Franklyn E. Dailey Jr. Capt USNR 1921 - 2025
Franklyn Edward Dailey Jr., Captain USNR (Ret), aged 104, died at his home in Milton, GA on March 19, 2025 of natural causes surrounded by his caring family and staff at Vitality Living.
Franklyn pulled out all the stops to celebrate his 104th birthday on February 5, 2025 with his family, as well as his friends and neighbors from his home of 7 years at Mansions Independent Living. As he was leaving Mansions for the last time, a fitting chorus of "Anchors Away" broke out at the exit with a room full of neighbors and friends. One of his neighbors relayed that Franklyn would break out in song before lunchtime and his neighbors and staff would join in. He loved music and he loved reunions--- family, military, religious and spiritual.
Franklyn is predeceased by his wife, Marguerite Virginia Parker Dailey, and son, Paul McGary Dailey. He is survived by seven children and their spouses: Franklyn Edward III and Patricia, Michael Parker and Maureen, Philip Talbot and Sally, Elizabeth Valentin and Michael, John Lasher and Cindy, Thomas Ambrose and Frances and Vincent Christopher and Naviza, as well as 18 grandchildren, 27 great-grandchildren, and 2 great great-grandchildren.
In military and professional travels. Franklyn and his wife made a loving home in 16 sites before settling in Wilbraham, MA for 45 years, and then retiring to Georgia to be close to family. Franklyn made friends at all of his stops in his childhood, military, civilian, married, religious and family life.
He was a passionate tennis player and bicyclist.
Franklyn was born on February 5, 1921 to Franklin Edward and Isabel Louise (Lasher) Dailey and grew up in Rochester and Brockport, NY with his sister, Alma Valentin. He attended Catholic Schools and prized his learning experiences with the Sisters, and attributed his accomplishments in mathematics to their caring and dedication.
Franklyn earned a B S with distinction at the US Naval academy in 1942. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (B.S.E.E.) and the University of California (MS-Applied Physics).
Franklyn served in the Navy during three periods of armed conflict, including Operation Torch 1942-1944 in the Mediterranean, serving on the USS Edison as gunnery officer, when Dwight D. Eisenhower was the Supreme Allied Commander. Franklyn served in the battles of Casablanca, Sicily, Salerno and Anzio as well as the battle of Southern France.
During the battles of Salerno and Anzio, in 1943, in coordination with the cruiser, USS Philadelphia, the Edison group destroyed 12 German Panzer tanks and the gun barrels of the Edison turned white hot during a 24-hour engagement that enabled the allied landing and secured the beachhead.
The Edison had to return to the US for repairs due to the damage to the barrels, enabling Franklyn to marry his wife on April 1, 1944 at Saint Patrick's cathedral in New York city.
On the return to the US, the Edison screened the forced surfacing and destruction of U-73 and captured 11 survivors. Franklyn later became friends with the U-Boat captain, who once asked him, why did the Edison sailors shoot at them as they were disembarking the U-Boat, to which Franklyn answered, "Because you were shooting at us."
In 1945, Franklyn was commended by the Commanding Officer of the Eighth Fleet for his performance of Duty of Gunnery Officer aboard the USS Edison during the invasion of southern France in August, 1944.
Franklyn was transferred back to the US to obtain his navy wings in 1945 while still on assignment to the Edison during the battle of Southern France. He went on to fly 18 different single and multiengine planes, including the only plane with both propeller and jet engines, the P2V-Neptune, which was a long-distance anti-submarine, search and reconnaissance aircraft. In 1946, a modified Lockheed P2V-1 Neptune, nicknamed the "Truculent Turtle" held the record for a non-stop flight from Perth, Australia to Columbus, Ohio, a distance of 11, 235 miles in 55 hours and 17 minutes.
In 1947, Franklyn deployed to Whidbey Island, WA. to serve in Squadron VPH/L 7 as copilot of a PB4Y-2 Privateer with advance base at Kodiak, patrolling open water and traffic in the Aleutian Island chain while listening to Russian broadcasts. As a reconnaissance, search and rescue pilot flying out of Whidbey Island, WA and Kodiak Island, Franklyn and his co-pilot coordinated with a naval submarine to rescue a sailor adrift on a barge in dangerous winter weather in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands area
In one of four early experimental projects in 1953, Franklyn piloted an F8F Bearcat while he radio-controlled a F6F Hellcat Drone with another F8F Bearcat chase plane, out of Chincoteague, VA for VX2 NOLO Operations in an early pilot project on drone use, which foresaw the future use of drones in warfare (daileyint.com).
After leaving the regular Navy and in retirement in the early 1960's, he commanded "weekend warrior" squadrons on flight duty, eventually being promoted to Captain in the Naval Reserve.
Franklyn began his civilian career as an engineering operations and planning manager in 1956 with Stromberg Carlson Company. Following this he became manufacturing manager with Tecnifax Corp (diazo film duplicators), then Associate Director of Research for the Plastic Coating Corporation. He became successively Assistant Vice President of Marketing, then Vice President of Research and Business Development of the resulting company, Scott Graphics, Inc. At Scott Graphics, Franklyn led the team that created updatable microfiche.
After leaving Scott in late 1976, Franklyn founded his own consulting business, Image Technology and Application. This business was formed in recognition of the role that the microprocessor was about to play. Franklyn consulted for leading U.S. and Japanese technology-based businesses in electronic imaging. He was appointed Chairman of the Storage and Retrieval subcommittee of the Preservation Advisory Committee to the Archivist of the United States.
Franklyn was the author of "Joining the War at Sea 1939-1945", first published on the World Wide Web at daileyint.com and then in paperback in 2009; "The Triumph of Instrument Flight: A Retrospective in the Century of U.S. Aviation" (2004); and "My Times with The Sisters and Other Events" (2000).