I’ve driven past these dams hundreds of times as a child on the way to Grandma’s house. (You know… “Over the river and through the woods…”) I hadn’t really had a reason to explore this beauty until now. There was a camouflaged Ammo Can originally located on the pennisula to the West of the dams. I have since been informed that this is private property. So I relocated to some rocks on the dyke. No dice. Cache disappeared. Cache has been moved to a different area closer to the North dam. I will have to retrieve this one before the spring waters take it for a ride though! The new small cache fits the logbook and small trading items. Parking is in a small lot just north of the river. Have Fun!
There is no longer a need to verify your find with the Secret Submarine Code Word.
Pompon: A typical American fish of the Anisot family.
Keel laid 26NOV41 Launched:
15AUG42 Commissioned: 17MAR43 with LCdr Earl C. Hawk in
command.
On 19 July, POMPON departed on her sixth and most successful patrol.
Operating from the eastern coast of Honshu to the Sea of Okhotsk, she sank a 300
ton armed trawler with gunfire. Then on 12 August she spotted a Japanese convoy
off the coast of Russian Sakhalin. In the wild night surface action which
followed, an 8,000 ton tanker was badly damaged by two torpedoes, a 2,718 ton
transport was sunk, and a hit was possibly obtained on one of two hotly
pursuing escort vessels. During this melee, POMPON was almost sunk by one of her
own torpedoes. While she was surfaced, with the enemy bearing down, one of her
own "fish" perversely circled and just missed the stern. She was driven down by
gunfire and then depth charged, but managed to escape without damage. She
returned to Pearl Harbor 3 September for onward routing to San Francisco Bay for
modernization and overhaul conducted at the Mare Island Navy Yard.
By 13 December the veteran submarine was again at sea. Enroute to Majuro, she
picked up a Filipino who had been drifting in a broken down motor launch for 45
days. On 6 January 1945, she departed Majuro as a part of a wolf pack, for a
patrol in the Yellow Sea. On 28 January, she contacted a three ship convoy with
four escorts off Kokuzan To. With submarine USS SPADEFISH (SS-411) in contact,
the POMPON made two submerged night approaches only to have the alert escorts
drive her off each time. While two escorts pinned her down astern of the convoy,
SPADEFISH slipped in on the disengaged side and sank two of the ships and one of
the escorts. POMPON surfaced in time to watch the sinkings and gave chase to the
one remaining ship. Again she was deterred from attack by gunfire and a trailing
escort.
The next morning, while making a morning trim dive, the Conning Tower hatch
failed. Before the dive could be halted, the ship had reached a depth of 44
feet, partially flooding the Conning Tower and Control Room, and completely
flooding the Pump Room. POMPON crept homeward, having to run awash until the
blower could be partially restored. While struggling along in this condition,
she blundered into an enemy convoy and was sighted. The escorts forced her to
dive despite her dangerous condition, but she miraculously escaped. Sister ship
USS POGY (SS-266) found her one day out of Midway and led her in on 11
February.
Made 9 war patrols. Earned 4 Battle Stars. Sank 3 ships
for a total of 13,400 tons.
Decommissioned: 2FEB59 Struck from
the Navy list 1APR60 Sold for scrapping
10NOV60.
Good Luck and Enjoy!
First to Find Honors go to: really "I'm dieing to be FTF this one, let me know as soon as it's back up" I'm not lost on 6-10-04 Thanks for keeping me on my toes!
First to Find (New location): ???
Click To Rate This Cache
06-09-04 Cache Relocated, page reworded, clue changed, cache active.
6-13-04 Added Cache Rating System
9/14/04 Disabled. May be missing or improperly placed.
10/07/04 - Cache visited on 10-6-04 for maintenance and event prep. Replaced cache and relocated. Removed Secret Submarine Code Word requirement. Non-critical cache description changes. I think that's everything!
2/5/05 Added COTM Ribbon and links page.
6/14/05 Maintenance Check. All dry now, Thanks RINL. Bumped Dif up by 1/2. Added Attributes.