Stand By-Y-Y To Start Engines

Cap'n Fatso

by Daniel V. Gallery

Book by Gallery, Daniel V.

Genres: Nautical, Fiction, Aviation

192 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1967

About the author

Daniel Vincent Gallery 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 Truman administration during the episode which became known as the Revolt of the Admirals.
The so-called "Revolt of the Admirals" broke out during Louis Johnson's tenure as Secretary of Defense under Harry Truman in 1948. 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. Even so, the episode cost Gallery his third star. It effectively finished his career, though he served 12 more years on active duty. At the time of his forced retirement in 1960 (for "health reasons") he was second in seniority on the Rear Admirals' List.

Reviews

[H.P]

Admiral Daniel V. Gallery was a character straight out of the saltiest sea story; his real life exploits became legendary in his own time. "Stand By-y-y to Start Engines" is one of several books of sea stories he published, and it is my opinion that most of them are true.

Engaging, funny, infinitely approachable by both the career military serviceman and his family back home - this book is one of the funniest reads you'll ever have.

[Mark Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you liked M*A*S*H (the original book), you'll find this very familiar. An episodic look at Navy fliers by a retired Admiral, Stand By To Start Engines looks at Pacific naval operations in the mid-sixties. The characters are--well, characters, and the situations madcap, and you get the feeling the author just changed the names of some of his friends.

[Peter Klein · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good light hearted read. Especially funny if you served in the Navy.

Daniel V. Gallery retired as a Rear Admiral (USN). Beside writing some very humorous books his most notable claim to fame was capturing German U-505 in 1944. The U-boat is on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.

[Garfield666 · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the aftermath of the recent Top Gun movie I was looking for miliary aviation fiction and found this long out of print book as an unauthorises epub on the internet, (fortunately some fan digitalised it and put it online)
I've been a fan of historical naval fiction for a long time, though so far mostly age of sail era, like the Hornblower novels.

This is a fun read about a couple charming prankster naval aviators and their equally devious admirals that at some times had me rolling on the floor laughing.

But it's also a document about aviation that is still lacking a lot of more modern inventions like GPS, easy global communication, TVs everywhere etc written by someone who clearly has done it and seen it..

I highly recommend it.

[Kevin Goodrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adm.Gallery's love of the sea comes through every story. His love of fun does as well. He is an amazing man and puts out equally amazing books.

[KennyO · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's Naval humor and I'm a Navy man.

Admiral Gallery came from a Navy family (he and two brothers all achieved flag rank, following the lead of their father and uncle). He was an independent thinker and a bit of a rebel. The latter was evidenced by his quite public participation in the Revolt of the Admirals and the former by his leadership of Task Group 22.3 which captured the German U-505, the first enemy warship captured by a U.S. Naval force since the war of 1812. This was so well executed that neither the U-505 crew nor the German high command were aware of the capture until the war had ended.

All this serious stuff simply comprises the underpinnings of a novel written with an impish humor by a man who knew whereof he wrote. I reread Gallery's work, both serious and light and fully enjoy it every time.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you flew in the Navy you'll love this book.