[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