SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - Submarine hero dies, but that's not the whole story

submarine hero dies the kind you never hear about

This story above needs to be read to understand the last forty years of a real hero. John died with 71 cents in his pocket.

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John Yoshikawa Kuapahi, believed to be the first Asian-American assigned duty aboard a nuclear submarine, was awarded a U.S. Navy commendation for averting a “major disaster” when fire struck the USS Sargo on June 14, 1960, while it was docked in Hawaii.
He had been aboard the same sub four months earlier when it became the third U.S. nuclear submarine to pass under the North Pole and the first to do so in wintertime – spending 31 days submerged.
His heroic effort fighting the fire – the first involving a U.S. nuclear-powered sub – occurred at Navy Dock 516 in Pearl Harbor – within eyesight of the U.S.S. Arizona, sunk during the Japanese attack 67 years ago today.

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Kuapahi and three other sailors were cited for “risking their own lives” and displaying “heroic efforts” in fighting the fire and helping avert what an inquiry board described as a “major catastrophe” aboard the nuclear sub.

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The fire started when an oxygen supply line on the dock malfunctioned, quickly and dangerously spreading to the torpedo room of the moored submarine. Kuapahi – as he was known at the time – was at his duty station as the ship’s nuclear operator in the adjoining engine room.

He and Nicholson, the submarine’s commander, and a handful of other sailors sealed off compartments and sank the stern of the submarine to put out the fire.
As the fire burned and destroyed wire leading through the bulkhead to the nuclear operator’s controls, Kuapahi frantically plugged the holes as the fiery stern filled with water, Nicholson said.

When a crane later lifted the 2,580-ton submarine out of the water, Navy personnel discovered that heat from the oxygen-fueled fire had “cooked off” two conventional warheads on two torpedoes. The heat also warped the sub’s stern hull and damaged its shaft and the bulkhead between the torpedo room and engine room.

The submarine’s First Class Petty Officer, Frank A. Munroe III, who now lives in Olalla, Wash., described Kuapahi as a loner, but said he was “a terrific reactor operator – the best I ever saw for paying attention to detail.

“The reactor operator is the key guy to the safety of a nuclear submarine,” Munroe said.

The submarine was repaired in Pearl Harbor and returned to fleet duty 60 days later, embarking on a still-classified assignment, Nicholson said.