Slade Cutter

Slade Deville Cutter (born November 1, 1911 – June 9, 2005) was a career U.S. naval officer who was awarded four Navy Crosses and tied for second place for Japanese ships sunk in World War II. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy as an All-American American football player.

Naval Academy and early naval career
Originally intending to become a professional flutist, Cutter instead went to Severn School, at the time a prep school for aspiring Naval Academy applicants, and was noticed in their athletic program. Not only a football star, he was an intercollegiate boxing champion. "An all-American football player, he achieved instant fame as a first classman when he won the 1934 Army-Navy game with a first-quarter field goal.

On the basis of his Academy football career, he was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Cutter graduated in 1935, served on the battleship USS Idaho (BB-42), where he coached another winning football team."

Submarine duty
He entered Submarine School in June 1938. By the Attack on Pearl Harbor, he had advanced to Executive Officer.

First wartime assignment, first "down-the-throat" shot
"Cutter was the Executive Officer of USS Pompano (SS-181) under LCDR Lew Parks when she left Pearl Harbor on her first war patrol on 18 December 1941, just 11 days after the Japanese attack. Only two days out of Pearl Harbor, Pompano was sighted by a U.S. patrol plane, which attacked the friendly submarine and called in dive bombers from the nearby USS Enterprise (CV-6). Three additional near-misses ruptured Pompano's fuel tanks and left the ship trailing an oil slick. Parks shook off his friendly pursuers and pressed on to confirm the presence of Japanese troops on Wake Island. Pompano then continued to the Marshall Islands, where she found a 16,000-ton Japanese transport at Wotje, which was attacked with four torpedoes and presumably sunk. Parks remained off Wotje for five more days and eventually attacked a destroyer, but his first two torpedoes detonated early." The next two, the first "down the throat" attempted by a United States submarine, missed.

After an inevitable depth-charge attack and with fuel draining relentlessly from the oil leak, Pompano returned to home base on 31 January 1942. Unfortunately, postwar analysis credited Parks with no more than possible damage to the Wotje transport.

Cutter made two more war patrols as Executive Officer of Pompano, operating in the vicinity of Okinawa and Honshū, respectively. The boat narrowly escaped destruction on 9 August 1942, when a Japanese depth charge unseated an engine exhaust valve, causing major flooding and driving her into the bottom near the Japanese coast. Fortunately, the crew managed to surface the boat and creep away.

USS Seahorse
The Seahorse sank nineteen enemy ships during the four war patrols I was the skipper. The crew got the job done. I was merely the coordinator. They were brave and talented, and I never had to be reckless. I thought of the lives of those fine men, and frankly, I was aboard too.

After the third patrol on Pompano, Cutter was assigned as Executive Officer on USS Seahorse (SS-304), then under construction. Initially commanded by CDR Don McGregor; Seahorse took a shakedown cruise, and reached the Pacific in summer 1943.

Seahorse's first war patrol began on 3 August 1943. "It was not successful. Stationed off the Palaus, McGregor made only two attacks and allowed a number of convoys pass by unscathed. After the boat returned to port, an investigation of her poor performance" by Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, [Commander, Submarines, Pacific Fleet: COMSUBPAC] and his staff led to McGregor's removal for not being aggressive enough." Cutter was named Commanding Officer of Seahorse in October 1943.

Cutter took his new charge out of Pearl Harbor on 20 October for her second war patrol and his first as Commanding Officer. Heading for the East China Sea, he drew first blood on the 29th, 30th, and 31st, when Seahorse sank three trawlers with gunfire south of Japan." Subsequently, Seahorse, working with USS Trigger (SS-237), coincidentally assigned to the same area, attacked a large convoy that had already been fingered by USS Halibut (SS-232) the day before. Surprised by the sudden evidence of Trigger's torpedoes, Cutter shot nine of his own and sank two freighters. "Moving northward in the East China Sea toward the Korea Strait, Cutter sank two more ships. "Seahorse returned to Pearl Harbor on 12 December boasting a total kill of 4 ships and 19,570 tons, not even counting the trawlers."

