What actually happened on Seadragon in September 1942?
I had been up on the watch and when I came down to the after battery section of the submarine — the crew’s compartment — I found Darrell Rector. It was his 19th birthday. He said to me, “Hey Doc, I don’t feel very good.” I told him to get into his bunk and rest a bit and kept him under observation. His temperature was rising. He had the classic symptoms of appendicitis. The abdominal muscles were getting that washboard rigidity. He then began to flex his right leg up on his abdomen to get some relief. He worsened and I went to the CO [Commanding Officer] to report his condition. The skipper went back and talked to Rector explaining that there were no doctors around. Rector then said, “Whatever Lipes wants to do is OK with me.” The CO and I had a long talk and he asked me what I was going to do. “Nothing,” I replied. He lectured me about the fact that we were there to do the best we could. “I fire torpedoes every day and some of them miss,” he reminded me. I told him that I could not
