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The problem aboard SILVERSIDES was that Platter needed an operation, and quickly, before his appendix ruptured and killed him. But these men were certainly not surgeons.

Instead, they carried pharmacist’s mates who were trained, in today’s terms, as paramedics, able to render medical assistance in the types of emergency situations in which submarines at war might find themselves. Very few World-War-II submarines carried doctors-there were simply too many boats. “By late afternoon it was evident that he had an acute attack.” F3c was suspected of appendicitis,” the commanding officer, Creed Burlingame, wrote in the patrol report.

But as the boat neared her assigned area, a complication arose: “In the forenoon it was reported that PLATTER, G.M. Within days she was passing the Louisiade Archipelago, a string of volcanic islands that lie 125 miles to the southeast of New Guinea. By 17 December the boat had refitted and was headed back out. On 25 November 1942, USS SILVERSIDES (SS-236) completed her third war patrol when she pulled into Brisbane, Australia.