[Bubblehead1980]

In the US submarine service of WW II, Yes, Captains were mostly in positions that qualify as a desk job, even if in command of a submarine squadron etc, they typically were ashore. However, when coordinated attack groups aka wolfpacks first began in 1943, the groups were commanded by a Captain, who would go to sea aboard one of the subs in the group in order to coordinate the attacks, as he had tactical command. However, through trial and error, it was found that things worked better by placing the senior skipper of the pack in tactical command, so for most part the Captains stopped going to sea.

In 1944 and 1945, on a few occasions a senior officer holding rank of Captain would take command of a submarine for one patrol, rarely two, but was not the permanent CO, kind of in command on a interim basis. This provided chance to senior officers to gain war patrol and command experience, possibly also provided service as "place holders" until those of LCDR (typical rank of sub CO in the war) could be assigned . If I recall, Captain Voge, a key member of Lockwood's staff(commanded Sea Lion at start of war, which was severely damaged in Cavite Air Raid Dec 10 1941, and later scuttled at the pier to avoid capture. Voge made patrols in command of Sailfish ) in 1942 before promoted to Captain and assigned to Lockwoods staff in 1943. Voge assigned was given command of a sub later in the war for one patrol.

Captain Charles W. "Weary" Wilkins is another example, as he was given command of Seahorse (SS-304) from July-November 1944, in which he conducted one war patrol, which was successful, but was just a temporary CO after the departure of Slade D. Cutter, her her well known and successful captain's fifth patrol. There were others who did this as well.

In SH 4, the realism is fudged a bit as player can reach rank and just keep on making patrols. Far too easy to achieve the rank as well. In my TMO update, I made it difficult to reach this rank if player runs sim at full realism as intended as it requires twenty patrols of high rating. I may raise the requirement. While I have added wolfpacks, there is unfortunately no way to command AI subs which are part of wolfpacks and no way to tie the rank of Captain. The ranks of Rear Admiral etc are not available so player won't be assigned to desk duty due to promotion as they should be.