Howard W . Gilmore Howard Walter Gilmore ( September 29 , 1902 – February 7 , 1943 ) was a submarine commander in the United States Navy who received the Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroic self - sacrifice during World War II . Early Life and Career . Howard Gilmore was born in Selma , Alabama , September 29 , 1902 and enlisted in the Navy November 15 , 1920 . In 1922 he was appointed to the United States Naval Academy by competitive examination . Standing 34 in a class of 436 , Gilmore was commissioned in 1926 and reported to the battleship . Gilmore underwent submarine training in 1930 and in the years that followed served in various submarines and at stations ashore . Gilmore served as the executive officer of , and in a near - fatal incident during Shark ' s shakedown cruise , narrowly survived an assault by a group of thugs in Panama , who cut his throat during an excursion ashore . In 1941 , he assumed his first command , USS Shark SS - 174 , only to be transferred the day following the attack on Pearl Harbor to take command of the still - unfinished . World War II . Gilmore commanded his submarine skillfully during four Pacific war patrols . During his first , on 5 July 1942 attacked three enemy destroyer s off Kiska , sinking one and severely damaging the other two , while narrowly avoiding two torpedoes fired in return , for which Gilmore received the Navy Cross . On his second patrol , sank four merchant ships totaling 15 , 000 tons in the East China Sea near Taiwan . Gilmore received a gold star in lieu of a second Navy Cross . In October 1942 , patrolled off of Truk in the Caroline Islands in a repositioning of submarine assets on the way to Brisbane , Australia . No significant action occurred . The submarine continued to take a heavy toll on shipping on her fourth war patrol , and on the night of 6 – 7 February 1943 , she approached a convoy stealthily for a surface attack . Suddenly a convoy escort , " Hayasaki " , closed and prepared to ram . As the small ship charged out of the darkness , Gilmore sounded the collision alarm and shouted , “ Left full rudder ! ” — to no avail . Perhaps inadvertently , hit the Japanese adversary amidships at 17 knots ( 31 km / h ) , heeling the submarine 50 degrees , bending 18 feet of her bow sideways to port , and disabling the forward torpedo tubes . Medal of Honor action . Simultaneously , the Japanese crew unleashed a burst of machine gun fire at " Growler " ’ s bridge , killing the junior officer of the deck and a lookout , while wounding Gilmore himself and two other men . “ Clear the bridge ! ” Gilmore ordered as he struggled to hang on to a frame . As the rest of the bridge party dropped down the hatch into the conning tower , the executive officer , Lieutenant Commander Arnold Schade — shaken by the impact and dazed by his own fall into the control room — waited expectantly for his captain to appear . Instead from above came the shouted command , " Take her down ! " Realizing that he could not get below in time if the ship were to escape , Gilmore chose to make the supreme sacrifice for his shipmates . Schade hesitated briefly — then followed his captain ’ s last order and submerged the crippled ship . Surfacing some time later in hope of reattacking the " Hayasaki " , Schade found the seas empty . The Japanese ship had , in fact , survived the encounter , but there was no sign of Gilmore , who apparently had drifted away in the night . Schade and " Growler " ’ s crew managed to control the ship ’ s flooding and limped back to Brisbane on February 17 . For sacrificing himself to save his ship , Commander Howard Gilmore was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor , " the second man of the submarine force to be so decorated . " Medal of Honor citation . For distinguished gallantry and valor above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U . S . S . Growler during her Fourth War Patrol in the Southwest Pacific from 10 January to 7 February 1943 . Boldly striking at the enemy in spite of continuous hostile air and antisubmarine patrols , Comdr . Gilmore sank one Japanese freighter and damaged another by torpedo fire , successfully evading severe depth charges following each attack . In the darkness of night on 7 February , an enemy gunboat closed range and prepared to ram the Growler . Comdr . Gilmore daringly maneuvered to avoid the crash and rammed the attacker instead , ripping into her port side at 11 knots and bursting wide her plates . In the terrific fire of the sinking gunboat ' s heavy machineguns , Comdr . Gilmore calmly gave the order to clear the bridge , and refusing safety for himself , remained on deck while his men preceded him below . Struck down by the fusillade of bullets and having done his utmost against the enemy , in his final living moments , Comdr . Gilmore gave his last order to the officer of the deck , " Take her down . " The Growler dived ; seriously damaged but under control , she was brought safely to port by her well - trained crew inspired by the courageous fighting spirit of their dead captain . Even today “ Take her down ! ” remains one of the legendary phrases of the U . S . Submarine Force .