# Origins of "Still on patrol" Tags: united-states, military, tradition, submarine - Score: 7 - Views: 3253 - Answers: 2 - Answered: yes - Asked by: Lassi Veikkonen (151 rep) - Asked: 2017-01-24 - Edited: 2017-01-24 - Site: history ## Question I recently came across an article about a tradition of USN not to consider submarines lost, but rather being on a permanent patrol. After trying to find more information about the topic pretty much everything I could find is this image from Wikipedia. Does anyone have an idea about when and why did this habit originate? ## Answers ### Answer by Oot'n'Boot (score: 8) During WW2, submarines on patrol were out of contact with friendly forces for extended periods of time. Even when operating in a Wolf-Pack, they generally couldn't tell exactly where their pack-mates were or how they were doing. While they could broadcast their status using their radios, this was limited to avoid radio intercepts and direction finding giving away their presence in an area. This meant that more often than not, the first indication that a boat was lost was either a boat missing a radio check-in or the boat being overdue on returning to port (an example of