[Macgregor the Hammer]

Captain's Personal Log R.A.MacGregor
April 4, 1942
I finally have command of my own boat! I joined the Navy in ‘32, spent 4 years in the surface fleet on destroyers and my request for transfer to the submarine service was granted. Many of my peers thought this move was tantamount to career suicide. I didn't. I see submarines as a large part of our future navy.
My first boat was the S-20 in ‘34. My first impression was I had made a terrible mistake. The S-20 leaked in every flange and gasket. It smelled of mildew, body odor and rot. It handled like a crippled whale; slow to turn, surface and dive. Fortunately, I only did 2 patrols in the Atlantic until I was transferred to the USS Shark, a Porpoise class boat. Our home port was Mare Island, Calif. Our captain, Commander Benneker, was a man of foresight and vision with the mission of the fleet submarine. Submarines were treated mainly as reconnaissance platforms and Pete Benneker, along with other skippers including myself were trying to change that line of thought. As with every other Naval vessel on the west coast, we were sent to Pearl Harbor after the attack.
December 7, 1941 changed everything. Our ‘ships of the line’, the battleships are lying in ruins in Pearl Harbor. It may sound cold, but I believe it was a blessing in disguise. The 19th century thinking of two battle lines facing each other in parallel raining projectiles down on each other has gone the way of the Dodo. The aircraft carrier and the submarine is the way of the future. Aircraft carriers and submarines are all we have left at this point. Clyde ‘Johnny’ Johnson, my best friend since college, were in the O-club at Pearl discussing our vision of the submarine where we were overheard by an Admiral Charles Lockwood, Chief of Staff Submarine Forces Pacific. He was impressed with what we had to say. We spoke of using the sub in a much more autonomous fashion. He wanted to start using the 'wolfpack' strategy that has been so successful for Germany. I told him that we have to starve Japan to death by focusing on their merchant fleet, denying shipping lanes and being a 'wild card' in surface battles. Much was discussed that evening and I thought Admiral Lockwood was sincerely interested in what we had to say
About a week after that meeting, I was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and given my command by none other than Admiral Lockwood. He told me that I was the type of skipper he was looking for. My new boat, the USS Grouper, a Gato class boat was due in a couple days from Mare Island. I would be on the pier to wait for her
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April 20, 1942
I watched the Grouper thread her way through the harbor distruction with the help of a tug boat. The band on the pier was playing. She tied up and the crew disembarked. A couple hours later, I met with Lieutenant Commander Stevens, the skipper. With the crew on the mole, we went through the change of command ceremony. The crew dismissed, I asked all the officers to meet me at a small restaurant in Honolulu. I wanted to meet them in a casual scenario to see who I would be working with.
We met a 1900 and ordered drinks. The talk was light and casual. My new XO, Lieutenant Paul was a tall, laconic sailor from Maine. He had a shock of blond hair and intelligent blue eyes. He listened more than he spoke. Answers to my questions were well thought out. He had a dry, intelligent sense of humor. I liked him. I knew we would work well together. The rest of the group were good men anxious to go to war with Japan.
We were due to leave on our first patrol in about 3 weeks. During that time we would take small cruises around the islands to shake out the boat. During this time, I wanted the crew to get used to my methods. We were also going to drill. We were going to go through scenarios again and again. I wanted the crew able to do their job in their sleep. Our first exercise was a long circle around the island. We went through crash dives, emergency surface, damage control scenarios and numerous torpedo drills. I had the torpedo fire control party running plots on almost every vessel around the harbor. A week of this had the crew tired but confident. My philosophy was to 'Bleed in training, sweat in combat!'. I gave them a 48 hour pass. It would be their last for a while. We were going to sail into harm's way.