USS GALLERY FFG-26

THREE BROTHERS - DANIEL VINCENT GALLERY, WILLIAM ONAHAN GALLERY AND PHILIP DALY GALLERY

Wikipedia (as of 2024)

Daniel Vincent Gallery (July 10, 1901 – January 16, 1977) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. He saw extensive action during World War II, fighting U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic, where his most notable achievement was the June 4, 1944 capture of the German submarine U-505. After the war, Gallery was a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction. During the post-war military cutbacks, he wrote a series of articles criticizing the heavy reductions being made to the US Navy. These articles placed him at odds with the administration during the episode which became known as the Revolt of the Admirals.

Daniel was the son of Daniel Vincent Gallery (born Chicago, July 19, 1865), lawyer, and Mary Onahan Gallery, writer.^[1] In 1917, at the age of 16, Gallery entered the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He graduated a year early, in 1920, and competed in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp on the U.S. wrestling team.^[2][3][4]

He had three younger brothers, all of whom had careers in the U.S. Navy. Two brothers, William O. Gallery and Philip D. Gallery, also rose to the rank of rear admiral. The fourth brother, John Ireland Gallery, was a Catholic priest and Navy chaplain. Their grandfather Daniel, born about 1839, emigrated to the U.S. from Ennistymon, County Clare, Ireland, in the mid- to late- 1800s.

Gallery was an early naval aviator. He flew seaplanes, torpedo bombers and amphibians. In the late 1930s, he won at the National Air Races in a race-tuned Douglas TBD Devastator torpedo plane.^[5] In 1941, while the U.S. was still neutral, he was assigned as the Naval Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Great Britain. While in Britain, he earned his flight pay by ferrying Supermarine Spitfires from the factory to Royal Air Force aerodromes. He liked to claim that he was the only U.S. Navy aviator who flew Spitfires during the Battle of Britain, but they were unarmed.^[6]

In 1942, Gallery took command of the Fleet Air Base in Reykjavík, Iceland, where he was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions against German submarines. It was there that he conceived his plan to capture a U-boat.

In 1943, Gallery was named captain of the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal, which he commissioned. In January 1944, he commanded antisubmarine Task Group 21.12 (TG 21.12) out of Norfolk, Virginia, with Guadalcanal as the flagship. TG 21.12 sank the German submarine U-544.^[7]

In March 1944, Task Group 22.3 was formed with Guadalcanal as the flagship. On this cruise, Gallery pioneered 24-hour flight operations from escort carriers in order to hunt U-boats, which had begun remaining submerged during daylight to avoid carrier-based aircraft. On April 9, the task group sank U-515, commanded by U-boat ace Kapitänleutnant Werner Henke. After prolonged depth charging, the submarine was forced to the surface among the attacking ships and the surviving crew abandoned ship. The deserted U-515 was hammered by rockets and gunfire before she finally sank. Gallery saw that this would have been a perfect opportunity to capture the vessel. He decided to be ready the next time such an opportunity presented itself. The next night, aircraft from the task group caught U-68 on the surface, in broad moonlight, and sank her with one survivor, a lookout caught on-deck when the U-boat crash dived.

On the next cruise of TG 22.3, Gallery took the unusual step of forming boarding parties, in case of another chance to capture a U-boat arose. On June 4, 1944, the task group crossed paths with U-505 off the coast of Africa.^[8] U-505 was spotted running on the surface by two Grumman F4F Wildcat fighters from Guadalcanal. Her captain, Oberleutnant Harald Lange, dived the boat to avoid the fighters. But they could see the submerged submarine and vectored destroyers onto her track. The experienced antisubmarine warfare team laid down patterns of depth charges that shook U-505 up badly, popping relief valves and breaking gaskets, resulting in water sprays in her engine room. Based on reports from the engine room, the captain believed his boat to be heavily damaged and ordered the crew to abandon ship, which was done so hastily that full scuttling measures were not completed.

Gallery ordered the boarding party from the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury to board the foundering submarine and if possible capture her. The destroyers in range used their .50 caliber and 20 mm antiaircraft guns to chase the Germans off the vessel so the boarding party could get onto her. Once on board, the party replaced the cover of the sea strainer, thus keeping the U-boat from sinking immediately. The boarders retrieved the submarine’s Enigma coding machine and code books. (This was a primary goal of the mission because it would enable the codebreakers in Tenth Fleet to read German signals immediately, without having to break the codes). They got her under control, and U-505 became the first foreign man-of-war captured in battle on the high seas by the U.S. Navy since the War of 1812.

This incident was the last time that the order “Away All Boarders!” was given by a U.S. Navy captain.^[9] Lieutenant Albert David, who led the boarding party, received the Medal of Honor for his courage in boarding a foundering submarine that presumably had scuttling charges set to explode – the only Medal of Honor awarded in the Atlantic Fleet during World War II. For capturing U-505, Task Group 22.3 was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation and Gallery received the Distinguished Service Medal.

He also received a blistering dressing-down from Admiral Ernest J. King, Chief of Naval Operations.^[10] King pointed out that unless U-505‘s capture could be kept an absolute secret, the Germans would change their codes and change out the cipher wheels in the Enigma. Gallery managed to impress his crews with the vital importance of maintaining silence on the best sea story any of them would ever see. His success kept him from getting a court-martial instead of a medal. (Two noted naval historians, Samuel Eliot Morison and Clay Blair, Jr., take opposite views of Gallery’s case. Morison saw it as an intrepid act of combat valor in the finest Navy tradition; Blair sided with Admiral King and called it an act of lunacy which could have undone all the work done by the codebreakers on both sides of the Atlantic.) After the war, King personally approved the award of the Presidential Unit Citation to Task Group 22.3 for the capture of the U-boat.^[11]

Gallery was given command of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock in September 1945. He relinquished command of Hancock on 10 December 1945.

