Song under construction: "Still On Patrol"

[teenybuffalo]

This has been at the back of my mind for weeks, since reading a Tumblr post that discusses the idea that US Navy subs which never return are still on patrol, not lost at sea. The resulting comment thread seemed to want to be a song. To top it all off, it's a Christmas song! I'm two months too late for this to be seasonally appropriate, but what the

Comments

[nineweaving]

My stepfather the war correspondent was embedded on the USS Bullhead, which would be the last vessel lost in WWII. He wrote a book about it, Overdue and Presumed Lost. He would have liked your song.

Nine

[teenybuffalo]

Ohhhh shit. Wow. Uh. Your stepfather was the man who lost his first wife and nearly also died in the Cocoanut Grove Fire? I remember you telling me that part of his story, a little while back, and it was riveting in its horror and tragedy, to the extent that I've been re-telling it to other interested people occasionally. Sometime, I'd like it if you could re-tell me his story, so I can make sure I'm not leaving anything important out. I'm glad that his horrible luck, at least, didn't extend to his still being on the USS Bullhead through the war.

Good Lord. His book looks like exactly the book I should have read in preparation for writing a song about submarines. I am relieved you think he would have liked it, since I couldn't tell if it would come off disrespectfully. That's the problem with things like this. It's always too soon, and subs continue going missing. I was also thinking of Phil Ochs' "The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns," which Sovay gave to me in a mix in 2011 and I've treasured ever since.

[nineweaving]

It's a terrific story, and I'd love to re-tell it. After that great tragedy, he seemed to live a charmed life as a correspondent.

Nine

[negothick]

It IS a good song! I had no idea that Naval Institute Press had republished this book! That's great--they have a devoted readership, and they keep things in print. The comments on Amazon are mostly intelligent (except for the dyslexic who read B-25 as B-52).

"First published in 1947, the narrative is based on a journal the author kept during the Bullhead's first war patrol in March and April 1945"--another milestone for him, the only war correspondent allowed on a submarine on patrol in wartime!