Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1937 Lucky Bag:

EARL WILLIAM CASSIDY

Casey Poker Bill

Soccer 4. Outdoor Rifle 4. Log 3. Manager, Swimming 3, 2, 1, sNt. Reception Committee 3. Two Stripes.

If I can only graduate from this place!" Casey says it with such genuineness that he led us to believe him at first, but the intervening years have proved his pessimism unfounded. Dago and Bull savoir extraordinary, his unceasing efforts in other subjects have kept him in that comfortable section of the class to whom Tecumseh is just another monument. Perhaps there is a tendency to worry too much in his makeup, but his outstanding characteristic is his entire sincerity. We’ll not attempt to predict Bill’s future, but whatever it is, we’re sure that it will be a good one.

Loss

Earl was lost when USS Shark (SS 174) was sunk, possibly on February 11, 1942, by a Japanese destroyer.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Earl graduated from Glenville High School in 1932. Hi-Y; Senior Sponsor (supervised sophomore studies.) Remember – Earl Cassidy’s arguing in English second period?

His father was William, a machinist, mother Nellie, and grandfather John Engel.

His wife was listed as next of kin.

Earl is remembered at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

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.