Retired Rear Adm. Ralph Metcalf enjoyed a distinguished military career that began with his appointment to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., in 1931 and concluded with his retirement from the U.S. Navy in 1957. During World War II he was a highly decorated officer, earning two Navy crosses, a silver star and a bronze star.

So the American flag means a lot to Ralph Metcalf--so much so that raising and lowering Old Glory is a task he performs religiously every day, not just on Memorial Day.

Still, Metcalf has a few words of wisdom to offer his Saratoga neighbors this Memorial Day. "Be properly reverent," he advises. "Memorial Day commemorates those who lost their lives in service to their country."

Metcalf and his wife of 57 years, Helen, have lived in Saratoga since 1957. They like to think of themselves as "91 years young." Metcalf is hard-of-hearing because he didn't wear enough cotton in his ears when firing weapons, according to his wife. Other than that, Helen says, her husband is in great health for his age because he "just takes care of himself."

"At the rate they're going, I think they are going to make it to 100," says longtime friend Bob Miller.

The couple met as children in St. Louis, Ill., married in January 1939 and have one grown daughter. They are also grandparents and great-grandparents.

Metcalf was born June 22,1913, in the small farming community of Greenfield, Ill., where his father worked as a banker. Henry T. Rainey, who was Franklin D. Roosevelt's first speaker of the house, appointed the elder Metcalf as first alternate to the Naval Academy in 1905. Twenty-six years later, Rainey appointed Metcalf to the Naval Academy.

"I graduated from high school in 1931, and the outlook for further schooling seemed to be pretty narrow," Metcalf says. "My father had made an abortive attempt to go to the Naval Academy in 1904-05, so the same congressman [Rainey] still had the same seat in Congress."

Metcalf graduated 31st of 442 in the class of 1935. He lettered in track and field and was awarded reserve letters in gymnastics and football.

"It meant a great deal because as it turned out I probably would not have gotten to college at all," Metcalf says.

"Because it was the Depression," Helen adds, "his family had a family bank and it went under."

After serving on a battleship and light cruiser, Metcalf asked to attend an intensive, five-month submarine school in Groton, Conn., which he finished in 1939. The couple married just as he was beginning his time at the submarine school.

"I had to convince her [to marry me]," Metcalf says.

"He had to chase me," says Helen.

The details of their romance remain a mystery. All Metcalf would say in terms of how he proposed was that, "We had gone through the formalities ... the details are not for sale."

They survived the first few years of marriage on Helen's mint julep cups and scrambled eggs, since she didn't like to cook.

"We learned to cook together in order to survive," says Helen.

Metcalf was assigned to the USS S-23 at Pearl Harbor, where he qualified and held all positions except that of commanding officer. During the early months of World War II, the S-23 made several unproductive patrols of the Aleutian Islands. Metcalf also rode the S-27 and S-28.

As World War II was starting and Metcalf was called into service, Helen learned she was pregnant. Their daughter was born in July of 1942 in Coronado while Metcalf was away at war. Helen described it as a difficult time where she occasionally broke down crying because she worried about her husband's safety.

"We just wouldn't know," Helen says. "One time, I remember it was 45 days until I heard anything from him. So you just didn't know. There were 52 subs lost, and you didn't know if your husband's sub was safe. Many of the wives ... we wrote to each other, too."

In the summer of 1942 Metcalf was ordered to Manitowoc, Wis., to fit out and commission the USS Pogy, SS-266. Training occurred on Lake Michigan, and the submarine traveled down the Mississippi to New Orleans in a floating dry-dock, crossed the Panama Canal and eventually reached Pearl Harbor. Metcalf made the first two war patrols as Pogy's executive officer, or "skipper," as he called it.

The first patrol recorded five enemy vessels sunk or damaged, and two or more sunk or damaged on the second patrol.

"It was a pretty fast war, and in effect, I went from a junior to a commanding officer of a submarine, the USS Pogy, in two years," says Metcalf, pointing to the Pogy's battle flag displayed in their home.

