Local Navy veteran honored with award for submarine qualification
Delahanty gets Holland Club award from Harrisburg-based organization
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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Navy veteran Cliff Delahanty learned every job on a submarine during his service more than 50 years ago, earning "his dolphins" and making him qualified in submarines.
Once someone is qualified in submarines, they are qualified for life, said Keystone Submarine Base member Brian Bowers.
Delahanty's qualifications earned him the Holland Club award, which was presented to him at the Hollidaysburg Veterans Home on Monday by five U.S. Navy veteran submariners from the Keystone Sub Base.
"It takes a year, and not everyone can do it," Keystone Sub Cmdr. Earl Gee said. "If you study to be maintenance, you then don't need to know how to operate the torpedoes."
When asked why he wanted to learn all of the jobs on a submarine, Delahanty, 81, said it was to "earn his dolphins," referring to the golden dolphin insignia of qualified submariners.
While in Navy boot camp in June 1960, Delahanty said that the officers asked them what job they wanted. Delahanty told them that he wanted to do submarine service, but they told him "that'll never happen."
"I became one of the first," Delahanty said.
He said he went from boot camp to submarine school to working in a submarine within six months of joining the Navy.
The first submarine Delahanty served on was the USS Redfin. He mainly worked as a sonar technician "listening to things underwater" throughout his seven years of service.
Delahanty said he probably would have served 20 years if he hadn't been shot while home on leave.
Arriving at home in Baltimore at 5 p.m., Delahanty said he didn't lock his car because he thought he "might be heading back out again." He noted that his car had a red interior and that when he came outside about 10 p.m., he "saw a white spot."
"I said 'what are you doing in my car?'" Delahanty said. "Then they shot me twice."
One bullet lodged between his L1 and L2 vertebrae, where it remains, Delahanty said. His doctors told him that it could fall out into his stomach cavity, it could do nothing or it could shift and paralyze him.
Delahanty said he was given two options: he could return to submarine service, where they are submerged for 60 days at a time and if he became paralyzed, they would not be able to resurface, or he could be medically discharged.
"It would be a gamble," Delahanty said of possibly returning to submarine service.
He chose to be medically discharged and officially finished his service in June 1967.
Receiving the Holland Club award "meant a lot" to Delahanty. The award is given to those who have recently been inducted into the Holland Club, which only admits qualified submariners.
Gee said that Delahanty became qualified in 1961, so he could have been inducted about 10 years ago and that the ceremony was overdue.
Delahanty said that going the 50 years necessary to qualify for the award means that he did his job "as well as anyone else from WWII on through today."
Delahanty's brother, Gene, who also served in the Navy, said he is proud of him.
"We've had some really interesting exchanges," Gene said.
Delahanty agreed, saying that it's nice to share that military experience, "especially with someone from your own family."
(Mirror Intern Yusheng He contributed to this article.)