Named Submarine Admiral uniform RADM Felix Xerxes Gygax, USNA 1907

[WVsubvet]

Rear Admiral Felix Xerxes Gygax, USNA 1907. 

 

My first flag officer’s uniform, this was rescued from a costume shop. I was sad to see that the dolphins were missing and weren’t able to be found but the line officer stars were in a pocket. I acquired the Meyer dolphins and applied them as a place holder. Both the jacket and trousers are named to the Admiral. 

 

I’d be extremely grateful if anyone had a photo of him wearing sewn on dolphins so that I may purchase a pair and restore this uniform with accuracy. I’ll eventually add a cover and fix him up appropriately. Enjoy! -Joshua 

Submarine veteran and collector remembering all on Eternal Patrol 

 

[Salvage Sailor]

Excellent pick up, thanks for posting this uniform.

 

WWII Newswire Article:  By Harry Nash Portsmouth, VA from "The Palm Beach Post" Vol. XXXIV No. 172 West Palm Beach, Florida, Monday Morning, August 31, 1942 (Wide World)

 

It's a pretty long jump from Twin Creek, Kansas, to Tokio.  It's also a pretty long jump from midshipman to admiral.
Felix Xerxes Gygax made them both.

Not all at once, of course, but considering that he never had been beyond Kansas' borders before he went to Annapolis, and considering that he started out to become a general, he covered the course in par.

He's 58 now and commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard and its 40,000 workers.  And his two receptions by the mikado and the one by the empress of Japan are in the background of his memories. 

"A Cut and dried state function," he shrugs.  "I bowed three times, shook hands, backed away, bowed again and departed."

You gain the impression that this brisk, balding officer would have swapped his howdy-session with Hirohito for a crash dive in a submarine any old time.  Life aboard a sub appeals to him because "there the life of every man depends on every other man, and men live more closely than anywhere else."

The admiral's passion for being close to the heartbeat of every assignment gives the lie to those persons--and there are some--who consider him standoffish.

"I'm accused of being aloof and cold," he tells you frankly.  "It is true I am not a handshaker or a backslapper, but I know that everyone depends on the men under his command.  I think I could be more useful if I had closer contact with the workers in the yard.  But I keep in touch through the department heads, whom I must not by-pass because sound organization demands that subordinates do their own jobs."

The 58-year-old Admiral Gygax is throwing everything he has into command of one of the nation's largest Navy Yards, yet it is pretty evident that he would give something pretty to be at sea during the current fireworks.

That's natural for an officer of the line who has been schooled and trained to go down to the sea in ships.  Facing a desk is a far cry from pacing a deck.
However, Admiral Gygax-only man in the Navy register with four X's in his name and only American Naval officer ever accredited to Switzerland as an attache--has a way of adapting himself to his surroundings.  More than that, he has found satisfaction in every tour of duty he's performed while carving a large slice of Naval career.

 

Felix Xerxes Gygax was born at Twin Creek on March 30, 1884, to Rudolph and Regina Gygax, who had met and married after coming to the United States from their native Switzerland.

Growing up, young Felix decided that Army life was the life for him.  "I tried to obtain an appointment to the United States Military Academy but couldn't," he grins.  "Then I tried for an appointment to the Naval Academy and had better luck."

Upper classmen at Annapolis, instead of demanding songs and poems from young Gygax as they did from other plebes, made him endlessly recite his name for their amusement.

Gygax was a member of the Class of 1907 but he and a number of others were graduated in 1906 to meet an urgent need for more officers for the expanding fleet.
Gygax served two years aboard the famous USS Kearsage during the battle fleet's 'round-the-world cruise.  He was commissioned an ensign in 1908 and three years later was assigned to special duty in connection with submarine Diesel engines at Winterthur, Switzerland, also serving as Naval attache at Berne.

 

Gygax saw extensive service in submarines from late in 1913 until 1920 and was awarded the Victory Medal (submarine clasp).  During this period he alternately commanded Submarine Division 14 and the Submarine School at New London, Conn.  He established the present submarine base at Pearl Harbor.

Meanwhile, promotions came along--lieutenant (junior grade) in September 1911--lieutenant in January 1914 --lieutenant commander (temporary) in August 1917 - lieutenant commander (permanent) in July 1918 - commander (temporary) in September 1918 - commander (permanent) in March 1922.

Between 1924 and 1932 Comdr. Gygax served with the engineering section of fleet training division, as aide and flag secretary to Admiral Charles F. Hughes, battle force commander, and later commander in chief of the United States Fleet, in the office of Chief of Naval Operations, and an executive officer of the Battleship Colorado.

 

He was professor of Naval science and tactics and officer in charge of the Naval ROTC unit at the University of California from 1932 to 1935.  "Teaching at California was an unusual experience for a Naval officer," he recalls.  "On the campus people called me 'professor'."

From April, 1935, until the spring of 1937, Gygax, a captain now, commanded the USS Augusta while that cruiser served successively as the flagship for Admirals Frank Upham, Orin G. Murfin and Harry E. Yarnell, each in turn commander-in-chief of the Asiatic Fleet.  It was while on this duty that Capt. Gygax was received by the mikado and the empress of Japan.

During the following three years he was director of the Naval Reserve Division, Bureau of Navigation.  Then he was ordered to duty as commander of Cruiser Division three, receiving a Presidential designation as rear admiral on assuming these duties in October, 1940.

It was with this well-rounded experience as a Naval officer that Admiral Gygax assumed command of the rapidly expanding Norfolk Navy Yard on Aug. 1, 1941.

Reviewing his career, he thinks "perhaps there is no job that gives as much personal satisfaction as that of executive officer of a big ship.  In that job you are intimately concerned with everything that goes on."

One of the admiral's greatest sources of satisfaction in his present command has been the  Navy Yard's tremendous expansion.  When he assumed command last year, there were 22,846 workers on the yard's $978,000 weekly payroll.  Today there are 40,000 workers on a $2,000,000 weekly payroll.

Admiral Gygax frequently uses a bicycle to travel about the sprawling 700-acre plant although hiking is his number one hobby.  Golf and swimming are next in his affections.

Sharing the admiral's big home quarters in the yard are his wife, the former Miss Estelle Ise of Lawrence, Kas., and their 17-year-old son, Rex, who will be graduated next June at the Landon School for Boys in Washington.  Another son, Felix, Jr., 26, is a Naval Reserve officer currently attached to duty at the Navy's experimental station at Annapolis.

Mrs. Gygax' father was named Isenmenger until he joined the Union forces in the Civil War.  A recruiting officer told him that Isenmenger was too big a name for such a little man and promptly shortened it to Ise.  It's been that was ever since.

 

[WVsubvet]

I’m very glad you enjoyed it and thank you for the very informative article! -Joshua 

[Moonlight Gecko]

That was a great rescue! Hope to see more pictures once it is restored