He was born in Fort Smith in 1886, the grandson of Admiral Stephen Bleecker Luce, founder of the Naval War College. After high school graduation, he enrolled at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he earned his degree in less than two years. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy, where he graduated second in the class of 1910. Because of his cool head and rational thinking, his academy classmates started calling him "Savvy," a nickname that would stick with him the rest of his career. After graduation, he was assigned to serve on battleships, and then, three years later, attended submarine school and worked extensively with the early American submarine fleet, supervising construction and testing at sea.
He lived up to his nickname when, in 1920, due to an induction valve being accidentally left open during a test crash dive, a new submarine he was commanding during its testing phase, flooded with 75 tons of water and sank to the bottom, 200 feet below the surface. After several hours of unruffled deliberation during a frantic situation, he ordered all air left in the tanks blasted into the aft ballast tanks, causing the stern of the 231-foot-long submarine to rise, until the submarine was nearly standing on its bow. By tapping on the hull, crewmen determined 17 feet of the stern was above water. After hours of drilling a small hole through the hull, a crewman was able to extend a makeshift flag, fashioned from a pipe and a white undershirt, to signal a passing ship.
In the 1930s, he served as commandant of the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On Dec. 7, 1941, he captained the battleship USS Pennsylvania, the first ship to return fire during the Pearl Harbor attack, was at Omaha Beach during D-Day, and was one of the chosen few invited to be aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrendered. After the war he commanded the U.S. Seventh Fleet, then was promoted to commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Western Pacific. He retired in 1948, a four-star admiral.
Who was this exceptional Arkansas military man buried in Arlington National Cemetery?
Answer on Page 4E
Style on 05/31/2020