Navy Cross Citation: For extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of the USS Seahorse during the Second War Patrol of that vessel in enemy Japanese-controlled waters. Alert and aggressive as he navigated dangerous seas in search of Japanese shipping, Commander Cutter conducted bold attacks against the enemy and, maintaining a high standard of efficiency throughout this important patrol, succeeded in sinking nine vessels totaling 48,000 tons, and in damaging another ship of 4,800 tons... [He] inspired confidence and maximum effort among the officers and men of his command, inflicting heavy losses upon the enemy and bringing his ship back to port undamaged despite intensive hostile countermeasures.

His next patrol left Pearl Harbor on 6 January 1944, headed for a patrol area near the Palau Islands, near the Philippines. En route, he sank an escorted freighter. Arriving in the patrol area, he received a communications intelligence intercept alerting him to a convoy, which he located visually on 21 January: two freighters and three escorts. He sank both freighters.

Seahorse then moved directly to Palau itself, and on 28 January, Cutter discovered three freighters emerging from the harbor under heavy escort. He tracked the convoy for 32 hours waiting for an opening and at 0200 on the 30th was finally able to put three torpedoes into Toku Maru (2,747 tons). One of these blew the stern off, and she went down directly, taking over 450 troops with her. Harassed by the escorts and accompanying aircraft, Cutter nonetheless kept Seahorse in trail of the remaining Japanese for another 48 hours and attempted another attack just after midnight on 1 February. Eight torpedoes missed. Under heavy pressure from a charging escort, he shot two last torpedoes from his stern tubes just before going deep. Amid the violence of the ensuing depth charge attack, the Seahorse crew heard both torpedoes strike home and the now-familiar sound of exploding gasoline drums. Indeed, it was later confirmed that they had sunk the Japanese steamer Toei Maru (4,004 tons). After this 80-hour chase - nearly a record. Seahorse returned to Pearl Harbor on 16 February with another five ships and 13,716 tons to her credit."

Gold Star in lieu of the Second Navy Cross: As Commanding Officer of the USS Seahorse during a War Patrol of that vessel in enemy-controlled waters. In spite of the thorough enemy aircraft patrols and intensive methods in which the Japanese conducted their anti-submarine measures, he aggressively attacked and successfully delivered damaging torpedo attacks against heavily escorted enemy convoys... [sinking] five enemy ships totaling over 30,000 tons. On one occasion, it was necessary to pursue an enemy convoy over a period of eighty hours and only by exceptional determination and skill was he able to penetrate the escort screen and sink two freighters... [evading] severe enemy counter-attacks to bring his ship back to port undamaged.

Seahorse's fourth war patrol took her to the Marianas, specifically to prevent the Japanese from reinforcing Guam and Saipan. She departed Pearl Harbor on 16 March 1944, and near Guam on 8 April came across a Japanese supply convoy, damaging two vessels that were subsequently lost. Seahorse moved on, and the very next day found a 15-20 ship convoy that had already been attacked by Trigger as it neared Saipan, sinking another cargo ship.

On lifeguard [aircrew rescue] duty in support of carrier air strikes on Saipan, Seahorse next sighted and sank the Japanese submarine I-174. This was one of the few submarine attacks on another submarine in World War Two. Inadvertently losing depth control and leaving periscope depth, "A week later, Seahorse found another convoy 45 miles west of Saipan and sank another freighter, refueling in New Guinea and making port in Brisbane, Australia, on the 11th.

Gold Star in lieu of the Third Navy Cross: As Commanding Officer of the USS Seahorse, during a War Patrol of that vessel in enemy Japanese controlled-waters of the Pacific, from March 28 to April 27, 1944... [He] launched repeated torpedo attacks to sink four hostile ships totaling over 25,000 tons and to damage an enemy submarine of over 600 tons. Although subjected to severe depth charging and aerial bombing, he skillfully evaded the enemy and brought his ship safe to port.

"With the U.S. invasion of the Marianas (Saipan, Guam, and Tinian) approaching in mid-June 1944, VADM Lockwood sent more than a dozen submarines westward to interdict possible Japanese reinforcements. Accordingly, Seahorse left Brisbane on 3 June for her 5th war patrol and took station with USS Growler (SS-215) off the Surigao Strait between Mindinao and Leyte ten days later." Seahorse's greatest contribution to the upcoming Battle of the Philippine Sea was locating a Japanese battle group centered around the Japanese battleships Yamato and Musashi, the heaviest-gunned ships in the Second World War. Cutter described this achievement as

"'The U.S. hadn't known where that task force was for two weeks,' he told a reporter in 1997. 'It was far ahead of us and we couldn't catch up, but we radioed its position, course and speed to headquarters.'"

