Nice, Identified and Enscribed Officer's Commission Sword named to Saxe Perry Gantz ~ 1939 Just In/Your Offers, Please! Named Naval Officers sword, scabbard and class ring from the Naval Academy. These items belonged to Captain Saxe Perry Gantz who graduated from the Academy in 1939. Saxe was the son of Black Hills homesteaders. Gantz received an appointment to the US Naval Academy by the late US Representative Walter Pierce of LaGrande, OR. He was graduated and commissioned at the Academy in 1939. He served aboard USS Yorktown and as Electrical Officer aboard the USS Wasp. After his tours aboard the aircraft carriers, Captain Gantz was ordered to Lakehurst, NJ where he underwent flight training in lighter than air craft. Following his designation as a Naval Aviator, he served as commander of a dirigible squadron doing convoy escort work on the East Coast during the height of the German submarine menace. In July 1944 he became Commanding Officer of a guerilla camp on the East China Coast. For service as the CO of the Southeast China Coastal Reconnaissance Expedition, Captain Gantz received a Navy Letter of Commendation for his "heroic performance of duty." The citation reads in part, "Assigned to reconnoiter the coast and to procure urgently needed information regarding enemy-held beaches, installations and concentrations and activities in the vicinity of Bias Bay, Commander Gantz penetrated Japanese lines together with his group, risked repeated danger from hostile ambush during the five-day journey through enemy territory to push courageously to the objective. Reaching the objective, he worked boldly from native fishing junks in broad daylight to take soundings and photograph all the areas concerned in full view of both Japanese units stationed on the beach and enemy patrol craft to seaward." During this period he was also Commanding Officer of a special reconnaissance group which made amphibious scouting penetrations of the Japanese held lines from Amoy to Hong Kong. The citation went on, "By his inspiring;leadership, indomitable courage and unswerving devotion to duty in the face of the ever present danger of being captured and treated as an enemy spy, Commander Gantz upheld the highest tradition of the US Naval Service." Later he spent a year in the interior of China commanding a camp of Chinese guerrillas harassing the Japanese invader. He won the Bronze Star for his achievements in this command. When World War II ended, he was Navigator of the cruiser Reno. Later he put the USS Manchester in commission as 1st Lt and Damage Control Officer."