SHIP NITTES, SEAPORT & REAR ADMIRAL w ALTERF. SCHLECH,JR., USN (RET.) An Appreciation ofthe Life of Waiter Schlech by His Friend Peter Stanford Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr. USN (ret.) died after long illness on January 25 at age 69, leaving his wife Barbara and two sons and two daughters. He had worked with us as Advisor to the South Street Seaporl Museum in the late 1960s, when he was head of Military Sealift Command headquarlered in Brooklyn; he had served as president of the United Seamen's Service, and as chairman of the National Maritime Historical Society, 1972-78. His daughter Kate is a trustee of the United Seamen's Service and Barbara is an active supporler of the National Society, whose work has been published in our pages.
Commander Schlech , very much at home on the bridge of his command, the submarine Tilefish, about 1944 probably in the Bering Sea. Photos, courtesy Barbara Schlech.
Three guys in service under one flag on the bridge of USS Patrick Henry (nuclear submarine): at left Captain Schlech with the boat's two skippers, Captain (later Admiral) R.L.J. Long, and at right Captain (later Admiral) Harold E. Shear, now Federal Maritime Administrator. Both served as pall bearers at their commander's faneral.
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As the minute guns crashed out in the chill air and a Navy band played , we went to bury Admiral Schlech's remains on a hillside overlooking the grey waters of the Severn River and the chaste Georgian brick buildings of the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Wally lived just across the river, where he could keep an eye on things, as he put it (and where the middies and their dates gather on weekends to celebrate football victories or other events in the life of the Academywhich goes on, though the people change). Wally was proud of his Naval Academy class ring, as he was of his family. Somehow, talking to him , the personal family came to seem part of the larger Navy family. Wally's class, the Class of 1936, suffered heavy losses in World War II, which the United States entered five and a half years after their graduation. Wally very nearly did not come home. As Executive Officer in the old R class submarine Halibut, he helped her skipper sweat through a difficult time when the boat's bow was snagged on the bottom while she was running submerged. The decision had been made to abandon the boat, which would have meant death in the freezing Aleutian waters or at the hands of the Japanese-but Wally urged that the order not be given, and with infinite patience and fortitude of spirit, the submarine was worked free and returned from her mission damaged but safe. In all , he made five war patrols in Halibut, winning the silver star. He won a second star as commanding officer of the Ti.left.sh , which he took into action in fapanese home waters, sinking a patrol boat and destroying small craft by gunfire. He rescued a downed US aviator and brought back a Japanese prisoner. Wally's postwar career took him to Scotland , where he commanded the first Polaris submarine squadron sailing out of Hol y Loch . With patience (and fortitude!) he convinced local inhabitants who had been stirred up by propaganda that he and his men were not ruthless killers determined to plunge the world into nuclear holocaust. The British and American press commented on the success of this quiet-spoken but determined man in making his mission understood and accepted. He enjoyed similar success on a subsequent mission to Turkey, where he headed the Navy aid mission . In these missions and his final naval assignment as Chief of Military Sealift Command (from which he retired in 1971), he was supported by his charming, capable and outgoing wife Barbara. The steadiness, the keeping the eye on the
main purpose, and the patience and kindliness that were hallmarks of Admiral Schlech's style served the Society well in his three terms as Chairman. In this six year period the Society developed SEA HISTORY as its main project, and grew from and few hundred members to over three thousandwell on its way to the major force it is today. Wally's gift for friendship, and his deepseated conviction , led him to sign up many members for the National Society-such members as Edward Beach, author of Run Silent, Run Deep, and Admiral Arleigh ("31-knot") Burke-people who do us proud! He understood that the National Society was made up of people, and their real commitment, and that's what he brought in. He made light of his own problems, though now and then shore life would elicit from him a heartfelt "Oh, to be at sea again! " He never stopped pitching and never lost his good spirit. Writing from the hospital once with a suggestion to ship in some old SEA HISTORYS for naval patients he noted: " I look a little like one of Stephen Decatur's vets of the Barbary wars, but the prognosis is reasonably good." Admiral Burke saw him in hospital and wrote to me of his good spirit. In that sense, the prognosis was good ... always. I remember with laughter and gratitude the day he took the helm, December 8, 1972. I had brought him around to a meeting in Washington at a low point in our affairs. We were in debt, our new projects were all in the dream stage, and , incredibly, our then Treasurer had run away with our check book and records (which we never recovered) . I opened the meeting with this disturbing news and read out the resignations of six trustees-almost half the board. I then introduced Wally to the remaining trustees : "When we have our affairs in order and are back on an even keel , we hope Admiral Schlech will consider joining our board." There was a silence into which the Admiral spoke: " What's wrong with right now?" he said. There was nothing wrong with right now, Wally. And I, for one, will always feel your caring eye on our affairs and will be working to earn your cheery "well done." Norn:The family has suggested that gifts in Admiral Schlech's memory be made to the National Society. Such gifts will go into a fund to build up SEA HISTORY. in whose mission he believed so deeply, and which he helped so greatly to advance. .V SEA HISTORY, SPRING 1985