Dalton Keeter's Wahoo Diary

[Subdeacon Joe]

http://www.mackinnon.org/Wahoo-keeter-diary.html

 

During the Wahoo's extraordinary Fourth Patrol (February 23 to April 6, 1943), Chief Machinist's Mate Dalton Keeter kept a private diary. During this patrol, the Wahoo sunk 9 ships which was only bested by the Tang's third patrol of 10 ships sunk later in the war. Officially, such private diaries were not permitted; however, 57+ years hence, a portion survives written between February 23 and March 19, 1943. Other such diaries existed on other boats such as the one heavily quoted in Eugene Fluckey's Thunder Below. As commander of the Barb, had he known, Fluckey could not have permitted a crewman to keep such a diary but is thankful that one did. Mush Morton would have had a similar dilemma with Keeter's diary but like Fluckey, we are grateful that there is one. You can see here the frustration that the crew has with sanpans and inactivity. Dalton Keeter went down the the Wahoo on the seventh patrol. His daughter, Elena Carignan, kindly granted the MacKinnon Organization permission to publish these on this web site.

[Four-Eyed Buck,SASS #14795]

She was found a few years back by a Russian group that was looking for some of their missing subs. Keeter was nick named "Bird Dog", and was responsible for finding a map that had the anchorage at Wewak that let Wahoo enter and sink a destroyer that started Morton's fame in the Service