USS Pintado (SS-387)
Biography
USS Pintado (SS-387) was a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy, laid down at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, on May 7, 1943 and launched September 15, 1943, and commissioned January 1, 1944. During World War II she made six war patrols in the Pacific. On her first patrol she served as flagship of a wolfpack commanded by Captain Leon P. Blair, which also included Shark (SS-314) and Pilotfish (SS-386), and took part in attacks on a Japanese convoy heading for Saipan in June 1944. On her second patrol, in the East China Sea, she sank Tonan Maru No. 2, one of the largest merchant ships sunk by an American submarine during the war. Her third patrol was conducted with a wolfpack that included Atule (SS-403) and Jallao (SS-368). She received the Presidential Unit Citation for her first three war patrols. Her fifth and sixth patrols were largely lifeguard duty off Japan in support of bomber raids, and she was on station off Tokyo Bay when hostilities ended on August 15, 1945. She was decommissioned March 6, 1946 and reclassified AGSS-387 on December 1, 1962 while in reserve, and her conning tower is now at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.
Found in 1 Collection or Record:
Frederick W. Powers Collection
The Frederick W. Powers Collection documents Powers’s service as an Electrician’s Mate aboard the USS Pintado (SS-387) during World War II, his later military service and civilian engineering careers, and his continued connection to the Pintado after the war. The collection includes certificates and cards, personnel records, photographs, a sketch, correspondence, printed materials, and a DVD.