The Galloping Ghost

by Carl P. LaVO

  Unfortunately, the cancer returned a few years later, getting progressively worse until 1976, when she mysteriously regained a long-term burst of energy. For more than two years she and her husband traveled extensively. “They traveled to Russia, down the Danube, and to other places,” explained her daughter.

  In January 1979 the disease took an aggressive turn. The Fluckeys moved into their daughter’s home in Crofton, where they stayed until Marjorie’s death in August. “My father rarely left her side,” said his daughter.

  Mrs. Fluckey’s body was cremated. Her husband flew back to Portugal with most of her ashes and spread them in the gardens she so loved at their quinta and also on the grounds of the orphanage. The Naval Academy class of 1935 made a donation to the orphanage in her name.

  20 August 1980—“Plucky Fluckey”

  ISLE OF MANN, England—Gene Fluckey today married Eleanor Margaret Wallace. Nine months after his wife’s death, the admiral met her at a luncheon arranged by her sister, who lived in Sintra. Margaret, a British subject with homes in Wales and the Isle of Mann, was going through a difficult divorce from prominent English civil engineer James McAlpine. With a penchant for sports cars, she embraced life as much as Gene. After their marriage, Margaret arranged for the admiral to meet two friends for lunch. She introduced her husband as “Eugene Fluckey.” He added, “You won’t forget my name, will you, as in lucky Fluckey?” And they sang in chorus to the admiral, “And she’s plucky Fluckey.” The newlyweds honeymooned by touring France’s Bordeaux region by hot-air balloon.

  Summer 1981—Homecoming

  ANNAPOLIS, Maryland—Gene and Margaret Fluckey sold their homes in Portugal and on the Isle of Mann and relocated to a home near the Naval Academy. Both began a close relationship with the academy and the Brigade of Midshipmen.

  13 November 1981—Gathering of heroes

  PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii—Admiral Fluckey was among more than two hundred Medal of Honor winners gathered today at the submarine base in Pearl Harbor for a Medal of Honor Society convention. Four surviving World War II sub skippers were in attendance—Vice Adm. Lawson P. Ramage (USS Parche), Rear Adm. Richard H. O’Kane (USS Tang), Capt. George L. Street III (USS Tirante), and Gene Fluckey.

  October 1983—Nimitz and Togo

  TOKYO, Japan—The city’s Togo Shrine was closed to tourists for a banquet in honor of Gene and Margaret Fluckey. Japanese officers and crewmen who had served in Kurashio, the former U.S. submarine Mingo (SS-261) loaned to the Japanese navy in 1955, hosted the event. Fluckey had trained the first Japanese crew to sail the sub.

  During a pre-banquet tour of the shrine, the Fluckeys noticed many photographs of Admiral Nimitz. Fluckey was stunned, asking his Japanese escorts, “Why photos of Nimitz?”

  “He did so much for Admiral Togo,” explained a Japanese officer. “During our conflict he ordered that no Allied bombing was permitted to target the battleship Mikasa, Togo’s flagship, when he sank the Czar’s Baltic Fleet at the Battle of Tsushima Strait [in 1905]. After our surrender he had the mooring cemented between the piers so she can never sink. Furthermore he dedicated all his profits from his book The Great Sea War to the rebuilding of the Togo Shrine.”

  12 December 1983—Ronald Reagan

  NEW YORK, New York—Admiral Fluckey today attended a special luncheon to honor President Ronald Reagan, who received the Patriots Award from two hundred surviving members of the Medal of Honor Society.

  29 August 1986—Reunion

  BALTIMORE, Maryland—Officers and enlisted men of the original Barb reunited for the first time since the launch and commissioning of the atomic attack sub Barb. Forty-three crewmen plus Admiral Fluckey, Adm. Robert McNitt, Tuck Weaver, Capt. Max Duncan, and Reserve Cdr. Dave Teeters attended. All had been very successful in life. Admiral McNitt had served as commander of NATO submarines in the Mediterranean, superintendent of the Naval Postgraduate School, and director of the Navy Management Systems Center at Monterey, California. Upon retirement in 1972, he became senior professor and dean of admissions at the Naval Academy. Weaver became a business executive who traveled internationally and was the first Barb veteran to visit Australian Neville Thams, the POW rescued by the submarine in 1944. Max Duncan spent twenty-three years in subs commanding two submarines, a division, a tender, a base, and a squadron. He capped his career as commander of Naval Support Activity Saigon in 1968 and 1969. Dave Teeters, after the war, continued a very active career in the Naval Reserve, received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California at Berkeley, was involved in the development of the touch-tone telephone at Bell Telephone, and eventually retired as professor of physics at Monmouth University of New Jersey. Also attending was Chief Gunners Mate Paul “Swish” Saunders, who was the Barb’s chief of the boat and one of the most decorated enlisted submariners in the Navy. Many crewmen graduated from college on the GI Bill and became successful in business and in various professions and governmental posts.

