Allan Rockwell McCann was born in 1896 in North Adams Massachusetts, the son of an Irish immigrant (James McCann & Carrie Utman) who came to the USA during the famine of 1848. He exhibited excellent potential in his early years and was selected to attend the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md. in 1913. He graduated in 1917, and while the US was preparing to enter WWI, was trained as a Naval Engineer. In 1919 he was a volunteer for the recently established Submarine School. He graduated and was immediately placed in command of several Submarines which were pending commission or decommission. As a engineer this gave him a lot of structural experience. After two years of these duties he was assigned operational command of a submarine, and duties in Panama, Coco Solo Submarine Base at the northern end of the Panama Canal. He remained in that place until 1928, when he was reassigned to the Bureau of Construction and Repair, at the Washington DC shipyard. There he worked with Charles B. 'Swede' Momsen and others in developing the Momsen Lung. He was also working on the Mark V hard hat diving suit. Momsen had been working to convince the Navy that they needed a method for submarine crews to escape from downed submarines. The submarine O-5 had sunk in 1923 of Coco Solo and McCann had been a part of that so-far unique rescue. Shortly before his assignment to the Bureau of Construction, the Submarine S-4 had sunk with all hands in 200 feet of water. Six men remained alive in the boat for several days with no way to rescue them. Momsen started designing a Rescue diving bell, and submitted it to the US Navy, which took no action. With his assignment to the Bureau, he had the opportunity to address the issue. His proposal had sat unread for two years, he revived it, and when an experimental seaplane hanger became available, he "requisitioned it" and with McCann's assistance built two Prototype diving bells, which were called the Momsen-McCann bells. Momsen and McCann in addition to their other duties tested the prototypes in the Potomac, and at sea off the coast. The open bottomed prototypes were unstable and often filled with sea water. Momsen was also working on his "lung" which was a rebreather device. When Momsen's hood was finished and privately tested, the Navy got a look at it, and decided that the concept was a quick and easy method for crew to escape, so they put it into service, and reassigned Momsen to tour the Submarines and train the crews in its use. This left McCann in charge of the Bell Project, and he began to redesign the device incorporating the fixes he and Momsen had planned. The Submarine S-4 had been raised and in memorial to those who had died, was converted as a rescue training submarine, purposefully redesigned by Momsen, to be resinkable and flooded for training. McCann had been also working as the Navy's liaison to the pending arctic expedition, and was consulting engineer in the complete redesign and modification of the submarine O-12, sister ship of the O-5, which was sold to the private company which was making the expedition. The O-12 was rechristened the Nautilus, and was to circumnavigate the north pole. Working with Simon Lake, the sub's designer, thirty-one major modifications were made to the O-12, including a retractile periscope, a retractile conning tower. a diving bell, and air locks. An Ice Drill was also installed. McCann's redesign of the Rescue Bell had incorporated a floor bulkhead, an adaptive skirt to create an air lock to the sub, and a cable driven hold-down and haul-down system. Ballast tanks were installed for stability, and air and communications by surface umbilical were established. The now larger capacity bell was tested and adopted by the NAVY, and all Submarines were refitted to accept it with a mating ring around all hatches. In 1931, with both of these projects completed, McCann like Momsen before him was reassigned to S-4 and the training of crews in the use of the newly named McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber [SRC]. The S-4 and all the other submarines were docked for conversion to accept the Bell, so McCann was land locked for four months at Coco Solo, while the S-4 was in dry dock. At the end of this period [1931] he was reassigned to service in the Pacific, in command of the USS Bonita, a submarine, to be home ported in Pearl Harbor. He had the additional duties on the Board of Inspection and Survey, Pacific Coast Section which was first at San Francisco and then Long Beach. The Board of Inspection and Survey conducted "Fleet Problems" which were Operational Readiness Inspections [ORIs] of the Fleet. "Fleet Problems" tested the Pacific Fleet in simulated war condition exercises. He remained in these duties until 1936. In April, 1936, he was assigned to the cruiser USS Indianapolis, as First Lieutenant and Damage Control Officer. Fourteen months later he transferred to the Staff of the Commander of Cruisers, Scouting Force on the USS Chicago. The Scouting Force operated out the navy base at San Pedro, [Los Angeles]. In May of 1938 he was reassigned to The Bureau of Navigation, at the Navy Department, as the Planning Officer, Personnel Division. In May 1939 the submarine Squalus sank off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, he (and Momsen) were ordered to the scene to command aspects of the rescue operation. Momsen was assigned command of the Diving Unit, and McCann was assigned Command of the Rescue Chamber operation. The submarine had flooded, and 33 survivors were trapped in the submarine. The McCann SRC was used in four trips to rescue all survivors. Four sailors received the Congressional Medal of Honor for their parts of the rescue. McCann and Momsen received Presidential Commendations from FDR. The SRC was then adopted by Germany, Russia, France, Japan, Denmark, and the blueprints were provided to The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Yugoslavia, Argentina, Brazil, and Peru, at their request. Italy and Great Britain have similar devices already. In May of 1941, McCann was assigned to Pearl Harbor, as Commander of Submarine Squadron 6. Squadron 6, including 8 submarines and the submarine tender Widgeon were at dockside in Pearl harbor on Sunday December 7. 