Vice Admiral Eugene P. “Dennis” Wilkinson (Photo: U.S. Navy)

August 10, 2024, marks the 106th birthday of Vice Admiral Eugene P. “Dennis” Wilkinson of the U.S. Navy (who died in his 95th year in July 2013). It is a fitting time to reflect on and honor the man who contributed so much to the navy and the worldwide nuclear power industry.

This video about the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944—the largest naval battle of World War II and a major contributing factor to the end of Japanese involvement—provides an exciting recount of the heroic U.S. submarines USS Darter (SS-227) and USS Dace (SS-247). A young Dennis Wilkinson was the torpedo data computer operator on the Darter, for which he was awarded the Silver Star. Wilkinson’s first-person recollections of this pivotal moment in U.S. naval history have been collected in Underway on Nuclear Power: The Man Behind the Words (2016, ANS).

The United States and Japan began rebuilding relations after the war. In 1966, Wilkinson, by then an admiral, was assigned chief of staff, U.S. Forces Japan, to continue those efforts.