Know your gun:  Many hours of leisure will be yours on the boats.  This time spent learning your guns and cleaning your ammunition will mean plenty when action comes your way.  The actual shooting of your gun at an enemy is comparatively infinitesimal.  Like a certain kind of soap which is 99 44/100% pure, good shooting is 99 44/100% pure preparation.  Eddie Rickenbacker, World War ace pilot, realized this.  While his buddies smoked and played poker all the time, Rickenbacker used to check every cartridge for his guns.  He used to lubricate them and fit each one into the chamber of the gun it was to be fired from.  Such painstaking preparation was the reason that he piled up his high toll of German planes and is the reason why he came back alive.  The same can be true of you.  Your life and the lives of your shipmates will depend on your zeal in having your guns in not good but in perfect shape.

 

Depth Charges:  Though seldom used, they are always good passengers to have along.  These demons of the deep can be used against both surface craft and subs.  Squadron X in the Solomons effectively scared a Jap destroyer that was bearing down on a PT by using depth charge.  Who knows when a Jap sub will pop up?  So, keep them handy and ready.