Captain Edward L. (Ned) Beach was the son of another Captain Edward L. Beach, and during the younger man's time at Annapolis, the United States was treated to the radio program "War of the Worlds", a fictional account of Martians invading Earth. A great many people did not realize that this was a fictional broadcast - and young Midshipman Beach was one of these. He hastily reported to the Officer of the Deck at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, volunteering to lead a squad of cadets against the Martians.
He was an officer aboard the famed USS TRIGGER and then was Executive Officer (XO) on USS TIRANTE when they attacked an AvGas tanker at Quelpart Harbor, blowing the tanker to bits and sinking two small Japanese patrol boats in the harbor as well. Beach was awarded the Navy Cross for his part in this action.
He was given command of USS PIPER and was en route to his combat patrol area off Japan, but the Japanese surrender took place before he got there, and so he returned to base.
Years after the end of WW II, Captain Beach was commanding USS TRITON when she became the First Submarine EVER to circumnavigate the world SUBMERGED. He later was Naval Attaché to President Eisenhower. Captain Beach also served ten years on the Advisory Board of Sharkhunters.
Captain Beach was also a prolific and successful writer, having many books published but the one for which he is most remembered is "Run Silent, Run Deep!" which was made into a movie starring Clark Gabel, Burt Lancaster and a cast who later became well-known movie names themselves including Jack Warden and Don Rickels.
It was in September of 2002 that Captain Beach agreed to hand-sign 100 photos and we sent the photos to him for signature in October 2002. Nobody knew it, but he had been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer and he even though he was dying of cancer, he spent time in early November 2002 to hand-sign these 100 photos and return them to us. Then, in mid-November 2002, he told his wife that he just didn't want to go on suffering so and taking all his medications, so he stopped taking them - and on 1 December 2002, Captain Edward L. Beach quietly began his 'Eternal Patrol'. He was a fine man and a great American!
Beach
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