  10 March 1989—Deactivated

  SAN DIEGO, California—The USS Barb (SSN-596) was decommissioned today. Like the original Barb’s rescue of prisoners of war, the atomic attack sub saved four crewmen of a B-52 bomber that crashed off the coast of Guam on 10 July 1972. In waves cresting forty feet, Barb officers and crew located two rafts carrying survivors. Because of seventy-knot winds and an inability to come alongside the rafts as the sub rolled forty degrees, Chief Torpedoman Jon Hentz dived overboard and swam a line to the first raft. In the swim back, he almost didn’t make it. It took a remarkable feat of seamanship for Barb crewmen to haul him and the aviators on both rafts to safety.

  17 November 1989—Fluckey Hall (Connecticut)

  GROTON, Connecticut—Gene Fluckey today addressed enlisted men and officers at the dedication of Fluckey Hall at the Naval Submarine School here. The ninety thousand-square-foot, six-story facility is designed to support advanced combat systems training for submariners into the twenty-first century. The school trains more than sixty thousand students annually. The admiral expressed how proud he was, comparing the sensation to the way his eight-year-old granddaughter Gail Bove felt on learning to swim on a visit to her grandfather’s house in Hawaii in 1965. “At the end of the summer she won the prize in a race swimming on her back while reading a magazine,” explained Gene. “A trophy was presented. She asked if it was really gold. I told her no, it was more important than gold for it represented achievement. Her response: ‘Granddad, I’m so proud of myself, I can hardly stand me.’ ”

  30 January 1990—“Best part of war”

  BRISBANE, Australia—Barb torpedoman Don Miller of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, arrived today to be reunited with Jack Flynn for the first time in fifty years. Flynn, seventy-two, was captured while fighting in Burma for the British and later was cast adrift on flotsam in the South China Sea. The Barb miraculously located Flynn and thirteen other survivors. Recalled Miller, “I’ll never forget the Australians for how they looked when we picked them up—thin and with thighs like my wrist—and I’ll never forget the Japanese for what they did to them. That’s a part of the war I remember the best. That was the best part, getting to save somebody.”

  5 September 1990—Guests of honor

  KISSIMMEE, Florida—It was an emotional reunion today between thirty-eight Barb crewmen and Jack Flynn and his wife Sandy, who arrived from Brisbane as the guests of the veterans. The Flynns were accompanied by Don Miller and his wife.

  4 June 1991—Mystery

  NAM KWAN HARBOR, China—Gene Fluckey arrived here today to determine whether the Barb sank more than a single ship in its daring attack on the port where a twenty-seven-ship Japanese convoy was at anchor. The Chinese government provided a van, a government interpreter, and a cashier to make the overnight drive to Nam Kwan over rock-strewn roads and jagged mountains with hairpin turns. In Nam Kwan, two elderly men who were teenagers when the Barb attacked confirmed that four ships were sunk and three damaged.

  9 May 1992—Cold Warrior in Red Square

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p; MOSCOW, Russia—Eugene and Margaret Fluckey today marched in the Russian Peace Victory Parade here. They were invited by the Russians to mark the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The parade wound for four miles through Moscow, starting at the Parliament Building and ending in Red Square before the Kremlin. Dressed in uniform with his Medal of Honor suspended by its pale blue ribbon around his neck, Admiral Fluckey greeted a Russian naval captain en route. Both locked arms in a warm embrace before thousands of cheering spectators.

  1992—Next best thing

  CLEVELAND, Ohio—Admiral Fluckey was the guest of honor for the rechristening of the USS Cod (SS-224) as the USS Cod Memorial on the Cleveland waterfront. The Cod is the last remaining World War II fleet boat that has not been modified, and it has been restored to its wartime appearance, inside and out. Fluckey marveled that it was “like coming home” to the Barb. It was Fluckey, in charge of disposing of decommissioned submarines in the late 1950s, who gave the order to relocate the Cod from the Philadelphia Navy Yard to the U.S. Navy Reserve Training Center in Cleveland in 1959.

