Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1939 Lucky Bag:

LESTER SENECA WALL

Let, Les, Wally

Football Manager 4, 3; Small Bore Rifle Manager 2; Juice Gang 4, 3, 2, 1; Christmas Card Committee; M.P.O.

Les came to the Naval Academy from up New England way, bringing with him a typical New England drawl and a burning desire to get ahead in this man’s Navy. Academics failed to dim this enthusiasm, and he is still all for that idea. He also brought along a heart interest, and stoutly maintains that they are not all fickle. Determination and perseverance are his greatest virtues, coupled with his ever ready smile and cheerful disposition. He would rather bone Redbook than study, and is an exceedingly unorthodox poker player. However, he has a great deal of the stuff of which naval officers are made, and should end up somewhere near the top. Here’s wishing you a pleasant voyage, and happy landings, Let.

Loss

Lester was lost when the F8F Bearcat he was piloting crashed near Miramar, California, on April 5, 1950. He was executive officer of Composite Squadron (VC) 61.

Wartime Service

He flew several aircraft, including the F4F, F6F, F4U, F8F, and F2A. He deployed in USS Intrepid (CV 11), USS Enterprise (CV 6), and USS Lexington (CV 16).

He was wounded and forced to ditch his F4U Corsair on June 12, 1943 while a pilot with Fighting Squadron (VF) 11.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In 1947, he was the air officer for the “Mothball fleet,” 19 aircraft carriers tied up at Boston for storage. The 367 officers and men charged with maintaining the ships preferred to call it “Operation Zipper” in that the ships could be returned quickly to action in an emergency. Lester was navigator on the first ship to arrive – the Kadashan Bay.

Lester married Dorothy Warren Brewington on June, 14, 1941, in Norfolk, Virginia. Their daughter Dorothy was 6 when he died.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

Source

From The Berkshire Evening Eagle on March 21, 1947

Navy Cross

From Hall of Valor:

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander Lester Seneca Wall, Jr. (NSN: 0-82554), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Fighter-Bomber, in action on 28 July 1945, while deployed over Kure, Japan. As Flight Leader he led his flight in a bombing attack against the enemy battleship ISE at Kure, Honshu, Japan. In the ensuing action he pressed home the attack at an extremely low level in the face of medium and heavy anti-aircraft fire, personally scoring a damaging bomb hit on the ISE. His disregard for personal safety and determination to inflict damage upon the enemy were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.

General Orders: Commander 2d Carrier Task Force Pacific: Serial 01854 (September 18, 1945)
Action Date: 28-Jul-45
Service: Navy
Rank: Lieutenant Commander
Company: Bombing Fighting Squadron

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.