She was finally removed from the reef, but the rescue vessel slid into the sea. The Flier returned to Pearl Harbor for extensive repairs. One of the crew of the new boat was a former shipmate with one of the lost crew of the Flier. After be learned that the Skipper and Exec were from the lost Flier, he requested a transfer from the new submarine, but the request was denied. More than one of the crew were apprehensive, to say the least.
Submariners are a suspicious lot, and for good reason.
The crew had celebrated the end of the war by going ashore in Panama in Sections. At least one whole Section was returned on board by the Shore Patrol after a wild celebration. The boat was returning to her new assignment in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, when the first event sobered the crew to the risks of the daily living in a submarine. On return from Gitmo, the pump room flooded and killed most of the electrical motors in the lower deck of the Control Room. Three electricians worked around the clock for 72 hours with no more than a catnap at the crew's mess table while digesting the meal they had stopped to eat.