[Milsurplus] RIP: Capt. Edward L. Beach

mikea [email protected]
Sun, 8 Dec 2002 15:52:59 -0600


On Sun, Dec 08, 2002 at 12:13:31PM -0800, Hue Miller wrote:
> I intended to mail this Dec. 7, but felt ill,
> so it's late.
> (BTW, i wonder how many of the younger
> generation know what 12-07-41 
> represents, and what the cutoff line for
> knowing the answer tends to be.)
> 
> Captain Edward L. Beach, commander of
> submarines Trigger and Tirante in WW2,
> and Trident in the Cold War, passed away
> Dec. 1, 2002. He was a sensitive and imaginative
> author as well as a brave and intelligent warrior,
> authoring  these books: 
> Submarine
> Run Silent, Run Deep  (became movie, 1958)
> Around the World Submerged
> Keepers of the Sea
> The US Navy: 200 Years
> 
> A  true US Hero passes.
> 
> Also, i note from the NYT, in the UK, Bill Sparks,
> "last of the Cockleshell Heroes", passed away 11/29/02.
> He was one of only 2 of 10 British marine raiders to 
> return home, from an attack that employed canoes
> travelling 75 miles down a river to the French port
> Bordeaux, where the men attached mines to German 
> ships. The 8 men lost either drowned or froze in the
> cold winter water, or were shot by Germans after
> capture. Another hero passes.

God rest them merry, both of them. 

I grew up on and with Capt. Beach's writings, He was a writer of
great skill and sensitivity indeed, and I am told that he was a 
true gentleman in the finest sense of the word. He, Admiral 
"Swede" Momsen, and Commander Edward Ellsberg, all gone now to
history, made a great many events come alive in my mind. 

I wuppose I'm starting to get old now: almost all my boyhood 
heroes, from Anderson, Heinlein, Atkins, and Segovia, to 
Ellsberg, Momsen, Beach, and Gallery, are gone. So few remain.

-- 
Mike Andrews
[email protected]
Tired old sysadmin since 1964