RADM Daniel V. Gallery was a native of Chicago, Illinois.  He was one of five brothers that were all officers in the U.S. Navy during World War 2.  Gallery had a keen sense of humor and wore the wings of a naval aviator.  His sense of humor came out when he was a CAPT and named as the commander of the Navy patrol squadron operating out of Naval Air Station, Keklavik, Iceland.

 

In 1942, the American base at Keklavik was pretty austere and the natural environment made just about every aviation-related activity a challenge.  These challenges came from flying long over water patrols in some of the worst weather imaginable to routine maintenance on the aircraft.  Primitive living conditions and lousy weather made life at Keklavik pretty bleak.  Gallery decided that what Keklavik need was trees [Iceland has NO trees] to bring an air of civility to his barren corner of the world.  Ah, but not just any trees -- Gallery wanted palm trees.  

 

So that is how it was the CAPT Gallery sought out some of his chiefs to build two, full-size, realistic-looking palm trees from metal, burlap and other odds and ends found around the base.  In no time at all two glorious palm trees were erected beside the "Welcome to Keklavik, Iceland" sign that arriving passengers saw when they disembarked from their aircraft.  Keklavik's trees became quite the talk of visitors transiting through to other destinations as well as the men stationed there.  The trees lasted for years after Gallery left, for unlike their naturally-occurring cousins, these trees need no attention whatsoever except for some new burlap and paint here and there.

 

After he left Iceland, Gallery was put in command of a Navy anti-submarine hunter-killer task group of five destroyer escorts and an escort carrier, USS GUADALCANAL (CVE-60).  In 1944, this task group under Gallery's command captured the German submarine U-505 on the high seas.  It was the first time that the American Navy had captured an enemy vessel in combat since the War of 1812.  The U-505 submarine now resides on permanent display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, Illinois.  But, that is another story.