After taking a wide loop, running parallel to the convoy, I got several miles ahead of them. It's a long, time consuming process. The entire process took several hours. I sunk below the surface and waited. I didn't have to wait long before they came.

Once again, I was looking through the periscope, at the dreaded convoy. The convoy was moving slow, accounting for the "heavily damaged" carrier. The two escorts I had "sunk" a few hours before had red cloth draped over the side, signaling they were "sunk".

I carefully calculated how fast they were going, and fired all my torpedoes. "Periscope down" I called. Again, the buzz of the small motor lowering it down. Again, it sank about a foot lower. I peered through. I watched my torpedoes cut through the water, 2 headed for the carrier, finishing it off. The other two torpedoes were headed right for the two heavy cruisers.

I had a hard decision to make now, with four torpedoes, I could possibly sink four escorts or the battleship. And then the unthinkable happened. Four flares launch up. But next to the battleship. They're. not. mine. I was baffled.

I called to the radar man. "Enter the US universal code for submarines and find who that was." Two bright flashes. Ah. There goes the aircraft carrier.

The radar man -Levi, I remembered- called up. "Sir, that's S-23. She's another S-class. She's doing her test as well. Her captain is John R. Pierce."

"Well crap" I said under my breath. You can say we have a history together.

"Tube one loaded sir!" The torpedoe man radioed up. That brought me back to reality. I jumped for the periscope, knowing we'd have several destroyers inbound. What? There was one. The other 12 were headed right for the other submarine.

No way was I this lucky. I aimed at the incoming destroyer, firing. Whoosh. I watched the torpedo hit the front of it. Up went the flare. On a real torpedo and enemy ship, I knew what would've happened. A spray of water 40 feet high, a loud bang, and the ship shuddering as the tip of the ship split, dooming the ship to the depths.

She slowed, turning to port as sailors draping red cloth over the side. Two heavy cruisers, a carrier, a battleship and four escorts. We were doing good. Very good.

Now that the main convoy was all "sunk" there were just the 11 destroyers. Nope. 10. I watched a flare go up.

"He should've dived already" I said under my breath. "What the hell is he doing still up? He gonna fail his test. "As much as I wanted to leave him to his fate, I had to follow the standard US military code. Never, ever, leave a man (or ship) behind.

"Flank speed ahead." I called. "Let's get this guy out of the trouble he's in." I said to myself.

In less than a minute, we were in easy hitting distance. The 10 destroyers were so close I had to fire randomly and I'd hit something. I still took careful aim, just in case. When destroyers were hunting, they would go all over the place. Turn, speed up, slow down etcetera. It was nearly impossible to hit them while they are hunting. As it was, I have always had a strong, instinctive ability to estimate.

I aimed, and fired. Whoosh. I waited a couple of seconds. Pop. Up went the bright flare. Hit. The destroyer stopped, turning away from the fray, already putting cloth over the side. Nine more. I still had three torpedoes. Assuming the other sub hadn't missed, they should still have seven. More than enough to finish the entire convoy.

Whoosh. I noticed none of the destroyers came after me. Impossible. And then it occurred to me. They thought it was the other sub. I could hardly believe my luck. I called to Levi, "Tell him to sink to 150 feet and go minimum speed ahead." I yelled, mind racing, knowing how to get free, seeing it in my head.

I aimed my last two torpedoes very carefully, aiming for specific ships. Whoosh... Whoosh................ Pop... Pop. The flares lit the sky. I had no torpedoes, but I had cleared a path for the other sub.

"What are our coordinates? I called to the navigator, Hugh. "21.7505828 by 141.6306905" he reported. "Tell captain Pierce to move to these coordinates at half speed ahead." I told Levi. "And tell him to be prepared to go down to minimum speed in case a destroyer comes." "Yes sir!" Levi called. I heard him tell the other sub.

"Back slow" I called. I watched the destroyers. One was getting very close to S-23. My pulse started racing. If that destroyer located him, they would realize where we were. He would guide them right to us.

"Tell him to get to slow speed ahead. He's got a destroyer near by." I told Levi. He relayed the info. The destroyer turned away. That lucky sucker. All of a sudden the destroyer pulled a hard turn. Right to starboard. Headed right for the area above S-23. I swore.

"Tell him to cut engines NOW!" I roared. Levi relayed the command, speaking quickly, urgently. In the background of the other sub, you heard a lot of yelling and then the engines cut.

We were just far enough away to be out of range of their sonar. The destroyer glided over the sub, passing by harmlessly.

"Minimum speed ahead" I called to Levi, guiding the sub. Again, he relayed the command. A few more minutes of the situation, with no more close calls, we were out of range.

About an hour and a half later, we surfaced. We pulled up next to the other sub, S-23. The other captain came out on the conning tower, saluting us.

"Thanks for the rescue" he called over. "Only cause I had to." I called back. Just because it had been a few years since I saw him last didn't change my view on him. I still didn't like him. At all. But it wasn't fair to leave him to fail when his crew depended on him. So I had to help him, unfortunately.

He winced, "Hey, I'm sorry for-" I cut him off. "I don't want to hear it. After all these years what makes you think I'm ok with you?" I descended into my sub, not hearing his reply.

"What was that about? Claude asked. "Not important. Not now." I replied. "Let's get back to port."

I grabbed the phone, reporting to the crew. "Congratulations sailors. We have successfully passed the test." Silence. Then, the crew roared with cheers. They had no idea what had been going on, they had been following directions. They couldn't see it. They had to guess what was going on based of my reactions. For all they knew we were shooting aimlessly. They didn't know the difference. But now it was time to return to port. "Bring us about" I called. "Time to head home and celebrate."