You would have to read Thunder Below. Also my wife's grandfather was a fellow submariner and friend of Admiral Fluckey's. I assure you he was not lucky. He took carefully calculated risks and his crew never felt that he unnecessarily endangered them. Fluckey's strategies were carefully thought out and tested on the principle of learning from other people's mistakes to avoid making your own.
Fluckey was an innovator, an original thinker who was a master at using other people's experiences to determine what was possible. He did love being in charge, but that is a characteristic of many ultra-successful people and if you can't live with it go work for a loser. Fluckey bragged about his boat and his crew much more than he bragged about himself.
Finally, when Admiral Lockwood retired, who was promoted into his place? Fluckey, that's who. Establishment military does not promote people who take unwarranted risks with their lives or the lives of others. War is dangerous but dead men don't win battles. Much better than sacrificing your life for the cause is requiring your enemy to sacrifice his. Fluckey, like George Patton, was a genius at helping this process. However, he was a much more likeable guy and there wasn't a submariner in the fleet that wouldn't have traded places with any crewmember of Fluckey's.
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