Dan Gasmire on the USS Albacore

Dan served on the Albacore from 1953 to 1955 as an EN3. His station was on the air manifold in the Control Room. Dan Gasmire on the Albacore:

“I was onboard when we made the test dive with the man from Navy labs. I was surprised when he stretched a cord from bulkhead to bulkhead to measure the drop in the center as we went down to our test depth. He said we could go down to almost twice that depth before we would collapse.

I also remember our shakedown cruise to Cuba and on the way back to Key West when we surfaced our radio didn’t work. We had to find a ship and have them radio Norfolk (SubLant) to let them know we were on the surface.

In Key West we rebuilt one engine that had failed after we surfaced out of Cuba. General Motors sent us special parts to rebuild the engine. After 25 hours, it failed when we were some place off the Carolinas. The Captain called for a tug to tow us to Portsmouth because the one operating engine we had developed a water leak. I was hoping we would get back because I was getting married on July 31, 1954. We made it back in time for my leave and marriage.”