Tell your kids the story of “Lucky” Fluckey, the top submarine commander of World War II who earned the Medal of Honor and four Navy Crosses. Fluckey and his crews sank the most Japanese shipping tonnage elf the War.  

Born in Washington, DC, Fluckey graduated from the Naval Academy in 1935, served aboard surface ships and then went to submarine school. In the early days of World War II, Fluckey completed five war patrols above the Bonita. After commanding officer school, Fluckey received command of the USS Barb in January 1944. 

Over the next twenty months and twelve patrols, Fluckey and his crew sank the most tonnage of any submarine in World War II, seventeen ships that included a Japanese carrier, a cruiser and a frigate. 

On their eleventh patrol, Fluckey sent the only American troops ashore on the Japanese home islands during World War II, when inserted a small raiding team of unmarried volunteers that blew up a Japanese train. 

Fluckey received four Navy Crosses for his eighth, ninth, tenth and twelfth patrols, and his crew received four Presidential Unit Citations. Fluckey is also credited with revolutionizing submarine attacks, and set a world speed record for a submarine, when he outpaced two Japanese destroyers after a successful convoy attack in the China Sea.

After the War, Fluckey had a long naval career, retiring in 1972. He and his wife, Marjorie, ran an orphanage in Portugal, and then retired to Maryland before passing in 2007. Fluckey published his memoir, Thunder Below!, in 1992. Honor and remember Eugene Fluckey and the crew of the USS Barb!