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.
Navy honors submarine hero
Date
Aug 29, 2007
Last Updated: Aug 29, 2007
Comments
By Bradley Olson | Sun Reporter August 29, 2007
The nicknames of Rear Adm. Eugene B. Fluckey -- "The Galloping Ghost of the China Coast" and "Lucky Fluckey" -- meant to bring a little levity to the exploits of one of the most decorated sailors in history.
But as loved ones and shipmates approached an urn on display under the vast dome of the Naval Academy chapel yesterday to say a few words, many stopped in awe, bowing slightly as a last homage to the man who sank 29 Japanese ships as a submarine commander in the Pacific on his way to receiving the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses.
About 250 people gathered to pay their respects to Fluckey -- an Annapolis resident who died June 28 at the age of 93 -- including members of Congress, past Navy luminaries, top academy officials and 10 men who served under him.
"He was an ideas man," said Capt. Max Duncan, a torpedo officer on Fluckey's USS Barb. "He was forever curious to find new ways of doing things. ... And he loved to take it to the enemy."
He was the first to fire rockets from a submarine -- now one of the ships' primary roles -- and once blew up a troop train by sending eight men to plant a 55-pound bomb under the tracks.
Duncan described several of the more famous incidents during Fluckey's war patrols off the east coast of China from late 1944 to February 1945. In what his Medal of Honor citation describes as "an exceptional feat of brilliant deduction and bold tracking," Fluckey found more than 30 Japanese ships off Mamkwan Harbor on Jan. 25, 1945.
Knowing they would have to escape at full speed through shallow, rocky, mine-infested waters, he launched a number of torpedoes and made eight direct hits, blowing up an ammunition ship that caused "inestimable damage by the resultant flying shells and other pyrotechnics." He also is credited with sinking more tonnage than any other U.S. commander in World War II.
"He never stopped to assess the situation," Duncan said. "He had our undying respect and admiration. We will miss him."
Barbara Fluckey Bove, his only daughter, said he remained engaged in small innovations. In brief breaks he took from the around-the-clock care he gave his ailing first wife in 1979 -- leaving her briefly in the care of family or friends -- he would go out to study the stoplights in residential areas.
Having long railed against America's dependence on foreign oil, he came up with a more energy-efficient way to use the stoplights that he hoped could be applied on a national scale. Bove said he sent his work to Congress in 1979 and got no response.
When he was put in charge of raising the money for Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, where Navy's football team has played its home games for nearly a half-century, he "was so enthused, he could have built it by himself, brick by brick," Bove said.
Noting his agile mind and endless curiosity, she added that it wouldn't be right to wish that he "rest in peace.
"Instead we say: Anchors Aweigh, and we wish you Godspeed."