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.
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.