detonate.net - So Many Times You Cheated Death; Now It Is Here. Sorry.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Edward Latimer "Ned" Beach, the U.S. Navy captain whose 1960 record for circumnavigating the globe submerged in a submarine still stands and who wrote the best-selling undersea thriller "Run Silent, Run Deep," died early Sunday morning. He was 84.

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He earned 10 decorations for gallantry in World War II, including the Navy Cross, won for his role in sinking Japanese ships in shallow waters just miles from the enemy coast.

He later recalled saying goodbye to the crew of the USS Trigger in May 1944, where he had served as second-in-command, when he was being transferred to another submarine.

"What I didn't realize was that we were splitting -- those who were going to live from those who were going to die," he said. The Japanese sunk the Trigger in March 1945 and all aboard died.

The drama of the cramped quarters of a submarine at war was the basis for his best-selling 1955 novel, "Run Silent, Run Deep," about a clash between a revenge-obsessed captain and his crew. He wrote it while serving as naval aide to President Eisenhower.

Asked once how he had time to write the book, he said: "Instead of playing golf or going to a lot of parties, I would come home after hours at the White House, sit in my living room with a clipboard and write." His father also wrote novels while in active service as a naval officer.

The novel was made into a popular 1958 movie starring Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster, but Beach didn't like its melodrama.

"It's not true to the Navy that I saw and tried to describe," he told All Hands, a Navy periodical, in 1999. He wrote 11 other books.

In 1960, he commanded the USS Triton, a nuclear-powered submarine that circumnavigated the globe underwater in 84 days -- a record that still stands.

His account of the voyage, "Around the World Submerged," was published in 1962. He said it was tougher to endure a 24-hour depth charging at the hands of the Japanese.

He retired in 1966 and turned his pen to sometimes sharp critiques of his former employer.

In his 1995 book, "Scapegoats! A Defense of Kimmel and Short at Pearl Harbor," Beach made the case that Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and General Walter C. Short were wrongfully blamed for being caught off guard in the devastating December 7 1941, Japanese air attack.

Beach blamed Pentagon officials in Washington for failing to transmit accurate war warnings in time.

We wish your induction board to always be green. GodSpeed, Sir. No depth charges ever got you

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