Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1930 Lucky Bag:

BYRON BRUCE NEWELL

B. B.

Track 4, 3; Cross Country 3; Wrestling 4; 2 P.O.

ANOTHER rebel from away down South in Georgia, and say, how that boy can slaughter the English language. Byron was a quiet and unassuming lad when he changed allegiance from Georgia Tech to the Navy, but times have changed him and now he just thrives on girls from Washington, Baltimore, and Richmond. Not that B.B. is a lost and gone forever snake, but when the time for real dragging comes around you can always find Byron and he will have with him a “Bit of the Old South,” and then you will realize that all the Southern Belles have not passed into the dim, dim long ago.

Byron’s chief ambition was to be a track and cross country star, but when they moved the harrier event up to five miles B.B. decided that there were many many easier ways and perhaps faster to navigate five miles. But rather than let the Radiator squad gain another member, B.B. joined the “Suicide Club” and played company water polo.

Byron has been waylaid a few times by the Steam Department and has spent many an afternoon in the Gym, but the fire of the South fitting well into “The Old Navy Spirit” did him good service and B.B. is the winner.

The call of service is far-reaching and it did well when it saw the man it was to make out of the lad from Georgia Tech.

Loss

Byron was lost on October 26, 1942, when USS Hornet (CV 8) was sunk following severe damage from repeated Japanese air attack at the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Byron was born in Alabama. A member of Boy Scout Troop 24 in Atlanta, he received his Eagle badge in January, 1925. In May, as a senior at Fulton High School, Byron was in the play “Bumski.” He attended Georgia Tech for one year.

Byron married Eleanor Davis Whitaker on April 20, 1931, at Elkton, Maryland. Her mother Ethel and step father John Oliver Lagorce of National Geographic fame announced the marriage.

In April, 1940, Byron was in Anigua District, Agana, Guam, with his wife Eleanor, and sons Byron, age 7, and John, age 4.

His father William Carl was a cotton buyer in 1910 and a partner in an office supply company in 1930. His mother was Cleo, sister Edith, and brothers James Harold (’34), Robert, Carl and Charles.

On August 18, 1941, The Atlanta Constitution newspaper reported that Robert was a lieutenant in the Army Air corps, Byron was a navigator on the U. S. S. Hornet, James was in the Naval Air corps attached to the U. S. S. Lexington, William Carl, Jr., was a member of the R. O. T. C. unit at Boys’ High school, and Charles would enter Boys’ High school in the fall and enroll in R. O. T. C.

Byron is listed at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

His wife was listed as next of kin.

From USS Bainbridge association, formerly at http://ussbainbridgeassociation.org/index.php/19-commanding/53-rear-admiral-newell:

Admiral Newell’s father, LCDR Byron B. Newell, a 1930 graduate of the Naval Academy, was killed in action on board the USS Hornet in the Battle of the Santa Cruz on Oct 26, 1942. Admiral Newell’s son, Captain Robert D. Newell, USN, a graduate of the NROTC program at Auburn University, retired in 2009 after 24 years of active duty. Captain Rob Newell’s final assignment was Deputy Chief of Information. In addition to his father ( USNA‘30), Admiral Newell’s brother, John (‘57), two Uncles, James Harold (‘34) and William Carl (‘48A), a nephew, James H Newell, Jr.(63)and son in law, Edwin Bruce Watts (‘80), all graduated from the Naval Academy. His granddaughter, Caroline Watts, is a midshipman at the Naval Academy. She will graduate in 2018. His nephew, Justin Newell, will graduate in 2021.

The great-grandchildren mentioned above, Caroline ‘18 and Justin ‘21, spoke of Byron in the 2017 USNA Alumni Association video commemorating the Honoring Our Fallen Heroes event:

Photographs

From The Atlanta Constitution on November 27, 1942

From The Atlanta Constitution on May 27, 1930

Namesake

USS Newell (DE 322) was named for Byron; the ship was sponsored by his widow. The ship had a long and distinguished career in both the Navy and Coast Guard.

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.