Louisiana's Military Heritage:

     Louisiana's Memorial Submarine

USS GOLET

Fifty-two U.S. Navy submarines were lost in action during World War II.  As such, the Submarine Veterans of World War II Association later made the suggestion that each of the fifty states in the Union adopt one submarine and her crew to honor.  The states of California and New York were chosen to honor two boats and their crews.

The submarine chosen for the State of Louisiana was USS GOLET (SS-361), perhaps in part because she was built with funds raised by the citizens of Caddo Parish and the city of Shreveport, located in the northwest corner of the State of Louisiana. The men and women of the River Region chapter of Submarine Veterans of World War II set up a memorial at Gilmore Park Navy Housing Area near Naval Support Activity—New Orleans in Algiers, Louisiana.  That memorial has since been moved with the base's closure and is in the process of being relocated.

This portion of the USS KIDD Veterans Memorial website is dedicated to the USS GOLET (SS-361) and her 82 crewmen who remain to this day on Eternal Patrol.

The GOLET Memorial plaque previously displayed at

Gilmore Park in Algiers, Louisiana.  Following a base

closure, the memorial is in search of a new home.
Photo courtesy of River Region chapter of Submarine

Veterans of World War II.

USS GOLET (November 30, 1943 ~ June 14, 1944):

The Gato-class submarine USS GOLET (SS-361) was laid down by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin on January 27, 1943.   She was launched on August 01, 1943, and sponsored by Mrs. Alexander Wiley, the wife of U.S. Senator Alexander Wiley of Wisconsin.  The submarine was commissioned on November 30, 1943, with Lieutenant Commander James M. Clement in command.

USS GOLET photographed near the Manitowoc Breakwater Lighthouse tower on Lake Michigan.
Photo courtesy of NavSource.

Contributed to NavSource by Wisconsin Maritime Museum

& Larry Bonn. Photo by Harry Berns.

A sign hanging below the GOLET's sail at launching read: "This fighting ship sponsored and made possible by war

bond purchases of the people of Shreveport."
Photo courtesy of NavSource.

Contributed to NavSource by Naval Historical Center.

The GOLET departed Manitowoc on December 19, 1943, via the Mississippi River and arrived in New Orleans on December 28.   After shakedown training at Panama and final battle practice in Hawaiian waters, she departed Pearl Harbor on March 18, 1944, for her maiden war patrol off of the Kurile Island chain and the Japanese home islands of Southern Hokkaido and Eastern Honshu.   Severe combinations of fog, rain, and ice were encountered and only one ship worth a torpedo came into view.  This enemy proved too fast for GOLET to gain torpedo range.  She returned to Midway on May 03, 1944.

Commander James S. Clark took command of GOLET and departed Midway on May 28, 1944, to patrol off of northern Honshu, Japan.  A door of silence closed behind her and GOLET was never heard from again.   She had been scheduled to depart her patrol area on July 05 and was expected back at Midway around July 12 or 13.  She failed to acknowledge a message sent to her on July 09 and by July 26, 1944, the submarine and her crew were presumed lost.

Japanese antisubmarine patrol records made available after the war was concluded revealed that GOLET was the probable victim of a Japanese antisubmarine attack made on June 14, 1944, in latitude 41°04' North; longitude 14°30' East.  These records mention that the attack brought up corks, rafts, and other debris and a heavy pool of oil; all evidence of the sinking of a submarine.  Eighty-two gallant men of the Navy's "Silent Service" perished with GOLET.

Ship's Statistics

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All information listed above courtesy of the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, NavSource, On Eternal Patrol, and River Region chapter of Submarine Veterans of World War II.
All photos courtesy of U.S. Navy unless otherwise noted.

**Copyright 1997-2011 by Louisiana Naval War Memorial Commission**