For meritorious service as Gunnery Officer of the USS Iowa from February 1943 to March 1944...By his ability to organize and train the personnel of his department, [he] was in large measure responsible for bringing the gunnery crew of this newly commissioned battleship to a high state of efficiency with excellent results during her first encounter with the enemy...[1]
From May 1944 to June 1945, Quiggle performed duties at the Bureau of Ordnance in the U.S. Department of the Navy.[1] For his tour there, he received a letter of commendation for from the chief of the bureau for his "great determination to the tremendous task of planning the production of the weapons of war..."[1] He then returned to Iowa as her executive officer.[1] The war ended on 15 August 1945.
Postwar and Cold War
On 1 March 1946 Quiggle received a promotion to the temporary rank of captain,[1] and that month he detached from Iowa and became a member of the Staff of the Commander-in-Chief, United States Pacific Fleet.[1] During his tour there, he received a promotion to the permanent rank of captain on 1 January 1948, with the permanent rank dating to 1 March 1946.[1] In September 1948, he became the commander of Destroyer Division 152,[1] and in April 1949 he took command of Destroyer Division 32.[1] In November 1949 he began a tour as Head of the Atlantic, European, and Middle East Section of the Strategic Plans Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations.[1]
Quiggle was married to the former Anne Griffith of Washington, D.C.[1] They had one son.[1]
Death
In July 1958, Quiggle was aboard the ocean liner President Cleveland with his wife Anne on his way from Tokyo to California to take up duties as the commander of Amphibious Group 1[2] at San Diego when Anne Quiggle reported him missing from the ship.[3] Press reporting disagrees on whether he disappeared early on the morning of 22 July[2] or 23 July,[3][4] but sources agree that his disappearance occurred when President Cleveland was in the North Pacific Ocean about 800 nautical miles (1,500 km; 920 mi) off California[1][2][3] during a voyage from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii,[3] to San Francisco, California.[2][3]President Cleveland′s captain reported Quiggle′s disappearance to authorities when the ship docked in San Francisco on 24 July 1958 and told the press that Quiggle had disappeared during calm weather, could not have fallen overboard, and therefore must have committed suicide by jumping overboard,[2][3] adding that Quiggle had kissed his wife on the morning he disappeared and told her, "You are better off as a widow."[3] Passengers aboard the liner told the press that Quiggle had acted peculiarly during the voyage and also conveyed the story of Quiggle′s statement to his wife.[2] U.S. Navy personnel from the 12th Naval District immediately launched an investigation into Quiggle′s disappearance[2][3] and Anne Quiggle reportedly denied that her husband had told her she would be better off as a widow before he vanished.[4] He was presumed lost at sea, and no trace of him ever was found. Quiggle was the second of only two U.S. Navy admirals ever lost at sea.[note 1]