deerbolt wrote:
> and patrolled all the way to pearl and zig-zagged all over the eastern quadrant
That may be part of the problem -- when assigned to a particular station, you generally have to remain in that vicinity for a set period of time (typically 72 hours, using RSRDC). Otherwise, you're just burning gas to no particular purpose. You always have the discretion to go tearing off after some contact reported by other boats that might be passing nearby -- try it, it works -- but otherwise you need to remain on station for the required time. You may or may not be in a high-traffic shipping lane, but that's where you're ordered, so that's where you go.
Dick O'Kane adopted the practice, when on station in an area that was not too "hot" in enemy air patrols, of simply letting the boat drift, rather than remain underway. While the motion of the boat took some getting used to, it conserved fuel and extentended Tang's time-on-station considerably.
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