After promotion to rear admiral, Gallery became Assistant to the Chief of Naval Operations. He commanded Carrier Division Six during the Korean War.

The “Revolt of the Admirals” occurred during Louis Johnson‘s tenure as Secretary of Defense. Johnson planned to scrap the carrier fleet, merge the Marine Corps into the Army, and reduce the Navy to a convoy-escort force. Gallery wrote a series of articles for The Saturday Evening Post fiercely criticizing these plans. The final article, “Don’t Let Them Scuttle the Navy!” was so inflammatory that Gallery barely escaped court-martial for insubordination. It cost Gallery his third star. It effectively finished his career, though he served 12 more years on active duty. At the time of his retirement, he was second in seniority on the Rear Admirals’ List.

Gallery’s final command was the Tenth Naval District in San Juan, Puerto Rico, from December 1956 to July 1960. During this command, with the help of the Rotary and Lions clubs, he established the first Little Leagues in Puerto Rico. It was also there that he first heard the steel bands of Trinidad. He was so taken by the sound that he invested $120 in steel drums for his command’s Navy band. He established the first all-American and the only military steel band in 1957. The Tenth Naval District Steel Band – or Admiral Dan’s Pandemoniacs, as they called themselves – became the U.S. Navy Steel Band and toured the world as ambassadors of the U.S. Navy until 1999.

Gallery was forced to retire from the Navy in 1960 when he was found medically unfit for service. Shortly before Gallery’s retirement, the custom of “tombstone promotion” was abolished. So he was one of the few rear admirals of his era to be retired as only a rear admiral. Most of his contemporaries retired as vice admirals.

He died at the Bethesda Naval Medical Center on January 16, 1977, at the age of 75. He was buried with full military honors in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery, adjacent to two of his brothers.^[3]

Awards and Honors

• Navy Distinguished Service Medal
• Bronze Star
• Presidential Unit Citation
• Navy Commendation Medal
• Victory Medal
• American Defense Service Medal
• American Campaign Medal
• European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal
• Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal
• World War Two Victory Medal
• National Defense Service Medal
• Philippine Liberation Medal

Rear Admiral William Onahan Gallery (22 June 1904 – 15 November 1981) was a United States Navy admiral — one of three brothers who became United States Navy admirals. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he was a naval aviator who served with distinction in combat during World War II.

William Onahan Gallery was born on 22 June 1904 in Chicago, Illinois. He was the son of Daniel Vincent Gallery (born Chicago, July 19, 1865), lawyer, and Mary Onahan Gallery, writer.^[1] Gallery entered the United States Naval Academy in 1921, the second of three brothers who would graduate from the Naval Academy.

He received his commission as a United States Navy ensign in 1925. He served aboard the battleship USS New Mexico from 1925 to 1927, followed by duty aboard USS Farragut from 1927 to 1930.

In 1930, Gallery reported for flight training in Pensacola, Florida. After nine months of training, he was awarded his wings as a naval aviator and assigned to Patrol Squadron 6 until 1933. He then transferred as an aviator to USS Omaha, where he served until 1935.

From 1935 to 1937, he served at the Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Then from 1937 to 1939, he served in Fighter Squadron 6 (VF-6) on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. His last assignment before World War II was at the Naval Air Station Alameda, Alameda, California.

In 1941, at the start of World War II, Gallery served on the staff of Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid where he participated in the Battle of Santa Cruz; and then was based at Guadalcanal where he served in combat with the First Escort Carrier Task Group.

Gallery then joined the PBY night raider (“Black Cats”) on USS Half Moon. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his method of destroying Japanese night raiders.

On return to the States, he was promoted to the rank of captain and took command of USS Chicago. He followed this command with duty at Eglin Air Force Base; after which he was commanding officer of USS Siboney, then the Naval Air Station Guantanamo, Cuba. This was followed by an assignment as Deputy Chief of Naval Operations (Air), then command of USS Princeton in 1950. In Eight Bells and All’s Well, his brother Daniel V. Gallery noted that Phil broke Princeton out of mothballs and had her launching airstrikes off Korea in less than 60 days, a speed record for reactivating an aircraft carrier.

Rear Admiral William Gallery retired from the United States Navy in June 1955. He died in 1981 and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.

Rear Admiral Philip Daly Gallery (October 17, 1907 – November 29, 1973) was a United States Navy officer who served with distinction on destroyers in the Pacific Theater during World War II, rising to the rank of rear admiral.

Philip Gallery was the son of Daniel Vincent Gallery (born Chicago, July 19, 1865), lawyer, and Mary Onahan Gallery, writer.^[1] He graduated from the United States Naval Academy.

During World War II, he was in command of the destroyer USS Jenkins (DD-447), earning the Legion of Merit and two Bronze Stars for his service.

After World War II, his commands included Destroyer Division 72, the fleet replenishment oiler USS Passumpsic (AO-107), and the heavy cruiser USS Pittsburgh (CA-72).

He retired from the navy in 1958. He died in 1973 and was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.