The Galloping Ghost (33 page)

On promotion to rear admiral, Eugene Fluckey took command of Amphibious Group 4—the “Brush Fire Brigade”—stationed in the Caribbean in 1960. The admiral (
on the right
) learned to scuba dive and often joined commandos practicing undersea demolition techniques.
Courtesy Fluckey family

Rear Adm. Eugene Fluckey sharing a peck with South Africa's “Lady in White” Perla Sidle Gibson prior to departure of the admiral's flagship USS
Spiegel Grove
from Durban during his Solant Amity II goodwill cruise of African nations in 1961.
Courtesy Fluckey family

During the Solant Amity II cruise, Admiral Fluckey flew by helicopter to Lambarene, Gabon, on 15 August 1961 to visit Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Albert Schweitzer and deliver medical supplies to his hospital there. The admiral said the physician reminded him of Fleet Adm. Chester Nimitz with “the twinkle in his eyes and the pervading humility.”
Courtesy Fluckey family

The atomic attack submarine
Barb
(SSN-596) floats down the ways at the Pascagoula River in Mississippi after its launch from the Ingalls Shipbuilding Yard on 12 February 1963. Mrs. Marjorie Fluckey was the ship's sponsor. Her husband gave the keynote address on the occasion that included the first reunion of the original
Barb
's crew.
Courtesy Fluckey family

Rear Admiral Fluckey (
left
) boards a Navy A3J Vigilante supersonic bomber at the Naval Weapons Evaluation Facility in Kirtland, New Mexico, in 1962. Accompanying the admiral is pilot Lt. Cdr. Samuel R. Chessman. The two reached Mach 2 in a test flight arranged for Fluckey, then the president of the Navy Board of Inspection and Survey. Back on the ground, it was announced that the admiral was the first submarine officer to fly at twice the speed of sound.
U.S. Navy photo

The couple pose in Oahu, Hawaii, prior to the admiral being detached to become director of naval intelligence in Washington in 1966.
Courtesy Fluckey family

Gene Fluckey and his second wife, Margaret, cut the ribbon to open Fluckey Hall at the U.S. submarine base in Groton, Connecticut, on 17 November 1989. Vice Adm. John A. Tyree Jr. is in the background.
Courtesy Fluckey family

Rear Admiral Fluckey (holding American flag) with Margaret Fluckey and an unidentified Russian submarine officer participate in the Russian Peace Victory Parade on 9 May 1992.
Courtesy Fluckey family

Rear Adm. Eugene and Margaret Fluckey remained very active in events all over the world through the 1980s and 1990s.
Courtesy Fluckey family

On 4 June 1991 Admiral Fluckey posed with two residents of Nam Kwan who, as teenagers, remembered the attack on two Japanese convoys by the
Barb
and confirmed that not one but many ships were either sunk or damaged by the submarine in 1945.
Courtesy Fluckey family

Admiral Fluckey stands on a dock overlooking Nam Kwan Harbor where fifty years earlier he led an attack by the
Barb
on nearly thirty Japanese ships at anchor there.
Courtesy Fluckey family