On March 1, 1945 USS Kete SS-369 sailed from Guam on her 2nd war patrol, she had a new commanding officer, Lt. Commander Edward Ackerman, who had been her Executive Officer since she had been commissioned. Ackerman had made nine war patrols in USS Grayback SS-208 and had been awarded the Silver Star and a Gold Star in lieu of a second Silver Star.

Nine days out Ackerman attacked and sank three Japanese freighters, Dokan Maru (2,270 tons), Keizan Maru (2,116 tons) and Sanka Maru (2,495 tons), the only ships ever sunk by Kete. The sinkings were reported on Mar. 10. On Mar. 14 Ackerman spent four more torpedoes on a small "cable laying type vessel" which all missed. Ackerman reported that he had only three torpedoes remaining and on Mar. 18 was ordered to leave the area on Mar. 20 and proceed to Pearl Harbor via Midway to repair and rearm. Ackerman acknowledged his orders on Mar. 19. On Mar. 20 Kete sent out a special weather report from position 29.38N-130.02E (18 miles east of Tokara Retto, Tokara Gunto Group, Japan). She was expected at Midway on or about Mar. 31.

On Apr. 16, 1945 Commander Submarine Force Pacific Fleet Vice Admiral Charles A. Lockwood, Jr. began a report with the words "It is with the deepest regret that I must report that the USS Kete is overdue from patrol and must be presumed to be lost".

To this day what happened to Kete is unknown, records captured from the Japanese after the war failed to confirm that she had been sunk by enemy action. The chance that she may have been mined was thought to have been small since she was out of any known areas mined by the Japanese. There was the chance that she had been sunk by a Japanese submarine that herself failed to return, and that the attack had gone unreported, but this is pure speculation. The chance of mechanical failure or some kind of accident must also be considered to have been the cause of the loss, but until the wreck is found, the cause will remain unknown.

The Navy announced the loss to the public on June 30, stating that Kete was the 44th submarine lost since the war began.