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Congressional Medal of Honor - Swede Momsen, U.S. Navy
Swede Momsen: Early Navy Years
Charles Bowers "Swede" Momsen (USNA Archives)
Charles Bowers "Swede" Momsen was born in Flushing, Queens, New York, on June 21,1896. He was to become one of the best-known pioneers in the field of submarine rescue in American history, primarily due to his invention of the Momsen Lung, an underwater escape device. His dedication to the rescue of sunken Submariners would eventually earn him a Distinguished Service Medal in 1929.
Momsen's Naval career almost ended prematurely. He entered the US Naval Academy in 1914. Due to grade problems, he had to leave during the spring of his plebe (freshman) year. For most young men, this would have been the end of a dream. However, Momsen doggedly pursued another appointment to the Academy. He succeeded and entered the Academy to repeat his plebe year. He graduated in 1919, a year early, due to the beginning of World War I.
From 1919 to 1921, Momsen served on the battleship USS Oklahoma. In 1921, he transferred to submarines and went to the US Navy Submarine School in New London, Connecticut, for training. He graduated in January 1922. A year and a half later, he took command of the O-15, an aging submarine. A few years after that, he was assigned to the S-1 as Commanding Officer. The S-1 was a World War I "S" Class submarine. At that time, it was the newest of U.S. Navy-designed boats.
Momsen served as the Commanding Officer of the Submarine S-1. (U.S. Navy Photo)
Swede Momsen: Directing the Squalus Rescue & Recovery
Charles "Swede" Momsen (USNA Archives)
Check out a 1960s interview with Momsen from the T.V. Series "Silent Service" ! [MPEG ( 4 MB) | Text Only ]
Although his invention of the Momsen Lung made him famous, Swede Momsen had other noteworthy achievements during his naval career. Probably the most spectacular was the rescue and recovery of the Squalus. He was put in charge of the entire rescue of the 33 crewmen who survived the sinking of the Squalus in May 1939 in 243 feet of water off Muscle Shoals, New Hampshire. Momsen instructed the team of divers as they dove to the submarine and attached cables necessary for the rescue chamber to make its descent. He also instructed the rescue chamber's operators as they made four trips bringing the Submariners to the surface and a final trip to check the flooded aft section for survivors.
Momsen then led the Squalus salvage operations. The rescue and salvage took 113 days, and the Squalus was brought to dry dock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
Along with Rear Admiral McCann, Momsen received a commendation from President Franklin D. Roosevelt for his efforts in the rescue of the sailors from the USS Squalus. Momsen commanded the rescue team aboard the salvage ship USS Falcon. His team was accompanied by the McCann Diving Bell, which Momsen and Rear Admiral Allan R. McCann developed.
For Further Readings
Maas, Peter (1999). The Terrible Hours: The Man behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History. New York: Harper Collins.
In addition to the Navy Cross and Legion of Merit with two Gold Stars, he earned a Distinguished Service Medal and a Navy Commendation Medal. Gold Stars are given for each subsequent award of a decoration.
He served as Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Undersea Warfare from 1948 to 1951, then became Commander of the Submarine Force's Pacific Fleet.
Vice Admiral Charles B. Momsen died of cancer on May 25,1967, and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Navy Commendation Medal
The Terrible Hours
The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History,
by Peter Maas, HarperCollins New York, 1999
 Former Navy journalist Peter Maas, best known for his books, Serpico and The Valachi Papers, has written a readable and informative account of the loss and recovery of the submarine USS Squalus (SS-192) in 1939, with particular emphasis on the role of then-LCDR Charles Bowers "Swede" Momsen in rescuing the survivors and salvaging the boat. Maas's earlier book, The Rescuer, published in 1968, covered much of this same ground, but The Terrible Hours provides more material on the long - and extraordinary - career of Swede Momsen, many of whose contributions to the U.S. Submarine Force are unappreciated even today.
Momsen was born in Flushing, New York, in June 1896 and entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1914. After a brief tour in battleships, he entered the Submarine School in 1921 and achieved his first command in 1923 with the USS O-15 (SS-76). Later, as Commanding Officer of USS S-1 (SS-105), he found the wreck of the USS S-51 (SS-162), lost with 33 men in a collision with the steamer City of Rome east of Long Island Sound in 1925. That harrowing experience led him to ponder technical alternatives for rescuing survivors from bottomed submarines, which at that time was still a virtual impossibility. He soon conceived the idea of a submarine rescue chamber lowered from the surface to mate with a submarine's escape hatch and proposed the concept through official channels, only to be ignored by the bureaucracy even during his own subsequent assignment at the Bureau of Construction and Repair. He turned then to devising an underwater breathing apparatus for individual escapes, subsequently known as the "Momsen Lung," demonstrated it successfully in a series of unauthorized experiments in the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers, and finally attracted enough favorable attention to see the lung adopted by the Navy in 1929. This success was then the catalyst for gaining approval for development of the submarine rescue chamber in 1930.
At the time of the Squalus disaster in May 1939, Momsen was serving as head of the Experimental Diving Unit at the Washington Navy Yard, where he had developed a variety of successful mixed-gas techniques that enabled hard-hat divers to work for longer periods at greater depths without suffering "the bends." When Squalus's main air induction valve somehow failed during a test dive off Portsmouth, New Hampshire that month, and the partially-flooded submarine settled to the bottom in 243 feet of water with 33 crewmen still alive, Swede Momsen - as the Navy's foremost submarine rescue authority - was rushed to the scene and took charge.
