From Channel 13 WJZ, Baltimore, Maryland.
Arthur Brown, 82, falsified his age as 18, when he was actually 17 to go to war. "Well, I wanted to help win the war, you know. Young guys like excitement. That's why I went into the service."
He served aboard the USS Narwhal, SS-167, commissioned in 1930.
He had hoped to be on a large ship like a battleship, but ended up in the Silent Service. "They needed 'em right away and that's how I got put on a submarine. I went down there and didn't see no battleship and I told the guys I didn't want to get on a submarine. They said, 'It's too late now; order's been cut. You get on.
He served on the Narwhal for more than a dozen missions in the Pacific and Alaska and left the Navy as a Petty officer 3rd Class.
Two of the Narwhal's six-inch guns are on permanent display at the Naval Submarine base at New London, Connecticut.
There is a book titled "Black Submariners in the United States Navy 1940-1975" by Glenn A. Knoblock.
You Don't hear Too many Stories About Black Submariners. --Cooter
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