February 7, 2025

In my transcription work today, I covered a December 31st, 1942, Sixth War Patrol report as submitted for the submarine U.S.S. Sturgeon. I noted the very peculiar "23:59 - crossed the 180th meridian and reset date to December 30." In other words, the sub had crossed the International Date Line a minute before midnight on New Year's Eve. Can you imagine the bureaucratic nightmares that report produced?

Here's what I suspect happened when the captain was called to the rear admiral's office upon reaching Pearl Harbor. [The names below are fictional, but all else, save the requisition form number, is accurate from the record.]

Rear Admiral: Captain Stubing, can you explain this extra day in your report? The duplicative December 31st.

Captain: Sir, it is in the report. We crossed the International Date line.

Rear Admiral: Yes, I can read that, but what were you thinking?

Captain: Thinking?  We acted in accordance to operation orders to get back to Pearl Harbor, sir, as quick as possible. We got those orders on Christmas Day. Boy, the men did some celebrating that day. That was a pretty good day. Why couldn't we get that day over and over and over?

Rear Admiral: That was 6 days earlier. How long did it take for the trip home?

Captain: We were by the Hall Islands, sir. That's a lot of ocean to cover. We did get back by January 4th.

Rear Admiral: I get that, but now we have to account for the extra day in the year. And the end-of-year reports, which are already nightmares, are due by the end of the week.

Captain: Paperwork, sir. I get it.

Rear Admiral: Surely the men must have come close to mutiny.

Captain: Why, sir?

Rear Admiral: An extra day of work but potentially without pay. How do we record two 12/31/42 for payroll?  HR is going to have our heads.

Captain: The men didn't seem to mind, sir. After all, we were able to celebrate New Year's Eve twice, or more accurately, for more than 24 hours. However, you might want a heads up for the expense report I will be submitting. Twice as much champagne as usual.

Rear Admiral: {Sighs} Good God, this gets worse by the minute. The Admiral will have us both shot.

Captain: But, I don't understand, Sir, what should we have done? Idled on the one side of the meridian? We already were down to one engine because of low fuel.

Rear Admiral: I wish you had tried to wait 24 hours, make the whole account be in 1943. Those end-of-year reports will hopefully be some other schmuck's responsibility. Did you sight any enemies on those days? Fire any torpedoes? Good lord if we have to somehow explain firing at a vessel on one of two separate December 31sts.

Captain: No, we got lucky there. We hadn't fired since Dec. 18th. It was a safe, non-confrontational trip back to Pearl.

Rear Admiral: And no one complained, you know, something petty, like the men often do?

Captain: Petty Officer Smith, sir? He was his usual rock.

Rear Admiral: NO! I mean, didn't someone start make a petty complaint, like "why did I get kitchen duties one more day than Richards, sir?" Or, someone refusing to get out of the hot bed because it was technically now "his day off."

Captain: Ah, I see what you mean. No, the men were basically pretty cool about it.

Rear Admiral: {Waving dismissively} Just get out.

Captain: If it helps, sir, when we go back out, we can make that day up when we cross the other way. You know, February 6, can exist for only a minute.

Rear Admiral: But, it's still a day, Stubing!  It will have to be accounted for, and it will be on 1943 records, not 1942.

Captain: I just didn't see any other options at the time, Sir.

Rear Admiral: I am not sure you even thought about it, Stubing. I know you sardine boys. You don't care about bureaucracy, you just want to fire torpedoes all day long.

Captain: That seems a bit harsh, sir. Especially since in our two+ month time out there, we ended up with only 3 actual attacks. That's all in the report, sir.

Rear Admiral: I know, I know, and I am sure the men were even more restless than usual, but I guarantee the paper pushers in HR and the Business Office are going to give us grief over this.

Captain: If it's any solace, point out that we only used 98.8% capacity of our fuel. We saved some money even with the extra day!

Rear Admiral: Oh, shut up. That's only because you went down to one engine. We'll have to complete a DS-51-8-H to requisition a new one. Ugh! I so thought 1942 was going to be a good year.