1041 when the Japanese attacked the Pacific Fleet. The attack failed to damage any of the submarines, but devastated the capital ships of the Fleet. Widgeon, with its diver complement, including McCann who was certified diver, responded to battleship row, and initiated rescue operations, diving into the sunken ships and cutting through hulls trying to rescue trapped sailors. Widgeon operated on the USS Arizona, and other nearby ships. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Pacific Fleet had few war ready assets, mostly the aircraft carriers, which were at sea, and the submarines. President Roosevelt issued a one sentence war order, "Commence unrestricted warfare against the nation of Japan." "Unrestricted" meant against ALL assets, civilian and military. The Submarine fleet went to war. Unfortunately there were problems with the Mk-14 torpedoes. They had never been tested with actual warheads, only training torpedoes had been fired, and the warshot torpedoes were nose heavy. There were also issues with the alignment of the contact triggers, and the Proximity fuses were faulty. Admiral English, McCann and once again, Momsen were working on a solution. Washington refused to acknowledge the problems were mechanical, and blamed the submariners for ineptitude. English. McCann and Momsen tested the warshot torpedoes, and recovered the undetonated duds. A very dangerous operation. They then dissected the duds to determine why they didn't fire. They were tracking 10 feet too low, and the detonators were destroyed on impact before they could detonate. The magnetic detonator proximity fuses just didn't work. McCann developed solutions, moving the sensor to a neutral flow area; installing an electrical mercury switch to fire the detonator cap, and disabling the magnetic proximity fuse. The torpedoes started working. In January 1943, McCann picked up additional duties in Command of Task Force 51, Joint Expeditionary Task Force and operated in the southwest Pacific. He was Senior Representative of ComSubPac to General Mac Arthur, essentially the submarine Commander for the southwestern Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand. I suspect he was placing coast watchers and doing Intel work. January 2, 1943 - Allies take Buna in New Guinea. January 22, 1943 - Allies defeat Japanese at Sanananda on New Guinea. In April 1943 he was moved to the Atlantic, where he was the initial Commander of Submarine Squadron 7, a training squadron in anti-submarine warfare, using captured French (7) and Italian (5) submarines, to develop tactics to be used against AXIS submarine forces. The facility was in Bermuda. His job was to set up the facility and get it running. He was now a Rear Admiral. In September 1943 he returned to the Chief of Naval Operations Fleet Maintenance Division. in Washington DC. In July 1944 he was placed in Command of the Battleship USS Iowa, for the Philippines campaign. He remained in command of Iowa until November 28. This is the operation which returned MacArthur to the Philippines on October 20, 1944. August 1944 - After a month's rest, Iowa sortied from Eniwetok as part of the 3d Fleet, and helped support the landings on Peleliu, 17 September. She then protected the carriers during air strikes against the Central Philippines to neutralize enemy air power for the long awaited invasion of the Philippines. 10 October 1944 - Iowa arrived off Okinawa for a series of air strikes on the Ryukyus and Formosa. She then supported air strikes against Luzon, 18 October and continued this vital duty during General MacArthur's landing on Leyte 20 October. 25 October 1944 - Japanese Central Force was attacking a group of American escort carriers off Samar. This threat to the American beachheads forced Iowa to reverse course and steam to support the vulnerable "baby carriers." However, the valiant fight put up by the escort carriers and their screen had already caused the Japanese to retire and Iowa was denied a surface action. Following the Battle for Leyte Gulf, Iowa remained in the waters off the Philippines screening carriers during strikes against Luzon and Formosa. In December 1944 he was assigned to Assistant Chief of Staff (Anti-Submarine), and Chief of Staff to the Commander, Tenth Fleet, Headquarters, Commander in Chief, U.S. Fleet, Navy Department, Washington, DC. This was a fleet without ships. The Tenth Fleet was an intelligence headquarters, which coordinated all Allied Atlantic assets against the submarine forces of the Axis. The operational control of the Tenth Fleet was any asset in the area of an AXIS submarine, " which was responsible for convoy and routing of United States shipping and the development of plans, weapons, and tactics to be employed in antisubmarine operations." By use of communications intercepts (ENIGMA and others) and spotter reports, the Tenth systematically tracked and killed Submarines. They were so successful they were given direct credit for destroying AXIS submarine operations in the theater. The first Chief of Staff of the Tenth Fleet was Rear Admiral Francis S. Low, who was relieved in January 1945 by Rear Admiral A. R. McCann. On 15 June 1945 the Tenth Fleet was dissolved, mission completed. 18 July 1945 - 8 August 1945 Assigned as Commander, Task Force 68, USS Philadelphia (CL-41) during the Presidential trip to Berlin. This was the Potsdam Meeting with President Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin, to decide how to divide the lands held by Germany. Also issued was the surrender ultimatum to Japan. This trip ended as Hiroshima was being bombed. McCann briefed President Truman on the success of the Hiroshima bombing. 8 August 1945 McCann was commended by President Truman. 18 December 1945 - assigned as Commander, Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, which he held until September, 1948. Events during this command were the dismantling of the Japanese fleet assets, and an expedition to the polar Ice Pack for the first under ice voyage by submarine. This was Operation Blue Nose. In September 1948 he joined the General Board of the US Navy Department. This is the "Corporate" management board of the Navy. On June 13, 1949 he was appointed by President Truman to be Navy Inspector General, and ordered to investigate the "Admiral's Revolt" which centered on the Defense Act of 1947. The resistance of several naval officers to the allocation of funds to the USAF, Vs new carriers was worthy of investigation. In May 1950 He retired from the US Navy as a Vice Admiral.