Radio broadcast tells sub's WWII story

Hobbyist cranks up Razorback’s old gear on anniversary of Japan’s surrender

Navy veteran John Moore, who served from 1980 to 1986 on the submarine USS Ohio, mans the radio on the USS Razorback submarine Wednesday in North Little Rock. He was contacting other radio operators to tell them about the Razorback’s World War II history on the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan.
Navy veteran John Moore, who served from 1980 to 1986 on the submarine USS Ohio, mans the radio on the USS Razorback submarine Wednesday in North Little Rock. He was contacting other radio operators to tell them about the Razorback’s World War II history on the 70th anniversary of the surrender of Japan.

Using a metal storage container as a makeshift seat, a U.S. Navy veteran positioned himself in the cramped radio room of the USS Razorback submarine Wednesday afternoon, twiddling the knob that controls the radio's frequency.

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A photo taken 70 years ago in Tokyo Bay shows the 12 U.S. submarines, including the USS Razorback, present for the formal surrender of Japan, ending World War II.

Once John Moore, 53, of Olathe, Kan., reached the frequency he wanted, he adjusted his old Telex headphones and lifted a microphone to his face.

"C-Q, C-Q, November-five-Romeo," Moore said. "Special events station aboard the USS Razorback. C-Q, C-Q."

Moore was using his Yaesu brand radio and the submarine's original whip antenna to contact other radio operators -- "C-Q" in radio-speak means "I seek you" -- to tell them about the Razorback's World War II history. He and a fellow amateur radio operator, Don Whitney, also of the Kansas City, Kan., area, traveled to North Little Rock to broadcast from the submarine on the 70th anniversary of Japan's formal surrender at Tokyo Bay, which marked the end of World War II.

The Razorback was one of 12 submarines nested in Tokyo Bay on Sept. 2, 1945, and it is one of only two still remaining. The other is the USS Cavalla, which is now berthed at Seawolf Park in Galveston, Texas.

"With it being the 70th anniversary of the surrender today, I wanted to come down here and operate from this living piece of history," Moore said. "What I want to be able to do is tell the story, because so few people know it. Everybody knows that we won the war. Japan surrendered, we won the war. But one of the biggest reasons why was the men who went to sea on submarines just like this. The thing we can't forget is they paid an extremely high price."

According to the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association, 52 U.S. submarines were destroyed in World War II and about 3,500 crew members were killed. The U.S. fleet of submarines was responsible for more than 50 percent of the Japanese ships that were sunk.

The Razorback first launched in 1944 and conducted five combat patrols during the war, according to the website of the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum, where the submarine sits. It sank Japanese vessels and captured Japanese prisoners of war.

A photo at the museum shows the USS Proteus, a ship that supplied and supported submarines, flanked on each side by six submarines. The Razorback was tethered to the USS Pilotfish on one side and the USS Runner on the other.

About an hour into his broadcast Wednesday, Moore had talked to people in Kansas, New Jersey and Benton. He then found his fourth contact, a man from Connecticut who said after talking to Moore, "I'd love to visit the Razorback one day. That would be a pleasure. Over."

Whitney and Joseph Mathis, a Navy veteran who served as a radio operator aboard three submarines from 1984 to 2002, squeezed into the radio room with Moore, listening in and helping keep track of contacts he made throughout the day.

Mathis, 54, now works at the Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum. He said the Razorback's 1960s-era radio equipment ceased working several years ago.

"I don't get to do this type of thing very often," Mathis said. "Some of this equipment still works but not enough to transmit. To have somebody come down here with their equipment, it's fun."

For Moore -- a history buff, a radio hobbyist, a former crew member aboard the USS Ohio submarine and the grandson of a former submarine crew member -- broadcasting from the Razorback on Wednesday was exactly how he wanted to commemorate the anniversary of the end of World War II.

"It's fascinating to me to think that this very place where I'm sitting, 70 years ago was sitting in Tokyo Bay," Moore said. "It's a privilege to be able to operate from onboard the submarine and to remember the service and the sacrifice of the men who put boats like this at sea."

Metro on 09/03/2015

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