Howard W. Gilmore

The submarine continued to take a heavy toll on shipping on its fourth war patrol, and during the night of 6–7 February 1943, it approached a convoy stealthily for a surface attack. Suddenly a convoy escort named Hayasaki closed and prepared to ram. As the small ship charged out of the darkness, Gilmore sounded the collision alarm and shouted, "Left full rudder!" — to no avail. Perhaps inadvertently, Growler hit the Japanese adversary amidships at 17 knots (31 km/h), heeling the submarine 50 degrees, bending 18 feet of its bow sideways to port, and disabling the forward torpedo tubes.

Gilmore commanded his submarine skillfully during four Pacific War patrols. During his first, on 5 July 1942 Growler attacked three enemy destroyers off Kiska, sinking one and severely damaging the other two, while narrowly avoiding two torpedoes fired in return, for which Gilmore received the Navy Cross.

During October 1942, Growler patrolled off Truk in the Caroline Islands as part of a repositioning of submarine assets on the way to Brisbane, Australia. No significant action occurred.

Gilmore served as the executive officer of the submarine USS Shark (SS-174) (USS Shark), and in a near-fatal incident during the submarine's shakedown cruise, narrowly survived an assault by a group of thugs in Panama, who cut his throat during an excursion ashore. He had to deal with several other instances of tragedy in his life, including the death of his first wife from disease, and at the time of his Medal of Honor action his second wife was still in a coma from a fall she had taken down a flight of stairs. In 1941, he assumed his first command, USS Shark (SS-174), only to be transferred the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor to command the still-unfinished submarine USS Growler (SS-215).

Howard Walter Gilmore (September 29, 1902 – February 7, 1943) was a submarine commander in the United States Navy who posthumously received the Medal of Honor for his self-sacrifice during World War II.

Howard Gilmore was born in Selma, Alabama, September 29, 1902 and enlisted in the Navy November 15, 1920. In 1922 he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy by competitive examination. Standing 34th of a class of 436, Gilmore was commissioned in 1926 and reported to the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41). Gilmore underwent submarine training during 1930 and in the years that followed served in various submarines and at stations ashore.