This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Robert Cox, YNCS
to remember
Fluckey, Eugene Bennett, RADM USN(Ret).
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Contact Info
Home Town Washington, DC
Last Address 7101 Bay Front Dr #313 Annapolis, MD 21403
Date of Passing Jun 28, 2007
Location of Interment U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery and Columbarium (VLM) - Annapolis, Maryland
After he retired from the Navy in 1972, Eugene Fluckey and his wife, Marjorie, started running an orphanage in Portugal in 1974. Marjorie died in 1979, after 42 years of marriage. He married his second wife, Margaret, in 1980 and they continued to run the orphanage together until it closed in 1982. He has one daughter, Barbara.
His book, Thunder Below! published in 1992, depicts the exploits of his beloved Barb. "Though the tally shows more shells, bombs, and depth charges fired at Barb, no one received the Purple Heart and Barb came back alive, eager, and ready to fight again."
Fluckey was awarded Eagle Scout in 1948. He is one of only eleven known Eagle Scouts who also received the Medal of Honor. He was an honorary companion of the Maryland Commandery of the Military Order of Foreign Wars. His book Thunder Below! was winner of the 1993 Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature.
Other Comments:
Medal of Honor
Awarded for Actions During World War II
Service: Navy
Division: U.S.S. Barb (SS-220)
General Orders: Submarine Board of Awards, Serial 0175 (February 28, 1945)
Citation: The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Commander Eugene Bennett Fluckey, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty as commanding officer of the U.S.S. BARB (SS-220) during her ELEVENTH War Patrol along the east coast of China from 19 December 1944 to 15 February 1945. After sinking a large enemy ammunition ship and damaging additional tonnage during a running two-hour night battle on 8 January, Commander Fluckey, in an exceptional feat of brilliant deduction and bold tracking on 25 January, located a concentration of more than 30 enemy ships in the lower reaches of Nankuan Chiang (Mamkwan Harbor). Fully aware that a safe retirement would necessitate an hour's run at full speed through the uncharted, mined, and rock-obstructed waters, he bravely ordered, "Battle station--torpedoes!" In a daring penetration of the heavy enemy screen, and riding in five fathoms of water, he launched the BARB's last forward torpedoes at 3,000-yard range. Quickly bringing the ship's stern tubes to bear, he turned loose four more torpedoes into the enemy, obtaining eight direct hits on six of the main targets to explode a large ammunition ship and cause inestimable damage by the resultant flying shells and other pyrotechnics. Clearing the treacherous area at high speed, he brought the BARB through to safety and four days later sank a large Japanese freighter to complete a record of heroic combat achievement, reflecting the highest credit upon Commander Fluckey, his gallant officers and men, and the United States Naval Service.
Biography of RADM Eugene B. Fluckey, USN
Date
Not Specified
Last Updated: Jun 30, 2007
Comments
Rear Admiral Eugene Bennett Fluckey
Rear Admiral Eugene Bennett Fluckey was born in Washington, DC on October 5, 1913 and was raised in Neoga, Illinois.
In 1931 he entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, graduated in 1935 and received his commission as an Ensign. Fluckey's initial assignments were aboard the battleship Nevada (BB-36) and the destroyer McCormick (DD-223). Following those assignments, he entered the submarine service in 1938 by instruction at Naval Submarine School, Groton, Connecticut. In December 1938, Lieutenant (junior grade) Fluckey was assigned to the submarine S-42. In 1941-1942 he completed five war patrols on Bonita (SS-165) and was promoted to Lieutenant.
From mid-1942 into early 1943, Fluckey received Naval Engineering instruction and attended Prospective Commanding Officers' School at New London, then went to the Pacific where he made one war patrol as Prospective Commanding Officer of the submarine Barb (SS-220).
On April 27, 1943, Commander Fluckey assumed command of Barb (SS-220). As commanding officer he established himself as one of the greatest submarine skippers, credited with the most tonnage sunk by a U.S. skipper during World War II: 17 ships including a carrier, cruiser, and frigate. In one of the stranger incidents in the war, Fluckey sent a landing party ashore to set demolition charges on a coastal railway line, which destroyed a 16-car train. This was the sole landing by U.S. military forces on the Japanese Home Islands during World War II. Fluckey ordered that this landing party be comprised of crewmen from every division on his submarine and asked for as many ex-Boy Scouts as possible because Fluckey knew they would know how to find their way in unfamiliar territory.
Fluckey received four Navy Cross Medals for extraordinary heroism during the eighth, ninth, tenth, and twelfth war patrols of Barb. During his famous eleventh patrol, he continued to revolutionize submarine warfare, inventing the night convoy attack from astern by joining the flank escort line. Two convoys at anchor 26 miles inside the 20 fathom (37 m) curve on the China coast, totaling more than thirty ships, were attacked. With two frigates pursuing, Barb set a then-world speed record for a submarine of 23.5 knots (44 km/h) using 150% overload. For his conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity, Fluckey received the Medal of Honor. Barb received two Presidential Unit Citations for the eighth and eleventh patrols and the Navy Unit Commendation for the twelfth patrol. He was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in May 1943 and Commander in March 1944.
In August 1945 Commander Fluckey became Prospective Commanding Officer of the new submarine Dogfish (SS-350), then under construction at Groton, Connecticut. However, this assignment ended after a few months and he began duty in Washington, D.C., first in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy, then at the War Plans Division and, beginning in late 1945, as Personal Aide to the Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz.
In June 1947 he again received a seagoing command, the modernized submarine Halfbeak (SS-352). In 1949-1950 Commander Fluckey served on the staff of Commander, Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet and from October 1950 to July 1953 he was assigned to the U.S. Naval Attaché at Lisbon, Portugal.
His command of Submarine Division 52 in 1953-1954 was followed, after his promotion to the rank of Captain, by command of the submarine tender Sperry and of Submarine Squadron FIVE. During the later 1950s Captain Fluckey was assigned to the U.S. Naval Academy, attended the National War College and served with the National Security Council.
Fluckey later served as Commander, Submarine Flotilla SEVEN (now Submarine Group 7) from 14 October 1955 to 14 January 1956. He was selected for flag rank in 1960 and reported as Commander, Amphibious Group 4, presidency of the Board of Inspection and Survey and a temporary assignment as Task Force Director of the Shipyards Appraisal Group. In June 1964 to June 1966 Rear Admiral Fluckey served as Commander Submarine Force, Pacific, and in July 1966 he reported as Director of Naval Intelligence. Two years later he became Chief of the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Portugal. Rear Admiral Fluckey retired from active duty at the beginning of August 1972, and ran an orphanage with his second wife in Portugal for a number of years.
Prior to his death he was the most decorated living American.
He was an Eagle Scout ? one of only six, along with Aquilla J. Dyess, Robert Edward Femoyer, Mitchell Paige, Leo K. Thorsness and Jay Zeamer, Jr., known to have received the Medal of Honor.
Rear Admiral Fluckey died on June 28, 2007 in the Hospice Unit at Anne Arundel Hospital, Annapolis Maryland.
