Many people pass through this world having lived uneventful lives and leave barely a ripple behind them. But not so Milton's Duncan "Bobby" Mack Johnson, Jr.! He was born on November 28, 1921 in Eclectic, Elmore County, Alabama, the son of Adelle Kimbrough (1892-1948) and Duncan Mack Sr. (1891-1979) who married there in 1916. His parents rented a house while his father worked as a lumberman at a local sawmill. They also took in two boarders to help make ends meet. By 1930, the family had moved to Montgomery where his father worked as a pipe fitter while they paid rent of $12.00 per month. Ten years later they were in Wallace in Santa Rosa County, Florida where Duncan Sr. was a retail merchandise salesman and Duncan Jr. was a farmer. The younger Duncan graduated from Allentown High School in 1940 and by 1941, the family had moved to Cottage Hill in Escambia County, Florida where Duncan Jr. was working for the Florida Pulp & Paper Mill in Cantonment.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Duncan enlisted in the US Navy on 6-24-1942 and was sent to basic training in San Diego, CA. Afterwards, he volunteered for the Navy's submarine service and was assigned to the newly built USS Sealion (SS-315). Boarding the sub on March 8, 1944, he began receiving a submariner's pay of $138 per month with a bonus of $5-$20 per month for volunteering. The previous "Sealion" had been sunk at Cavite Navy Yard (Philippines) on December 10, 1941 by the Japanese killing three sailors.
The new Sealion sailed on its first combat patrol on June 8, 1944 and by September 11th had joined two other subs, Growler & Pampanito. US code breakers ordered the three to attack a convoy even though they knew they carried Australian and British POWs from the infamous Thai Burma Railway. The wolf pack struck the convoy the next day and the Sealion helped torpedo the Zuiho Maru, setting her ablaze, then torpedoed the SS Rakuyo Maru. Meanwhile, the Kachidoki Maru was disabled and drifted into the Zuiho setting her on fire as well. Sadly, 1,159 POW's went down with the Rakuyo & Kachidoki. The movie "Return from the River Kwai" was based on the attack but never released. Plus, little was said that it was actually ordered by the US command. Sadly, the Growler was sunk on November 8, 1944 with all hands.
Then came the Sealion's call to glory on her next patrol. On November 21st radar picked up a powerful enemy fleet of three battleships, one cruiser, and six destroyers. At 0245, she fired nine torpedoes at the battleships Kongo & Nagato, striking the Kongo with three. Nagato was missed entirely but the torpedoes inadvertently hit the infamous destroyer Urakaze that sank with all hands including the escort flotilla's commander. Meanwhile, the badly damaged Kongo set sail for Formosa but at 0524, a tremendous explosion lit the area and the Kongo disappeared completely with 1,200 of her crew. It was customary on American submarines to place a name on the head of each torpedo, usually that of a wife or girlfriend. But on that night of karma, four of the torpedoes bore the names of "Foster, O'Connell, Paul, and Ogilvie," the four men who were killed aboard the original Sealion in 1941.
The Sealion is the only known submarine to have recorded their attack (on the Kongo) of an enemy ship and it happened to be that of the great Japanese battleship Kongo below!
Duncan would return from the war only to serve in the Korean War as well. Afterwards, he and his wife Verlia Mae Sutton (1918-2009) would live and work in Cantonment. In 1954, she is listed with the Little Duchess Beauty Salon while he was an agent for the Interstate Life & Accident Insurance Company. Duncan would pass away on May 22, 2013 and joined Verlia in the Elizabeth Chapel Church Cemetery in Chumuckla, Florida.
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