By August 1943, Metcalf was assigned to a relief crew as temporary commanding officer of various other submarines going through re-fitting in Pearl Harbor. During this time, Pogy sunk another 7,000 tons of enemy shipping on its third patrol.

"It was pretty crowded," adds Helen, describing the submarine's living conditions. "You had to be able to get along. They had to be a special kind of people really because they had to get along with each other. I would have had claustrophobia; the space was so small and the wardroom was very small where they ate."

"I was 29 years old then," says Metcalf, adding that the conditions didn't seem to bother him.

In November 1943, Metcalf was assigned command of the Pogy and made the fourth, fifth and sixth war patrols as her captain. He earned a Navy Unit Commendation with 10 confirmed sinkings and many more damaged.

Metcalf was ordered to command the Loggerhead SS-374 at Manitowoc in the summer of 1944. The two patrols he made at the end of the war had no results because all the targets were gone. After decommissioning Loggerhead, Metcalf was assigned to his third and last
submarine.

He took command of USS Greenfish in 1946 at New London, Conn. He held a variety of other positions after this time including executive officer of the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps unit at the University of Wisconsin, executive officer of the sub tender USS Sperry, operations officer of Comsubpac staff and commander of a submarine division, and he spent a year at a naval war college in Newport, R.I., in 1953.

He concluded his career with two years in the Joint Intelligence Group of the Joint Staff in Washington, D.C., and a tour as commander of a submarine squadron in San Diego in 1957. He retired as captain in late 1957, and the following day was promoted to rear admiral.

As a retired rear admiral, Metcalf went to work as a program manager for what was then known as Lockheed Missile and Space Corp. in Sunnyvale, in the Polaris Program. The Polaris was the first submarine-launched ballistic missile deployed by the U.S. Navy. The Polaris started development in 1956, with its first flight test in 1959. The missile's inherent immunity to pre-emptive strikes made it one of the most important assets of the U.S. nuclear armed forces. Starting in 1959, Lockheed supported the program and built the solid-fuel Polaris missiles.

For the last 14 years there, Metcalf worked in the British Polaris Missile Program. Retiring from Lockheed in 1978, he became a full-time stockbroker with Paine Webber until his final retirement in 1996.

"I had been interested in investing during the time I worked at Lockheed, so it was no trouble at all for me to 'walk across the street,' which I did in 1978 when I retired from Lockheed," Metcalf says.

Helen grew up in the countryside in Illinois, where her father owned a race track and had riding and harness horses. She graduated from Monticello Ladies' Seminary in 1934 and Wellesley College in 1936, and also took courses at the University of Hawaii.

When they moved to Saratoga, the Metcalfs began their long involvement in the Saratoga community. Giving back to the community was part of their upbringing.

"That's the way I was reared, otherwise we would have been very bored," says Metcalf, winking.

Metcalf is a past president of the Montalvo Association and an emeritus member of the board of trustees. Helen is the past president of Montalvo's service group, and she's chaired nearly every committee at Montalvo. She was also an integral part of having the Carriage House Theatre, an intimate indoor performance venue at Montalvo, named after local resident Claire Loftus. Helen also helped the Garden Theatre, an outdoor Montalvo amphitheater, to be named in honor of actress Lillian Fontaine, the sister of actress Olivia de Havilland.

Helen added that they were both instrumental in helping to start St. Andrew's Episcopal Church of Saratoga in July 1957, and Helen is a current trustee for the Hakone Foundation.

They have traveled through Asia, Europe and North Africa, among other places. In addition, they have lived in Hawaii before and after WW II. The walls of their home are lined with books about Hawaiian culture and history. Helen proudly says she can still hula dance as she once did during WWII at hospitals as Navy relief and entertainment.

Last week, the couple was to attend Metcalf's 70th reunion of the class of 1935 from the Naval Academy in San Diego. There are about 30 class members still living, three of whom are in the Bay Area. Helen jokingly added they would all have something in common at the celebration--they would all have a hard time hearing each other.

But they have something else in common, too. They are war heroes, and they all salute the grand old flag the same way.