#AtoZchallenge – USS Drum (SS-228)

USS Drum (SS-228) is a Gato-class submarine; the first named after the drum, a family of fish. Drum is now a museum ship in Mobile, Alabama, at Battleship Memorial Park. She is the oldest of her class still in existence.

During WW2, Drum made fourteen patrols, the last of which was cut short by the Japanese surrender.

On at least three occasions Drum endured hours of depth charge attacks. Despite that she is credited with sinking fifteen ships, a total of 80,580 tons of enemy shipping by the end of the war. For her service she was awarded a total of 12 battle stars.

Following the war, Drum was decommissioned on 16 February 1946 and the next month began service in the Potomac River Naval Command for the Naval Reserve in Washington, DC until 1967.

After transferring to the inactive fleet at Norfolk, Virginia she was donated to the USS Alabama Battleship Commission in 1969, and opened to the public the same year. She was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1986.

Drum was moored directly behind USS Alabama until she sustained damage in the storm surge of Hurricane Georges in 1998. She was placed on display ashore. Both Drum and Alabama received damage when Hurricane Katrina came ashore in August 2005. Tours on board drum resumed the following January. Most of the funding to maintain the submarine comes from a community of American Submarine Vets.

#AtoZchallenge is not only about me. Many, many other bloggers are participating this year. I encourage you to visit a few. Don’t forget to like and comment so we know who you are so we can thank you. Additionally, you may find a blog or three you like enough to follow. If you do, hit those subscribe buttons and get to reading! Thanks for coming by today; here are a few suggestions you might want to look at:

A Writer Darkly – https://awriterdarkly.com

AuntyAmo – https://auntyamo.com/

Fondlers Anonymous – https://fondles.blogspot.com/

Alice’s Grand Adventures – https://alicesgrandadventures.blogspot.com

Musings From A Meandering Mind – https://musingsfromameanderingmind.wordpress.com/

About Ol' Big Jim

Jim L Wright has been a storekeeper, an embalmer, a hospital orderly, and a pathology medical coder, and through it all, a teller of tall tales. Many of his stories, like his first book, New Yesterdays, are set in his hometown of Piedmont, Alabama. For seven years he lived in the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, Amman, Jordan where he spent his time trying to visit every one of the thousands of Ammani coffee shops and scribbling in his ever-present notebook. These days he and his husband, Zeek, live in a cozy little house in Leeds, Alabama. He’s still scribbling in his notebooks when he isn’t gardening or refinishing a lovely bit of furniture. His book, New Yesterdays, can be found at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Smashwords, and Barnes and Noble.

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3 Responses to #AtoZchallenge – USS Drum (SS-228)

Miss Andi says:

05/04/2021 at 09:41

Nice, I didn’t know that ships can get battle stars, too, but then again, there’s a lot I don’t know about wars 🙂

LikeLiked by 1 person

Lynnette Forest says:

05/04/2021 at 11:14

Informative post! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

LikeLiked by 1 person

John W. Howell says:

05/04/2021 at 13:53

Proud boat. Thanks, Jim

LikeLiked by 1 person