The USS Tang first slipped into the water in 1943, launched and commissioned at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in California with Lt. Cdr. Richard H. O’Kane commanding. The Balao Class fleet submarine, with a crew of up to 10 officers and 80 enlisted men, sank 33 Japanese ships during its five war patrols, earning two Presidential Unit Citations and four battle stars for its World War II service.

On that final patrol, the USS Tang sent an unprecedented 13 enemy ships to the bottom. Tragically as she fired her last torpedo of the patrol, the torpedo broached and began to boomerang back towards the Tang. Captain O’Kane frantically attempted to move his 311-foot submarine out of the way. She swung too slow and her own torpedo slammed against the port side, immediately sinking the surfaced submarine. O'Kane and three others were washed from the bridge into the water. The men, along with five others who were able to escape the sinking sub, were taken prisoner by a Japanese patrol craft. The survivors languished in POW camps until being liberated in 1945. The rest of the crew would perish in the USS Tang, which came to rest 180-feet below the surface.