On February 14, 1943 the New York Times reported one of the more extraordinary stories of the silent service. The previous Christmas Eve a twenty two year old Pharmacist mate, First Class, had performed life-saving internal surgery on a fellow crewman aboard the Submarine USS Silversides.
There is legitimate controversy over which ship was America’s first true battleship. But the Navy answers that question relatively clearly- USS Indiana was, from the outset, called "Battleship Number One."