American Valor Quarterly Issue 10 - Summer 2013 | Page 28

certainly a ride.
When the attack
ended, we rose to
periscope depth
to find the carrier
burning along the
entire length and
completely
abandoned.

American Veterans Center Photos

At the time,
nobody knew
just
how
important of a
role the Nautilus
Hank Kudzik meets with JROTC students from John F. Kennedy played in the
High School during the American Veterans Center & World War II
battle of Midway.
Veterans Committee’s 15th Annual Confernce.
It was not until
take a picture through the periscope. later that our superiors figured out
We weren’t sure if it had taken, but that it was our attack on the Kirishima
when we had it developed we saw that led to McClusky’s squadron
that we had the first photo of an spotting the Japanese destroyer and
American submarine taking part in the trailing it back to the enemy carriers.
sinking of an enemy vessel.
It was one of those fateful chance
moments that turned the course of
After the war, when records were history. For his actions, my frien [