USS Bowfin (SS-287) was a fleet attack submarine that fought in the Pacific during WWII, and helped to make famous the term, “Silent Service.” Bowfin was launched on 7 December 1942, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was nicknamed the Pearl Harbor Avenger, so it is fitting that her permanent home is at Pearl Harbor, Hawai’i.
Throughout WWII USS Bowfin went out on nine war patrols between 1943 and 1945. War patrols of WWII are similar to what we think of as deployments today. It was a period of about two months where a submarine would patrol a designated region of ocean for Japanese ships or boats. Bowfin served in the Pacific and spent most of her patrols in the South China Sea, Celebes Sea, off the East coast of Japan, and into the Sea of Japan.