On, Drum arrived at her assigned station. Before the plane sighted her, the ship conducted her first emergency dive. On 25 April, approximately 500 miles north of Wake Island, Drum made her first recorded contact with Japanese forces when radar detected an object, later identified as a large aircraft, which closed to within two miles of her. She moored and refueled at Midway on 21 April, then continued on her way that same day. In the days immediately following her departure, the boat conducted ship and fire control drills, as well as several training dives. Once moored, Drum offloaded her special stores, topped off her fuel bunkers, and took on a full allowance of torpedoes in preparation for her first war patrol that began on 17 April 1942 when she cleared Pearl and set course for the west coast of Japan in the vicinity of Nagoya. On 14 April, the submarine reached Oahu and made contact with her escort Litchfield (DD-336) and proceeded in company to Pearl. forces in Bataan, however, resulted in the mission being scrapped and only a few hours after arrival she received orders to return to Pearl. At midday, Drum arrived at Midway and moored. On 6 April 1942, Drum departed Pearl and set a course for the first stop of her mission, Midway atoll, located near the western end of the Hawaiian archipelago. Her mission, in addition to the delivery of the stores, also directed her to assist the recently commissioned cargo ship Thomas Jefferson in running the Japanese blockade. Shortly after her arrival, Drum received an order to take “certain critical stores from Pearl Harbor to Corregidor Island and conduct offensive patrol in area eleven.” Dutifully, she took on her “critical stores,” that consisted of Army medical supplies and some “foul smelling vitamin pills” and shipped out. She proceeded to Pearl Harbor, arriving there on 1 April 1942, to be immediately entrusted with a mission of the utmost emergency. naval and military forces on Oahu on 7 December 1941, Drum immediately underwent voyage repairs and completed additional training in anticipation of a deployment to the Pacific. Following the devastating Japanese surprise attack on U.S. “Bob” Rice (USNA 1927), in command, Drum conducted her shakedown between 1 November and 7 December 1941, during which she trained and ran trials out of New London, Conn., Key West, Fla., and Balboa, C.Z. Commissioned at her building yard on 1 November 1941, Lt.
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