Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1920 Lucky Bag:

Elmer Kiehl

Count Dutch

Honors: Buzzard.

HERE we have the wild and woolly “Count” from the vast wilderness of Cheesewick, who left that port of fame amidst the stirring strains of the county band and with the wild cheers of Tarentum High mingled with the sighs of the lassies from “Maggic Murph.”

The “Count” has never starred in an academic sense, in fact he has had ever a long and rough pull against a current of 2.4s, but don’t get the impression that our back corridor Maitre de Ballet is totally solid above the ears. On the contrary, he most generally begins where the rest of us leave off, and by always managing to hit the hospital in mid-winter pulls down his scanty margin. He rhinos, then thinks how the girls would miss him at the hops, buckles down and comes out with a cold 2.5.

Youngster Sep leave saw our hero return a man in love and muchly loved, but somehow things took a strange turn shortly after Christmas and since then he’s been a lover of them all. First Class cruise he showed a practical trend of mind that added to his consistent hard work will add proof to the old story—“Book savviness hain’t everything.”

“O-o-o-h, El-l-l-mer, you’re so good to me. M-m-m-m.”

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The Class of 1920 was graduated in June 1919 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Elmer was lost on April 2, 1945 when USS Henrico (APA 45) was struck by a kamikaze during the invasion of Okinawa. He was the embarked commanding officer of Transport Division 50.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Elmer was born in Cincinnati. In the 1910 census, Elmer was listed both with his family in Cincinnati and with his relative Eleanor (Kiehl) and her husband Clarence Hill in Cheswick, Pennsylvania.

Elmer married Nelle Jones on November 24, 1923, in Manhattan, New York. Both their sons graduated from the Naval Academy: Elmer (’47) and William (‘50.)

Early in WWII Elmer was on the staff of Admiral Royal Ingersoll, the commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet.

In January 1945, Elmer was sent to the Pacific. Newspapers reported that he held a Presidential Citation and the Legion of Merit.

About a month before he died, Elmer visited Congressman Robert J. Corbett in his office and requested an appointment to the Naval Academy for his son William.

Elmer was reburied in Arlington National Cemetery in March 1949.

His father Joseph was a pattern maker in a foundry; his mother was Antoniette (Roksh.) His sisters were: Edna (Mrs. John Marshall) of Cincinnati and Della (Mrs. A. Austin Weimer) of Pittsburgh. His brothers were Arthur and Alexander who served in the Army in the Spanish American War.

His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived his two sons.

Other

Elmer’s “fore & aft” hat and Lieutenant Commander epaulets were up for auction in February 2017.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together, or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.