Capt. George L. Street III of Andover, a Medal of Honor recipient and retired Naval officer, died Saturday at the Academy Manor Nursing Home in Andover. He was 86.

A native of Richmond, Va., he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. in 1937. He moved to Andover upon his retirement in the mid 1960s.

During World Warr II, Capt. Street commanded the submarine USS Tirante. On its first patrol, Capt. Street ordered a surface attack on a Japanese munitions ship in the Korean harbor of Quelpart Island. The light from the exploding munitions ship revealed the submarine's position to two enemy destroyers. Capt. Street directed a defensive attack and sank both attacking destroyers.

For his courage under fire in the action, Congress awarded Capt. Street the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration.

Capt. Street was also awarded the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars and Submarine Combat Insignia. The crew of the USS Tirante, which included future Massachusetts Gov. Endicott Peabody, was awarded a Presidential Unit citation.

After the war, Capt. Street served as head of the Sub-surface and Surface Warfare Division of the Office of Naval Research.

In this capacity, he worked to establish the first undersea warfare symposium in Washington, D.C.

In 1958, he served as the commanding officer of the USS Fremont.

This ship partipated in operations during the Lebanese Crisis.

He was appointed to a professorship in naval science at MIT in 1959.

He worked at various other academic institutions until he retired in 1966. He was active even in retirement, teaching NROTC at Woburn High School until 1990.

He was a member of Christ Church in Andover, the Kiwanis Club of Andover, the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and the Ward Room Club of Boston.

Additionally, he was involved in the Sons of Cincinnatus.

He is survived by his wife, Mary M. (McKenna); a son, George L. IV of Portland, Maine; a daughter, Kristopher Terry of Kingsport, Tenn.; a sister, Melinda Olgevy of Old Greenwich, Conn.; four grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Christ Church, Andover.

Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

Arrangements by Burke Funeral Home, Andover.

 With his submarine crew manning surface battle stations, Navy Lt. Cmdr. George Levick Street III guided the USS Tirante toward the Japanese-occupied harbor on Quelpart Island, off the coast of Korea April 14, 1945. He was completing a reconnoitering circuit of the island, the first World War II patrol of his submarine against surface forces in the area.

The devastation that he would unleash on enemy positions "with conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty" would earn him the Medal of Honor, his country's highest military honor.

Mr. Street, a Richmond native who retired from the Navy as a captain in 1966, died Feb. 26 in an Andover, Mass., nursing home at age 86.

He slipped the Tirante into the harbor's mined and shoal-obstructed waters despite numerous patrolling vessels and in defiance of five shore-based radar stations and menacing aircraft. He sent two torpedoes into a large Japanese ammunition ship, exploding the target in a "mountainous and blinding glare of white flames," his medal citation says.

As it fled the harbor, the Tirante fired its last two torpedoes and destroyed two pursuing Japanese vessels. "Earning the Medal of Honor didn't affect him much at all," said his son, George L. Street IV of Portland, Maine. "He took it with a lot of humility. He was a lot prouder that his submarine crew won the Presidential Citation for that action."

On his second combat patrol, he won the Navy Cross for an attack on Nagasaki Harbor several months before the United States dropped the atomic bombs on Japan.

A St. Christopher's School graduate, he graduated from the Naval Academy and started his career on the World War I battleship USS Arkansas.

Mr. Street was accepted to Submarine School in 1940. His first submarine was the USS Gar, which lay off the California coast as the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He was awarded two Silver Stars for gallantry during seven combat actions on the Gar.

After his retirement in 1966, he taught Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Woburn High School in Woburn, Mass., for 10 years.

Mr. Street, who had suffered hearing impairment from military service, was a member of Disabled American Veterans Chapter 18 in Andover.

Survivors besides his son include his wife of 60 years, Mary Martha McKimmey Street; a daughter, Kristopher Terry of Kingsport, Tenn., and a sister, Melinda Ogilvy of Old Greenwich, Conn.

Burial, with full military honors, will be March 15 at 9 a.m. in Arlington National Cemetery.

© 2000, Richmond Newspapers Inc.