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USS Batfish earned nine battle stars for her World War II service in the Pacific. She sank 14 ships and damaged three others during her seven war patrols. Over a period of four days in February 1945, she sank three Japanese submarines. For this feat, the "sub killer" was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. Her other WW II exploits included blasting a grounded destroyer, bombarding a Japanese village, and rescuing downed aviators.
Decommissioned shortly after WW II, Batfish was recommissioned at Mare Island Navy Yard on March 7, 1952, as the Korean War intensified. At her new home port of Key West, her primary duties involved training operations in the Caribbean and along the Atlantic seaboard. She was decommissioned August 4, 1958. A year later she was towed to New Orleans for use as a moored naval reserve training vessel until stricken from the Navy list in 1969.
In February 1972, Batfish was transferred to the Oklahoma Maritime Advisory Board and towed up the Arkansas river to Muskogee. There, she was placed in a dry berth and opened to the public as a memorial to Oklahoma combat submariners.
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