George Bancroft was one of the great figures of nineteenth-century America, a historian, diplomat, and the founder of the United States Naval Academy. More than a century later, the Navy honored him by giving his name to a vessel that represented the cutting edge of Cold War deterrence. USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643) was a Benjamin Franklin-class ballistic missile submarine, part of the legendary “41 for Freedom.” From 1966 until 1993 she carried out seventy deterrent patrols, armed first with Polaris, then Poseidon, and finally Trident missiles. Her mission was never to fire, but to wait in silence, ensuring that no adversary would dare launch a nuclear strike. In this episode we tell the story of the man who gave the Navy its Academy and the submarine that bore his name, together leaving a legacy of leadership, vigilance, and commitment to the defense of freedom.

In the autumn of 1944, the submarine USS Aspro slipped out of Fremantle and into the vast expanse of the South China Sea. This was her fifth war patrol, a mission that would test the nerves of her crew and the steel of the boat against Japan’s desperate efforts to keep its sea lanes open.

For weeks the men endured the grind of patrol life, stalking convoys, dodging aircraft, and bracing against the thundering shocks of depth charges. The climax came on October 2, 1944, when Aspro closed in on a Japanese tanker hugging the coastline. With torpedoes running true and enemy aircraft swooping low, the crew fought their way through one of the most dangerous encounters of their patrol.

Tonight we tell the story of Aspro’s fifth war patrol, the men who carried it out, and the day when courage and precision made all the difference.

On June 26, 1943, the submarine USS Jack prowled the waters off Japan on her first war patrol. She was young, aggressive, and her crew carried a dangerous confidence. That morning, Jack struck hard, firing a spread of torpedoes into a convoy and sending two ships to the bottom. The crew was elated, convinced they had the war figured out.

But in the shadow of victory came disaster. A Japanese bomber swooped down and dropped a depth charge so close it blew Jack’s stern clear out of the water, wrecked her diving planes, and sent her plunging out of control. In that moment of chaos, with the submarine seconds from destruction, Torpedoman’s Mate Chief Sylvest Kohut fought to free the jammed controls and helped save the boat.

It was a narrow escape, a hard-earned lesson that in war it is always the unexpected that can kill you.