Preserving The Oral HistorIES of Combat Veterans

COMBAT STORIES FROM World War II

Robert Gibbs | USS S-11 (SS-116) - Navy

3:50   |   He had only been in the Navy for a few years and on submarines even less, so Robert Gibbs was very surprised when he was given command of the S-11. Based in Panama, it was a target ship for training the crews of anti-submarine vessels.

More From Robert Gibbs

Videos ( 4 )
WWII
  • Robert Gibbs  |  WWII  |  USS Barry (DD-248)  |  6:46

    Robert Gibbs only used his Georgia Tech engineering degree for two months before he was called up. He was already an ensign in the Navy, thanks to ROTC. There was a feeling that war was coming, he remembers, and when it did come, he was on a destroyer in the Caribbean, which was a hunting ground for German submarines.

  • Robert Gibbs  |  WWII  |  USS O-3 (SS-64)  |  4:17

    Robert Gibbs had chased subs in the Caribbean, then he moved into submarines himself, going to school in New London where he learned submarine warfare and systems. His first assignment was on a school training vessel, which had no enemy to contend with but which was still subject to danger, like the time ice broke off all their communications gear.

  • Robert Gibbs  |  WWII  |  USS S-11 (SS-116)  |  3:56

    Submarine Commander Robert Gibbs describes a rescue training exercise that involved a watertight tank lowered from the surface vessel. Later, after that training duty, the sub was finally outfitted with radar, it broke down immediately, but a persistent technician saved the boat with his efforts.

  • Robert Gibbs  |  WWII  |  USS S-11 (SS-116)  |  5:01

    He was headed for a combat assignment on a submarine in the Pacific but the war ended as Robert Gibbs waited in Guam. Instead he headed a unit tasked with accounting for and destroying Japanese subs. He remained active in the reserve, even as he went to medical school and he explains the special camaraderie among submariners.

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