Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1920 Lucky Bag:

Robert Holmes Smith

Bob Bobby

Honors: Buzzard.

FANCY an ante-bellum, tar-heeled exponent of the old school—imagine a pleasure-loving, indolent, yet bed-rocked image of that type of iron men once so familiar, and your vision portrays none other than—“Ladies, this is Bobby.” After this introduction we may leave Smith to shift for himself, for if he does anything well at all, it is making himself at home with the femmes. And strange to say. they seem to like his line. To the men just one word—if you ever start on a party with “Smithy” it would be wise to arrange to come home with the milkman.

Of all sports he loves best a fight, an argument, a bullfest and a smoke. Love of the latter resulted in a cruise Plebe year. Since then he has applied himself so thoroughly that he is thinking of publishing a book on “The Construction, Use and Maintenance of Tendencies.”

Beneath his casehardened appearance he is open-hearted, generous, always ready to help, and as warm and loyal a friend as can be found.

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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

Robert was lost on January 21, 1943 when the aircraft he was aboard as a passenger crashed in California.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Robert attended Rocky Mount High School and graduated from Staunton Military Academy at Staunton, Virginia.

His wife, the former Margaret Frances Bresnahan, was a nurse in the Navy. She enlisted in December, 1917, and was discharged on May 13, 1924. Both their sons were born in Panama: Robert in 1925 and John Valentine in 1931. When Robert died, they were living in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Robert was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd of Rocky Mount and of the North Carolina Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

His father Charles Holmes Smith was a retail dry goods dealer, mother was illian Valentine, and sisters were Josephine and Vivian (Mrs. Thomas McMillan.)

From Destroyer History Foundation:

Robert Holmes Smith, born at Harrellsville, North Carolina on 8 August 1898, was graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy on 6 June 1919. After duty in various surface ships, he served with the Submarine Service for 17 years.

He commanded Bonita (SS 165), was an instructor at the New London submarine school, a member of the Naval Academy staff, Submarine Gunnery Officer with the Bureau of Navigation, Navigation Officer in Pennsylvania (BB 38), and Chief of Staff for Submarine Division, Atlantic Patrol Force.

Following promotion to captain, he commanded Sperry (AS 12) in the Pacific from May 1942 to January 1943, and was Commander of Squadron 2, Pacific Submarine Fleet, when he died in an airplane crash in California on 21 January 1943.

His wife, Francis, was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by his son, Robert Jr. (USNA ‘47), who retired a Navy Captain.

Robert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Legion of Merit

From Hall of Valor:

(Citation Needed) - SYNOPSIS: Captain Robert Holmes Smith, United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States.

Service: Navy
Rank: Captain

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.

Related Articles

Robert English ‘11, Donald Godwin ‘11, John Crane ‘26, Francis Black ‘26, William Myers ‘26, John Coll ‘27, and George Stone ‘31 were also lost in the crash of Pan Am Flight 1104. Eight of the ten passengers were Naval Academy graduates.

Namesake

USS Robert H. Smith (DM 23) was named for Robert; she was the lead ship of her class of destroyer minelayers.