USS Toro (SS-422), a Tench-class submarine, was the only ship of the United States Navy to be named for the toro, a name applied to various fish including the cowfish, the catalufa, and the cavallo. Construction and commissioning Toro′s keel was laid down on 27 May 1944 at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. She was launched on 23 August 1944, sponsored by Mrs. Alan G. Kirk, and commissioned on 8 December 1944. First War Patrol Following her completion on 26 December 1944, Toro participated in training exercises out of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Newport, Rhode Island, and New London, Connecticut, before arriving at Key West, Florida, on 11 February 1945. She provided services to the Fleet Sonar School, then, on 28 February, departed Key West in company with submarine , bound for the Panama Canal Zone where she underwent a week of intensive training. The two submarines set a westward course for Hawaii on 15 March and arrived at Pearl Harbor on 1 April. Toro conducted training exercises out of that port with Submarine Division 101 until 24 April when she departed Oahu in company with submarine . She arrived at Saipan on 6 May and, after one false start, got underway for her first war patrol on 10 May. After arriving in her patrol and lifeguard area south of Shikoku and east of Kyūshū on 16 May, she occasionally encountered Japanese planes as she pursued her duties. On 18 May, following a probable periscope sighting, Toro detected a transmission on Japanese submarine radar frequency and attempted to close the contact but was unsuccessful. As she patrolled Bungo Suido, she was often assigned as lifeguard for air strikes against the Japanese islands. While off Omino Shima before sunrise on 25 May, she received word that a B-29 Superfortress was in trouble. She began the search in state four seas with only fair visibility and, two hours after dawn, homed in by friendly air cover, she rescued two Army aviators who had been floating in their lifejackets for three and one-half hours. Twenty minutes later, she rescued another aviator and then continued her search for additional survivors until late in the day. The names of the three airmen were Charles Smith, Howard Stein, and Robert Canova. While patrolling on the surface on the following morning, she made radar contact with a possible target at . The submarine turned toward the