Tech Topics - Fall 2007 - (Page 28)

Burdell&Friends “ordered Plage to break off his search and rescue and rejoin the remainder of the fleet. … Plage made a calculated decision to countermand Adm. Halsey’s orders. He assumed he was sailing the same ocean currents that were carrying Hull survivors toward his ship and decided to remain on this grid throughout the night and early morning of Dec. 20. At least until daybreak, he told his officers; if he saved just one more man, the insubordination would be worth it. … The captain’s hazard paid off almost immediately as the Tabberer pulled in her 41st survivor a little after sunset.” The final tally was 55 survivors rescued from the fierce seas. Ten days later, Halsey was aboard the Tabberer to award Plage the Navy’s Legion of Merit. Clavin and Drury write, “After pinning the medal on Plage’s tunic, the admiral turned to address the Tabby’s crew. … ‘Your seamanship, endurance and courage and the plain guts that you exhibited during the typhoon that we went through is an epic of naval history and will be long remembered by your children and their children’s children.’” The admiral’s own book recounting Plage’s heroism is quoted in the November-December 1947 issue of the Georgia Tech Alumnus. “These men reported that they owed their lives wholly to the Tabberer’s captain. While ships around them were barely keeping afloat, he maneuvered alongside and hauled the men aboard; even the shellbacks among them had never seen such seamanship,” he wrote in “Admiral Halsey’s Story.” “His ship handling had been so brilliant that I inquired about his experience. I expected to learn that he had cut his teeth on a marlinspike, but he proved to be a reserve who had been to in maritime schools. It was a matter of going upwind and turning the ship sideways into the waves, which was unheard of. That was just flying by the seat of his pants because traditional methods just didn’t work in a typhoon,” he said. The remaining survivors of the USS Hull continue to have reunions. They continued to reach out to Capt. Plage until his death. “One of the things they would always do is call my dad from the reunion and have a conference call-type thing,” Russ Plage said. “The last year that my dad was alive I had just put him in an assisted care living center in the summer. The reunion was in September. I was in contact with Archie and some of the other fellas and arranged for that conference call to go to the nursing home. “I told Dad about it and I think that’s what he hung on for because it was just a matter of weeks after that that he passed away.” Despite Plage’s death, DeRyckere continues to write letters, make telephone calls and send e-mails pushing to overturn the Navy’s stance that the Tabberer skipper cannot be awarded the Medal of Honor because his rescue mission did not occur during combat. “He was the most competent commanding officer in the United States Third Fleet. It took him 39 hours of dedicated lonely effort to convince the Third Fleet staff that he was saving drowning sailors under attack by sharks and barracuda and he needed help. They thought no one had survived the typhoon and had no intent to save anyone,” DeRyckere said. “Captain Plage saved my life and I would not be sitting here but for him. I love him and his crew with all my heart and soul.” Plage, left, receives the Legion of Merit from Adm. William Halsey aboard the USS Tabberer. sea exactly once before, for a short cruise during his ROTC course at Georgia Tech. How could any enemy ever defeat a country that can pull boys like that out of its hat?” The Alumnus said after the war Plage was promoted to commander of the USS Terror, the “flagship of minesweepers” in the Atlantic. For a time, reportedly from 1949 to 1952, Plage was back on the Tech campus teaching naval studies. He is pictured with his NROTC charges in the 1952 Blueprint. His son, Russ Plage, born in 1946, isn’t sure how long his father was at Tech or his exact role, but he does know the family was stationed in Japan from 1952 to ’54, when they moved to Clearwater, Fla. Another book, “Halsey’s Typhoons,” written by Hans Christian Adamson and George Francis Kosco, was published in 1967. Russ Plage, now living in Conyers, Ga., recalled one of the authors interviewing his father. “Dad never talked much about the war at that time and so to me it was just somebody coming to the house. I met the man, but I had a date that night and I left,” he said. “There was very little talk around the house about his military career. I guess he had the mind-set that it was time to move on and raise his family.” The veterans of the Hull and Tabberer had a joint reunion in 1984, the 40th anniversary of Typhoon Cobra. Henry Plage is pictured surrounded by the men who credited him with saving their lives. “It was really amazing, very emotional,” Russ Plage said. “The stories started coming out.” He began to comprehend what his father had done. “He figured out how to pull these guys out of the water. I mean, my goodness, they were in a typhoon. The Tabby was a destroyer escort, the second smallest ship in the fleet. How do you pick somebody out of the water? The traditional ways that the Navy taught at that time were not successful, so he figured out a way to do it. “It’s my understanding it’s called the Plage maneuver and is still taught Plage, far right, was captain of the Tech swim team, pictured in the 1937 Blueprint. 28 TECHTOPICS | FALL 2007

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Tech Topics - Fall 2007

Contents Mail Call Alumni House Historic Renovation 007 Buzz Bash Dazzling Daylilies Living History Cover Story: Key to the City The Hill Tapping Technology Robotics Rivalry No Easy Ride Giving Back Balancing Act Student Life Burdell & Friends Epic Story of Heroism Yellow Jackets Very Good Team Passport to Retirement Real World

Tech Topics - Fall 2007

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