Submarine commander Ken White reminisces about his wartime years aboard submarine USS Tiger Shark and struggles with feelings of personal guilt.
Submarine commander Ken White is forced to suddenly submerge, leaving his captain and another crew member to die outside the sub during WW II. Subsequent years of meaningless navy ground assignments and the animosity of a former sailor, leave White (now a captain) feeling guilty and empty. His life spirals downward and his wife is about to leave him. Suddenly, he is forced into a dangerous rescue situation at the start of the Koren War.... reassigned to the same submarine where all of his problems began.—WesternWildcard
As executive officer, on the last day of World War II, Lt. Cmdr. White makes the split-second decision to leave the captain, Cmdr. Joshua Rice and the quartermaster, both wounded by a strafing fighter on the bridge while the attack continues from the fighter and a destroyer above. As he surfaces, he learns that Japan has surrendered. He blames himself, as do some of the crew, for not taking the time to recover the two dead or wounded from the bridge before diving. As time passes this haunts him to the breaking point and threatens to destroy his marriage. His peacetime job is to manage the mothball submarine fleet. At the moment where he decides to leave the Navy, the Korean War starts and his old sub is returned to active service with him as captain. In the course of a dangerous mission, he risks his ship in an minefield and facing shore batteries as an acceptable loss for the good of the mission. The sub is shelled and sunk but not before all hands are able to escape. His wife ends the film by christening the next USS Tiger Shark.—patsw
