John Cullen, 90, foiled Nazis on LI, dead

John Cullen was just 21 years old when he walked down a beach in Amagansett and into history.

There, on the morning of June 13, 1942, were two men claiming to be fishermen. Near them, a third man walked out of the tall grass on the sand dunes, dragging a sea bag and speaking German.

A Coast Guard sentry, Cullen had just started a patrol of the beach. The war was on, and German U-boats off the coast were not uncommon. He was armed with only a flare gun.

Cullen, who helped foil the landing of German spies on a Long Island beach during World War II, died Monday of congestive heart failure in Chesapeake, Va. He was 90. He lived on Long Island for more than 50 years before retiring to Virginia.

Cullen's daughter, Jean McLaughlin, 61, said her father often downplayed his role in the incident.

"He'd say any American would have done the same thing," she said.

More than 60 years after encountering the Germans on the beach, in an interview with a Coast Guard historian, Cullen said he didn't think he was going to get out of the situation alive.

SEE PHOTOSNotable deaths: Long Islanders we recently lost

The saboteurs, dropped by submarine, had buried explosives on the beach and were part of Operation Pastorius, a Nazi scheme that included a second saboteur team landing in Florida.

"One of the fellows offered my dad some money," McLaughlin said Thursday from her parents' Virginia home. "He thought if I take this money and leave, I might make it."

Historians have said that saboteur George Dasch offered Cullen $300 cash and implied that if Cullen wanted to see his parents again he would take the money.

In the 2006 Coast Guard interview, Cullen said he retreated into the tall grass. He then ran to a nearby Coast Guard station and reported the incident. When authorities arrived at the beach, the Nazis -- four of them, it turned out -- had walked to a nearby train station and escaped by rail to New York City.

SEE PHOTOSRecent notable deaths

Peter Garnham of the Amagansett Historical Society, said superiors initially thought Cullen was telling a tall tale.

"But when he produced this wad of cash, they knew the only way he could get that much money was if his story were true," Garnham said.

Days later, Dasch phoned the FBI and the four were arrested. Six of the eight saboteurs who landed on Long Island and in Florida were sentenced to death by electric chair; one was sentenced to life in prison and Dasch was sentenced to 30 years in prison.

After being discharged in 1946, Cullen lived in Bayside, Plainview and Westbury, working for Dairylea Milk Co. as a sales representative. Shortly after retiring, he and his wife, Alice, moved to Virginia to be near their daughter.

Survivors also include his wife of 69 years; sisters May Donnelly of Massapequa Park and Edna Beaver of Atlanta; five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

A funeral service with U.S. Coast Guard Honors was set for Friday in Chesapeake. His remains will be cremated.