The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service [Hardcover]

Captain C. Kenneth Ruiz USN (Ret.) (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 27, 2005

A coin flip likely saved the life of Kenneth C. Ruiz. It was August 1942 and he was fresh out of the U.S. Naval Academy. He and a classmate flipped a coin to see who would stand watch on the bridge of their heavy cruiser, the USS Vincennes, off Savo Island as the Marines were landing on Guadalcanal. Ruiz was on the bridge when the ship took a direct hit and sank. He ended up in the Pacific without a life jacket, but his classmate and the entire radio room crew perished in the attack. "The luck of the draw" is a recurring theme in this powerful memoir. Following the demise of the Vincennes, Ruiz volunteered to serve on submarines for the balance of the war and had numerous harrowing experiences. He spent most of his time on the USS Pollack, which was sub-standard in terms of technology, but was still deadly and made a significant impact on Japanese shipping in the far reaches of the Pacific. A worthy addition to the litany of WWII books on submariners, The Luck of the Draw is filled with heartbreaking stories of how the smallest decisions made the difference between life and death for soldiers and sailors in the war.

    

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Following World War II Kenneth C. Ruiz left the submarine service and became a naval aviator, ultimately retiring as a captain. His post-war naval service included command of an aircraft carrier. He lives in Henderson, Nevada.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press; 1st edition (June 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760321566
• ISBN-13: 978-0760321560
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,030,908 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely well written, a superb account of sub warfare, December 5, 2006

By 

Thomas J. Dougherty (Ayer, Ma. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service (Hardcover)

As a fresh graduate of the US Naval Academy, Ruiz was assigned to the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes as it was entering the Savo Sound off of Guadalcanal. He and an Academy classmate draw cards to see who would get the plumb assignment to the bridge, where they could observe the captain fight the ship, and who would end up on the signal bridge. Ruiz winds the card draw, and takes the bridge assignment. Two days later, the flag bridge is destroyed and all are killed during the attack. The Vincennes is attacked during the battle and sunk in Ironbottom Sound by torpedoes from a destroyer. After a harrowing time in the water with other survivors, Ruiz is rescued. The survivors eventually meet with Admiral Nimitz, who specifically requests volunteers for the submarine service. Ruiz volunteers, and is assigned to USS Pollack, one of the P class of submarines, and one of the last submarines built with rivets rather than a welded hull. Pollack has balky diesel engines, noisy bilge and trim pumps, and a hull that has a test depth of 250 feet, much less than the new fleet submarines. He joins the crew during an overhaul, when among other features Pollack is equipped with the new SJ surface search radar (with the old "A" scope display). During his first cruise on the boat at the end of 1942, Ruiz sees first hand how difficult it is to fight with this submarine, as time and again, equipment and systems fail. Even when the submarine does manage to work in for an attack, the torpedoes let the crew down with their poor performance, and Pollack must dodge depth charges. Time and again, as Ruiz describes it, Pollack takes the crew to the brink of disaster, only to snatch them from the jaws of defeat. One serious flooding incident that occurred during a depth charging turns out to be due not to the depth charges, but to a bolt jammed into the conning tower hatch to the bridge, blocking the hatch gasket from sealing.

We follow Ruiz on eight war patrols on the Pollack. Many of these are frustrating and frightening in the close calls the sub survives. Along the way, the colorful George Grider (from Morton's Wahoo, and later to captain the highly successful Flasher) joins the crew as the XO. Grider's leadership style and abilities have a positive influence on all the officers. As Ruiz puts it, "Before long, I realized that Grider had become the ship's heart and soul". Ruiz also moves up the officer chain and we follow him, in the process learning about the functions of the submarine. With a change of command to Cdr. Bafford Lewellen, the luck of Pollack begins to change. They carry out a successful attacks on the Bangkok Maru , which is carrying Japanese troops to Tarawa. Ruiz' sixth patrol on Pollack is the most successful, with over 21,000 tons of shipping sunk. In between the two attacks, Pollack has more misadventures, including an uncontrolled excursion to 500 feet, more than twice the test depth.

This book is another outstanding look at the experience of serving in the submarine force during WWII. In this case, it is not aboard a modern fleet boat, but in an older, worn, and balky submarine that was almost as dangerous to the crew as the enemy. The resourcefulness and resilience of men not far out of their teenage years is the true story of Pollack. The writing is superb; one passage stuck with me after I had finished the book: "My fondest memories of submarine duty are those tropic nights on the bridge, reveling in the warm salt air, and a slow easy swell under the Southern Cross. The sky seemed much closer here than on shore, and the Southern Cross has always been my favorite constellation. It was a lonely but powerful feeling being out there hunting thousands of miles from the nearest friendly base".

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Click-BANG...Click-BANG... not just another war story, November 27, 2005

By 

B. Hall (Chaska, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service (Hardcover)

You start off in an out of control crash dive to your imminent death and Kenneth Ruiz has you immersed in a Tom Clancy styled epic, the only difference, this is a real life and death struggle. Not only does the crew have to battle the Japanesse but they also are fighting the antiquated USS Pollack. You won't find the author giving you family history like a lot of military authors,instead you are with the crew 250 feet below the surface being depth charged or on the surface, with the spray in your face, charging after the enemy. For the movie goer there is "DAS BOOT" for the reader there is Kenneth Ruiz's "The LUCK of The DRAW".

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dud torpedoes, incestant depth charges, and the luck of the draw in war and life., December 13, 2005

By 

Jim Pook "Sushi Hunter" (Tahsis, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Luck of the Draw: The Memoir of a World War II Submariner: From Savo Island to the Silent Service (Hardcover)

I have just finished reading The Luck of the Draw. I am most impressed by the feeling I got of what it is like to live on a 1937 built WWII submarine from the safety of my own home. With everything Captain Ruiz went through in the telling of his story and that of his shipmates, it is a wonder that he survived to a ripe old age to write about it!

Surviving the sinking of his cruiser USS Vincennes on his maiden cruise in the Battle of Savo Island by the Japanese. Eight war patrols in the hostile waters of the Pacific during WWII in what must have been the oldest, loudest, most tempermental sub in the Silent Service.

After surviving the sinking of your boat, it was customary to spend some time off to heal the psyche. Not Ken. He went direct to the submarine USS Pollack, at the personal invitation of Admiral Chester Nimitz, no less!

There is one great periscope photo that shows the snow covered beach of Japan behind the one of the ships topedoed by Pollack.

Ruiz' description of daily life onboard Pollack may not inspire you to go to war in a submarine, but you will get a good feeling of what it was really like.

If you want to get a feel for tactics of WWII era submarine warfare and the dangers that go hand in hand with fighting from beneath the waves, then this book is for you. I highly reccommend it. I enjoyed it immensely and hope that I never have to do what Ruiz and his crew went through.