240. Milton Sailor Lost on the USS Wahoo Submarine 1943

Updated: Mar 28, 2022

Norman Conna Ware was born in Milton, Florida Ware on August 17, 1917 to George Washington Ware (1877-1931) and Nancy Carmilla Cotton (1881-1964). His father supported his family as a general farmer, but luckily they owned their home on the Milton-Pollard Road in Allentown. Sadly, Norman would lose his father in 1931, before finishing high school in 1935. He and his siblings supported their mother as best they could given the economy of the Great Depression. With war already raging across Europe, Norman enlisted in the US Navy on April 30, 1940 in Washington, D.C. Originally assigned to the USS Thresher in 1940, Norman transferred to the USS Wahoo on June 1, 1942.

The Wahoo was launched on February 14, 1942 and commissioned three months later. Norman would take part in all seven of her successful patrols. On June 1, 1943, he was promoted to Chief Electrician's Mate under the command of the famous CDR. Dudley Walker "Mush" Morton. The Wahoo left Pearl Harbor for her last patrol and headed for the Sea of Japan by the captain's personal request. During her patrol she engaged and sank five enemy cargo/transport vessels including the Konron Maru, with the loss of 544 enemy lives that included two Japanese Congressmen from their House of Representatives. The loss of their dignitaries infuriated the Japanese government who ordered an "all out" mission to find and destroy the Wahoo. When her patrol ended, the submarine was ordered to return to Pearl Harbor for refitting. However, the young Milton sailor and the Wahoo were never heard from again! Norman's mother and his new wife Catherine Blondell Gaston were notified that he was missing in action.

But every submariner's loved one knew what that meant and prepared for the worst! She remained a civil servant with the Navy, living at 1325 Wisteria Avenue until she finally remarried. She passed away in 1995 and is buried in the Bayview Cemetery. After the war, Japanese records reflected that on October 11, 1943 the Wahoo was passing submerged through the La Perouse Strait when a Japanese anti-submarine aircraft sited her wake and an oil slick. The enemy began a combined air and sea attack using depth charges and aerial bombs that lasted all day. The Wahoo was finally mortally damaged and sank with all hands.

Sixty-two years later in 2005, underwater detection equipment found what appeared to be a U.S. submarine wreck in the La Perouse Strait. On October 31, 2006, the images confirmed that Norman and the Wahoo had be found. The wreck is lying at 213 ft and was sunk by a direct hit from an aerial bomb near the conning tower. Photographs of the wreck are available at warfish.com and oneternalpatrol.com. As is custom with the US Navy, they have no plans to either salvage or try to enter the final resting site of the Wahoo and her crew. Naval tradition has long held that the sea is a fitting resting place for Sailors lost at sea. Milton's Chief Norman Conna Ware should be remembered and honored this Memorial Day of 2019 as he and four other submariners from Pensacola forever remain on their "Eternal Patrol."