CDR MURDOCH M. MCLEOD, USN

Class 1947

Born August 30, 1924

Died April 29, 1965

Age 40

Hometown Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1947 Lucky Bag:

Murdoch Mills McLeod

An unconventional person, Dick endeared himself to his classmates by his very originality. He was completely capable of any task, and this end was aided by a slight stubbornness to persevere. Steadfast in purpose, he did not readily backtrack. The Academy afforded him opportunity to pursue his interests: art, airplanes, and athletics. Some of his drawings graced the Trident Calendar, and pictures of planes decorated his locker instead of the usual “pin-ups.” An end and a hurdler on the plebe football and track teams respectively, he found company sports more to his liking, devoting himself exclusively to them during upperclass years.

The Class of 1947 was graduated in June 1946 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Dick was lost when the experimental Grumman YC-2A Greyhound he was flying lost both engines and crashed south of Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, on 29 April 1965. The aircraft was flying out of Patuxent River NAS on an evaluation flight.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Murdoch enjoyed bowling, and one night in November 1944, he had a three-game total of 655. High for the night was 675. In 1930, his father Donald was an assistant manager of a knitting mill. He served in the Army in WWI and in the Quartermaster Corps in WWII. Murdoch’s mother was Marian. She remarried a Marine in 1953.

From The Minneapolis Star, April 17, 1952:

Former City Flier Makes Air Strike in North Korea

Lt. (jg) Murdoch M. McLeod, 27-year-old navy flier from San Lorenzo, Calif., and formerly of Minneapolis, is credited with knocking out a highway bridge, a double set of railroad tracks, two locomotives and several boxcars with one bomb from his plane in Korea.

Pilot of a navy Skyraider, McLeod scored his “strike” north of Wonson, North Korea. His feat was verified by other members of the flight.

He is a son of Mrs. M. Mills McLeod Deephaven, and Donald C. McLeod, Minneapolis, and is a nephew of Lewis C. Mills, Tucson, Ariz., former Minneapolis newspaperman.

McLeod attended high school in Wayzata and Deephaven and University of Minnesota. He graduated in 1946 from the United States naval academy, Annapolis, Md. His wife and two children live in San Lorenzo.

His body was recovered by a Coast Guard cutter on 1 May.

From the June-July 1965 issue of Shipmate:

Cdr. Murdoch M. McLeod, USN, was killed in an aircraft crash at sea in the vicinity of Montauk Point, Long Island, on 29 April. He was attached to the Flight Test Division at the Naval Air Station, Patuxent River, Md. The plane crashed after its pilot radioed that the experimental aircraft, a C-2A, had lost both engines. It was on loan to the Grumman Aircraft Corp., and was on evaluation flight.

A memorial service was held at the Naval Air Station Chapel on 5 May, with services at Ft. Myer Chapel on 7 May, followed by interment in Arlington National Cemetery.

Cdr. McLeod, a graduate of the Naval Academy in 1947, was a native of Minneapolis, Minn. He is survived by his widow, Jane S. McLeod, and eight children: John S., Sandra A., Judith A., Michael J., Donald C, Sarah S., Mark D., and Charles S.; his father, Mr. Donald C McLeod of Scottsdale, Ariz., and his mother, Mrs. Forrest W. Waltz of Hemet, Calif.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, next to his wife, Jane, who died in 2007.

In 1957 he was noted for his excellence in bombing¹ from a A4D Skyhawk with Attack Squadron (VA) 34.