Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1938 Lucky Bag:

VINCENT MONCRIEFF SIM

Vinnie, Vince

Swimming 3, 2, 1; Water Polo 4; Choir 4, 3, 2, 1; Radio Club 4, 3, 2, 1; M.P.O.

You’ll probably hear him before you see him. In either case, stand by because when Vinnie’s around things happen and happen fast. Ambidextrous and versatile, Vinnie can do more things with his hands than a girl with a hairpin. He has a splendid memory for batting averages but for formulas and French verbs—no! He readily recognizes and appreciates the things that are sterling. His hair-trigger sense of humor often relieves from the seriousness of the moment but savoir-faire redeems him. Vinnie enters enthusiastically into sports, society and nudist colonies. He is one of the few who can say and do what they please and still retain their friends. His genial disregard for conventions leads to his doing the unusual with an enviable nonchalance. Vinnie’s host of friends and virtues are stepping stones to certain success.

Loss

Vincent was lost on May 6, 1946 when his plane crashed in the vicinity of Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay. (Information from September 1946 issue of Shipmate.)

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

His father was Archibald, mother Helen, and sister Elizabeth. In 1920 his father was an accountant for a cement company in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey.

He married Dorothy Willette Pell on 2/17/1942 in Honolulu. They returned to California on the USS Wharton on 2/21/42. She had a son born 11/16/1946 in California, 6 months after Vincent died.

Career

From naval aviation historian Richard Leonard via email on February 9, 2018:

• Date of rank LTJG from 1 Jul 1941 USN Register, 6/2/1941
• NAS Pensacola attached for HTA flight training, 3/19/1942
• Date of rank LT from 1 Jul 1942 USN Register, 6/15/1942
• NAS Pensacola designated NA # 15841, 7/24/1942
• Date of rank LCDR unknown, probably 10/17/45
• TacTest NAS Patuxent KIFA near Smith Island in Chesapeake Bay 5/6/1946

Vincent served as a LT aboard USS Hoggatt Bay (CVE 75) at some point during the war.

He is listed as the 83rd Naval Aviator to pilot a jet aircraft, doing so on February 21, 1946 at Patuxent Naval Air Station in a P-59B.

He is buried in California.

Photographs

Vincent with his parents, Archibald & Helen, and sister Elizabeth, circa 1924. The photo was attached to an application for a passport by his father when the family took a trip to Great Britain and France. Located by Kathy Franz.

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.