Swede Momsen: Directing the Squalus Rescue & Recovery

During World War II, Momsen served as Commander, Submarine Squadron 2 and Commander, Submarine Squadron 4. While Momsen was Commander of Submarine Squadron 2 in the Pacific Fleet, the submarine skippers kept reporting that their torpedoes were not behaving correctly. When fired from the prescribed perpendicular angle, the torpedoes did not always explode. When fired from non-perpendicular angles, the torpedoes exploded. When Momsen's own squadron complained, he decided to find out why. He took torpedoes to the shallow waters and sheer cliffs of the Hawaiian Island of Kahoolawe and fired until he got a dud. Then, risking his own life, he dove into the water to find the unexploded torpedo. With help, he recovered the dangerous live torpedo and brought it on board. A small problem with the pin inside the primer cap was causing the problems.

Momsen earned a Navy Cross as commander of a submarine attack group in the Japanese-controlled waters of the East China Sea. Using an attack pattern he developed, the submarines sank five Japanese ships and damaged eight others. Momsen also received the Legion of Merit for commanding the U.S. Navy's first wolf pack in enemy waters from February 1943 to June 1944. The US's version of the wolfpack consisted of three submarines travelling together. When they approached and enemy convoy, one sub would attack from starboard, one from port and the last from the rear.

In November 1945, he directed a fleet of nearly 200 surplus Army and Navy ships, manned by Japanese crews, that evacuated the first of nearly 6 million Japanese from China Manchuria, Formosa and islands in the Pacific.

In addition to the Navy Cross and Legion of Merit with two Gold Stars, he earned a Distinguished Service Medal and a Navy Commendation Medal. Gold Stars are given for each subsequent award of a decoration.

He served as Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Undersea Warfare from 1948 to 1951, then became Commander of the Submarine Force's Pacific Fleet.

Vice Admiral Charles B. Momsen died of cancer on May 25,1967, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.