By Jennifer Marino
After about six hours ofsilent running, the captain sent the submarine's secret papers to the engine room with the order that Norde was to burn them. It looked as though the ship might have to destroy itself, but then the bombardment stopped and the orders were halted. The submarine surfaced and the destroyer was gone. The captain was eager to find the ship and ordered the engines on, but one failed; so the chase did not happen.
This close call was just one of many for Norde, 83, who spent seven years in the US Navy, 1940-1946, on two submarines, the R-18 and the USS 366 Hawkbill.
Years later, Norde said, the captains of the Hawkbill and the Japanese destroyer met and became friends.
Growing up on the Lower East Side in New York City, Norde knew he wanted to be on a submarine. On Navy Day, Norde would board the ships and submarines docked in the harbor.
At age 21, he signed up and went off to submarine school. His first submarine was the R-18. He spent two years on it in the North Atlantic looking for U-boats. They never saw any, he said.
On Dec. 7, 1941, the day Pearl Harbor was attacked, Norde was on leave at the movies with his wife, Natalie. He had to run back to his base.
His brother, Theodore, was killed on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor. Norde's son and grandson are both named after him. He also has a daughter, Christine.
Later, he was assigned to a brand
new submarine, the Hawkbill. Built in Manitowoc, Wis., the Hawkbill was launched in 1944 with a big party. Norde has pictures of the vessel making a big splash in the water as it is launched on its side. In Wisconsin, Spencer Tracy came to visit one of the captains and stopped to chat with Norde.
The Hawkbill's symbol decorates Norde's room at the Maple Pointe assisted living facility in Rockville Centre. He has lived there for about three weeks, moving from his longtime home in Valley Stream. The symbol was drawn by Disney and shows a bug under a glass riding on the back of a hawkbill sea turtle. The turtle carries torpedoes under its fins and the bug checks out the surface through a periscope.
Exercises on the submarine took place in the Great Lakes. Then it went down the Mississippi River through the Gulf of Mexico and on to Pearl Harbor.
Norde spent much of World War II in the South China Sea looking for and sinking Japanese ships. He won many medals including a bronze star for patrol of enemy waters from Nov. 15, 1944 to January 5, 1945 and sinking one MATSU class destroyer and one high-speed transport by torpedo fire.The medals are what my crew did, he said, calling them agood bunch of men.
He also has a Philippine Liberation Ribbon, a letter of commendation from President Harry Truman and a good conduct award. The last, he says with a laugh, is forsix years of undetected crime.
Before and after his service, Norde, who sports a white beard, sparkling eyes and mischievous smile like a trim Santa Claus, had a variety of jobs. As a young man he was a lifeguard at Jones Beach. He was one of thesand hogs that helped build the Midtown and Battery tunnels. He worked as the superintendent of one million square feet of buildings owned by Trinity Church in Manhattan for 27 years. And as a stationary fireman, he worked with high-pressure boilers.
These days, he is a Rockville Centre resident and trades stories with the five or six other veterans at Maple Pointe. He lends books about submarines to the staff and attends monthly meetings of the Submarine Veterans of World War II at the Marine barracks in Garden City. They also have yearly conventions.
He's been slowed down a little by a hip operation, but is still going strong. He attributes his longevity, with a smile, toclean living