  12 February 1992—Legacy

  GROTON, Connecticut—Eugene Fluckey was the surprise guest at a wine and cheese party hosted by the commanding officer of the Naval Submarine Base here. The admiral entertained officers-in-training with his account of the attack on Nam Kwan and the Barb’s narrow escape from a chasing frigate. “Fluckey spoke about calling his engineering chief to give him more speed and tie down the governors,” recalled Lt. David Ratte. “Strangely, during his narrative, I could not help but think of ‘Captain, I’m giving it all I’ve got!’ from Scotty in a fictional Star Trek episode and how closely this resembled Barb’s real-life heroic escape from the enemy’s clutches. That story has never left my mind. We men of today’s submarine force salute Admiral Fluckey, the ‘Galloping Ghost of the China Coast,’ and the never-say-die legacy that heroic submariners of World War II passed to us.”

  11 December 1992—Sailing with the skipper I

  ABOARD THE DELTA QUEEN—Seventy-six Barb shipmates and their wives joined Admiral and Mrs. Fluckey today for a four-day cruise on the Mississippi River. “Weighing anchor on a paddle wheeler is something my wife, Margaret, and I always planned to do,” explained the admiral. “Then, we thought how nice it would be to return something to the men I served with, and hit upon the idea of everybody vacationing on Delta Queen.” The river boat flew the Barb’s final battle flag during what the Fluckeys called “Operation Good Time,” completely paid for by royalties from the admiral’s book about the Barb’s legendary war patrols, Thunder Below! During the cruise, the veterans revealed that they had contributed a thousand dollars for a brass plaque permanently attached to the theater seat arm in Arleigh and Roberta Burke Memorial Theater at the United States Navy Memorial in Washington. The plaque reads:

  RADM Eugene B. Fluckey USN

  CO USS Barb (SS 220) WWII

  From His Shipmates

  31 May 1993—Breakfast with the Clintons

  WASHINGTON, D.C.—Admiral Fluckey today was the sole representative for all the veterans of World War II at a Memorial Day ceremony at the White House and Arlington Cemetery. He and his wife enjoyed breakfast with Bill and Hillary Clinton. Gene, a great admirer of Presidents Nixon, Reagan, and the first George Bush, had visited the White House many times to meet with past presidents over security matters. Fluckey praised President Clinton for appointing David Gergen as his White House adviser despite criticism from Democrats. Gergen had advised three previous Republican presidents.

  14 October 1993–1 August 1994–Limelight

  NEW YORK CITY—Gene Fluckey, eighty, began a whirlwind speaking tour promoting his book before the Yale Club here. Tuck Weaver also attended the dinner, providing a “living witness to some of Admiral Fluckey’s ‘miracles’ of warfare in World War II,” as Weaver later put it. Subsequent addresses and lectures were at Old Dominion, Hampden, and Norfolk State universities near Norfolk, Virginia; the National Press Club in Washington; Submarine Group Six in Charleston, South Carolina; the Iwo Jima Survivors Convention in Wichita Falls, Texas; the Naval Academy Dolphin Club in Annapolis; Submarine Atlantic Fleet in Norfolk; the National War College in Washington; the Submarine Veterans of World War II in Ballston, Virginia; the Battleship Park Memorial in Mobile, Alabama; the Basic Submarine School in Groton, Connecticut; and the National Archives in Washington.

  26 March 1994—Knighted

  KANSAS CITY, Missouri—Rear Admiral and Mrs. Fluckey were inducted today into the Sovereign Military Order of St. John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta. The order dates back to its founding in 1046 at the Vatican and was active in the Crusades of the Middle Ages. Admiral Sir Gene and Lady Margaret Fluckey are members of one of the world’s oldest orders of chivalry, which uses its resources to assist the needy in the name of Christianity.

  4 July 1995—Home of heroes

  PUEBLO, Colorado—Wearing his Medal of Honor and a baseball cap noting his service as COMIBERLANT in Portugal, Admiral Fluckey flashed the “V” for victory sign popularized in World War II in a ceremony here today honoring sixteen recipients of the medal. Pueblo calls itself “Home of Heroes” because four Medal of Honor winners reside in the city at the eastern foot of the Rocky Mountains.