In a series of fast-paced chapters, Maas tells the story of the ensuing, Momsen-led rescue effort, quick-cutting from the sunken submarine, to the rescue force, to worried family members on shore, and referring back to the earlier incidents in Momsen's career that brought him and the Squalus together in a fateful convergence. Although 26 men lost their lives in the initial flooding, the McCann submarine rescue chamber - named by the Navy for one of Momsen's co-developers in a fit of bureaucratic spite - retrieved all the survivors from the hulk in the first deep submarine rescue ever. Then in the following three months, the Squalus herself was brought to the surface in an even more challenging salvage operation. Although, the cause of her loss was never full determined, the submarine was later refurbished and, as the Sailfish, distinguished herself in World War Two.
Maas devotes little more than an "Epilogue" to Swede Momsen's subsequent career, but his later accomplishments rank in the same class as the Squalus episode. As a member of the SUBPAC staff early in the Pacific war, he played a key role in investigating repeated failures in the infamous Mark 6 torpedo exploder by suggesting a series of test firings against underwater cliffs and then diving personally on the resulting live "dud" torpedoes to retrieve the experimental evidence that solved the problem. Later as a squadron commander, he devised the initial "wolf pack" tactics adopted by U.S. submarines in the Pacific and led the first wolf pack to sea in October 1943 for a total bag of three enemy ships and 23,500 tons. Momsen finished the war as Captain of the battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57), achieved postwar promotion to flag rank, and later became the Assistant CNO for Undersea Warfare in the Pentagon. During that tenure, he showed his undiminished talent for technical innovation by spearheading the design and construction of the experimental high-speed submarine USS Albacore (AGSS-569), whose hydrodynamic hull-form revolutionized subsequent submarine development. Momsen ended his Navy career in 1953 as COMSUBPAC and died in 1967. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
The Terrible Hours is not without its flaws. Maas writes in a dramatic, novelistic style in which remarks and conversations recollected from 60 years ago are treated throughout as exact quotations. Although the author enjoyed a close collaboration with Admiral Momsen in preparing his earlier book and has apparently interviewed a number of Squalus survivors, the accuracy of this "total recall" strains credibility. Also, The Terrible Hours over-reaches in claiming for Momsen several innovations he adopted from other sources and portrays its subject somewhat larger than life than he needs to be. If ever there was a "submariner's submariner," it was Swede Momsen, and the bare facts of his career are inspiring enough without latter-day embellishment. Finally, in presenting a tale so dependent on the reader's grasp of somewhat technical material, the book would have benefited from a few well-chosen charts, diagrams, or photographs. These - and an index - are entirely lacking.
 Despite these shortcomings, Maas's book is highly recommended as a well-deserved tribute to an outstanding submariner whose many and varied contributions to the community are often forgotten. Momsen's genius for innovation, his relentless perseverance in the face of "official" discouragement, and the hands-on quality of his leadership remain a lesson to all.
- Edward C. Whitman
U.S. Navy Web Sites
Traditions of the Naval Service Learn more about the traditions, terminology, customs and trivia of the US Navy. U.S. Marine Corps Learn more about the U.S. Marine Corps, and while you're there, take a look at the latest Marine Corps News Weekly. U.S. Naval Observatory - Time Service Department Do you want to know what time it really is? Take a look at the time on the official clock of the U.S. Naval Observatory. U.S. Navy Deep Submergence Unit The Deep Submergence Unit is responsible for submarine escape and rescue operations. Learn about the mission of the DSU, the history of deep sea rescues, and the latest in rescue technology. U.S. Navy Homepage Visit the U.S. Navy's Homepage. Browse through pictures of all sorts of Navy ships and submarines, see Sailors in action and take a look at the Submarine Centennial page. Did you know the Submarine Force is years old? All Hands: Magazine of the US Navy April 's issue was dedicated to the celebration of the Submarine Force's the year. H.L. Hunley Read the Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center's page on H.L. Hunley, which includes a short history, wreck site assessment and the legal agreement for the preservation of the Hunley wreck. Submarine Warfare Division Learn the Mission of the Submarine Force and catch up on the latest submarine information in the official magazine Undersea Warfare. USS Squalus Check out the historical documentation and picture related to the USS Squalus from the Department of the Navy, Naval Historical Center. Friends of the Hunley, Inc Read about the history and the salvage of the H.L. Hugley. JMS Naval Architects & Salvage Engineers Easy-to-understand graphics explain the rescue of the USS Squalus (SS-192). Oregon Museum of Science and Industry Explore the world of submarines, find out how they dive and learn about the Navy's last non-nuclear submarine, the USS Blueback. Submarine Central Here, you'll find pictures, news, sub games and more. Submarine World Network This site boasts itself as the world's largest submarine directory. Subnet This "homeport" for the Cyberspace Association of US Submariners includes all sorts of information on the "Silent Service," such as Medals of Honor, Fleet Archives and Lost Boats. US Peacetime Submarine Accidents A comprehensive site describing all US submarine accidents that occurred during times of peace. USS Cod (SS-224)'s Submarine Systems and Procedures Page Play submarine Fact or Fiction, bone up on your submarine vocabulary or learn about a submarine's air and navigational systems. USS Queenfish (SS-3 93/ SSN-651) Not only can you learn about two submarines that shared one name, but you can catch up on your sub lingo and find basic submarine information.
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