After the battle, Seahorse joined a wolfpack in the Luzon Strait, and sank five more ships.

Gold Star in lieu of the Fourth Navy Cross: For extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of the USS Seahorse, during the Fifth War Patrol of that vessel in enemy Japanese-controlled waters, from June 3 to July 19, 1944. Penetrating heavy and unusually alert escort screens, Commander Cutter pressed home well planned and executed torpedo attacks to sink six enemy ships totaling 37,000 tons and damaged an additional ship of 4,000 tons. Undaunted by severe enemy anti-submarine measures, he directed his vessel and succeeded in bringing her safe to port.

Assigned to new construction
After the fourth patrol of the Seahorse and a rest leave, he was assigned as Commanding Officer of the new-construction USS Requin (SS-481). His wife, Fran, sponsored the ship when it was commissioned on 28 April 1945. Requin left Portsmouth for the Pacific theater in early June and arrived at Pearl Harbor at the end of July, but the war ended shortly after she departed on her first war patrol.

Command style
"In addition to the fighting spirit and relentless persistence he showed on patrol in seeking out and destroying the enemy, Slade Cutter was revered for his natural amiability and abiding concern for the well-being of his crew. To him, they were just like the football teams he had coached, and he trained and practiced with them the same way, starting with the fundamentals and working up to an integrated "game plan" for approach and attack. After every engagement or depth-charging, he would drop by the crew's mess to offer his own account to the "team" of what had happened and why. As a result of this and other examples of his generous humanity, the affection and respect he received then from his Sailors is still alive among a new generation of submariners today."

His biographer, Carl Lavo, described Cutter as having an abrasive style with superior officers, which may well have cost him selection for promotion to rear admiral. Especially controversial was his effective challenge to Adm. Hyman Rickover, claiming that the first nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus (SSN-571), was "strictly a test vehicle. I doubt if she will ever fire a shot in anger."

Postwar Naval service
"After the war, Cutter achieved the rank of Captain and subsequently commanded the oiler, USS Neosho (AO-143), and the converted heavy cruiser USS Northampton (CLC-1) while the latter served as flagship of the United States Second Fleet.

"In the late 1950s, Capt. Cutter was made the Naval Academy's athletic director to encourage popular football coach Eddie Erdelatz to resign. LaVO said that Erdelatz was running a "professional-style football program" but that too few players were opting to remain in the Navy after graduation because of his reputed disparaging of the service. Capt. Cutter's knowledge of the sports program and his feeling that Erdelatz was "disloyal to the Navy" led to Erdelatz's departure. Much of the task was helped by Capt. Cutter's stature as an athletic and wartime hero." "His final active-duty assignment, in 1965, was head of the Naval Historical Display Center in Washington."

Retirement & Death
He retired from active duty in 1965 and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1967. He later became headmaster of a boys' school in Tucson, where he moved to care for his first wife's asthma condition. Frances Leffler Cutter died in 1981. After her death, he moved back to Annapolis, MD. In 1982, he married Ruth McCracken Buek.

Slade D. Cutter, 93, died June 9, 2005 at Ginger Cove retirement community in Annapolis. He had Parkinson's disease. Survivors include his wife of 23 years, Ruth McCracken Buek Cutter of Annapolis; two children from the first marriage, Slade D. Cutter Jr. of Austin and Anne McCarthy of Santa Fe, N.M.; three stepchildren, Scott Buek of Delran, N.J., Harvey Buek of Conshohocken, Pa., and Pamela Sullivan of Sparks, Nev.; a sister; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Memorials
A 40-acre athletic field in Hampton Roads, Virginia was dedicated as the Captain Slade Cutter Athletic Park on 14 October 2011. Ruth Cutter (widow) was in attendance to hear the dedication remarks: "They say the name makes a man&mdash;and what a name. Slade Cutter&mdash;he was destined for greatness."