  15 September 1995—Standing ovation

  PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii—Gene Fluckey, one of America’s most decorated living Americans, today provided introductory remarks for President Bill Clinton at the fiftieth anniversary of the Allied triumph in World War II, the most costly war in world history. The ceremony was held on the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). When visitors and dignitaries rose to their feet to applaud him, the admiral thanked them for “that standing ovation for my crew.”

  3 November 1995—Fluckey Hall (Georgia)

  KINGS BAY, Georgia—Admiral Fluckey was the guest speaker at the dedication of Fluckey Hall at the Naval Submarine Base here. He quipped, “It puts the onus on me to keep out of trouble for the next twenty-five or more years.” In a serious note, he added, “I do hope that those who study here will be imbued with some of the pioneer spirit and determination that made America great and not expect to develop knowledge without some good old-fashioned hard work and sacrifice.”

  14 May 1996—Sailing with the skipper II

  VANCOUVER, British Columbia—Rear Admiral and Mrs. Fluckey, along with Barb shipmates and wives, boarded the SS Nordham for a seven-day cruise of the inland passage of Alaska, all of it paid for by the Fluckeys. The ship flew the Barb’s battle flag during the voyage.

  1996—Fluckey Hall (Japan)

  YOKUSUKA, Japan—Fluckey Hall, the new headquarters for U.S. Submarine Group Seven, was dedicated at the Yokusaka Naval Base with Admiral Fluckey and his wife in attendance.

  18 April 1997—Celebration

  YOKOSUKA, Japan—Gene and Margaret Fluckey were guests of honor at a ball today to mark the ninety-seventh birthday of the submarine navies of Japan and the United States.

  Summer 1998—Astronaut Fluckey?

  WASHINGTON, D.C.—At a meeting of retired naval officers here, an elderly man approached Admiral Fluckey and said to him, “I made my first and last ride on a submarine with you in 1944.” It was Ohio Senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth. As a Marine lieutenant, he was a passenger aboard the Barb off Midway during deep submergence when a packing gland broke loose in the conning tower, thoroughly soaking the pilot. Glenn is in training to ride the Space Shuttle Discovery as the first senior citizen to orbit the earth. With his trademark humor, Admiral Fluckey asked about going along so scientists could compare a seventy-five-year-old with an eighty-five-year-old.

  1999—Long goodbye

  ANNAPOLIS, Maryland—Physicians diagnosed Admiral Fluckey as suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, a brain disorder common in older people and that also afflicts former President Ronald Reagan.

  3-4 April 2003—Last reunion

  ANNAPOLIS, Maryland—It has been forty years since thirty-five B
arb crewmen and officers met in Pascagoula, Mississippi, during the commissioning of the nuclear submarine Barb. In the intervening years there had been six reunions in addition to the Delta Queen and Alaska cruises. As shipmates left for eternal patrol or became physically unable to travel, attendance dropped a little at each reunion. On this occasion fourteen crewmen and officers, their wives, and two widows came from all across the country and met in Annapolis to exchange memories of the glory days and bid a fond farewell to their beloved skipper. The anecdotes exchanged in many cases were humorous sidelights that occurred during the serious business of trying to sink an enemy that was attempting to reciprocate. Admiral Fluckey made his appearance on the second afternoon, and it was the last time most of the attendees would see their inspirational leader.

  April 2003—Message to nuclear sailors

  WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Submarine Review this month published advice from Rear Admiral Fluckey to young people who might follow him: “Serve your country well. Put more into life than you expect to get out of it. Drive yourself and lead others. Make others feel good about themselves; they will outperform your expectations, and you will never lack for friends.”

  21 November 2003—Distinguished graduates

  ANNAPOLIS, Maryland—The United States Naval Academy, the Brigade of Midshipmen, and alumni this evening honored Eugene Fluckey and Robert W. McNitt. The academy praised both men as Distinguished Graduates before the entire brigade in Alumni Hall. Capt. Max Duncan, who served with both men in the Barb and had been a close friend of Gene for fifty-nine years, spoke for “my inspirational skipper.” Duncan also honored Admiral McNitt as “the finest open sea navigator of his time,” the man who correctly calculated where the sub could find shipwrecked Australian and British prisoners of war afloat in the South China Sea in 1944. Commenting on the skipper afterward, Duncan marveled, “Gene was a man of many different ideas. He used to run them by the bucket-full. All the time. Always pushing to do things differently.”