LCDR JAMES V. REILLY, USN
Lucky Bag Yearbook
From the 1932 Lucky Bag:
JAMES VINCENT REILLY
Log Staff; Feature Editor; Stage Gang Manager; Cross Country; Track; 1 P. O.
An honest, hard working chap who sprang from the wilds of New York City, Red delights in argument, but never waxes angry. Always good natured, he can’t hold a grudge longer than a few minutes at most.
“How many days, Mister.” Red spends a lot of his spare time thinking of leave when he can strut his stuff and give his version of the Navy Line.
He has little trouble with Academics, and doesn’t need to grind. The Steam Department got in a few good blows in the early part of his career here, but he has had the situation well in hand ever since. This leaves him time to devote to the various activities which go to make this school more than a mere institution of learning.
Much water has passed over the dam since we first gazed at that flowing red hair, and heard that distinctive New York drawl, yet time has served only to confirm that first good impression. He will have little trouble if he only continues to follow the good example he has set himself.
Loss
James was the co-pilot of a two engine bomber that crashed during a test flight, killing six men, about six miles northeast of Moss Landing, California.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
From the Times Union, Brooklyn, June 11, 1932:
James Reilly … received his commission as an ensign in the navy …
Ensign Reilly is to be congratulated for his determination, which eventually gained him admission to the academy. After failing to get the designation from his Congressional district, an opportunity to take the entrance examination he enlisted in the Navy.
After months of service [he] took the test and was one of the hundred that are annually enrolled from the service. He passed a creditable entrance examination and maintained a high standing during his four years at the academy.
James married Mary Enright on June 23, 1932, in Manhattan. In 1940, they lived on the Coco Solo Naval Reservation, Cristobal, Panama Canal Zone. Their son Jerauld, who was born in Florida, was 4 years old.
His father was Christopher, a police officer in the Lost Property Bureau, mother Jane, brother Gerard, and sister Margaret born in 1919.
James is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his sister, Helen E. Reilly, but his brother Gerard, serving in the Merchant Marines, had been reported missing the previous month.
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.
October 1932
January 1933
April 1933
July 1933
October 1933
April 1934
July 1934
October 1934
January 1935
April 1935
October 1935
January 1936
April 1936
July 1936
January 1937
April 1937
September 1937
January 1938
July 1938
January 1939
October 1939
June 1940
November 1940
April 1941
James is one of 52 members of the Class of 1932 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
