlet (SS392), sister ship to
Pomfret.
They were launched on the same day in 1943, at Portsmouth Naval
Shipyard.