Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1945 Lucky Bag:

Orville Clifford Everhart, Jr.

Long before he came to this “Navy School for Boys,” “Happy” was a sea- soned “salt” and a cosmopolite supreme, and since that summer of 1941, he has been in constant demand keeping all hands “squared away on this stuff.” His radio was “Happy’s” pride and joy: when he wasn’t listening to it, he had it apart trying to coax a few more decibels from its battered speaker. If “Happy” doesn’t someday make Admiral, it will be only because he spent too much time with the boys on the fantail, instead of in the wardroom keeping up his fences. It will be a great day when the Fleet reclaims her own; “Happy’s” a good man.

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The Class of 1945 was graduated in June 1944 due to World War II. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

From VP Navy:

On 28 January 1953, four officers and six crewmen, flying in VP-9 P4Y BUNO: 59937, were lost while making an approach to NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. There were no survivors and the wreckage on Black Peak, WA, was not found until snow melted in April.

The plane commander was LT(jg) Leland R. Stegmerten and the co-pilot LT(jg) David Jarvis. They were transporting the Commander of FAW-6, CAPT Julian David (Judy) Greer (USNA-1927) and a member of his staff, LT(jg) O.C. Everhart, from NAS Alameda, California to attend a meeting at NAS Whidbey Island, Washington. Crew members were: ADC C.C. Longacre, AT1 T.W. Huffman, AO3 J.A. Kerrigan, AO3 J.L. McDonnell, AD3 H.L. Ziemba and ADAN T.J. Whitehead…" Contributed by BAUR, Fred G. fgbaur@aol.com [14NOV2010]

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Orville was born in Dallas, Texas.

Per The Morning Herald, Hagerstown, Maryland on October 21, 1953:

Orville’s mother Sallie Bess died when he was four years old. His father Orville moved to Hagerstown, Maryland, to live with his brother Emmert. Orville also stayed sometimes with his two aunts, one in Baltimore and one in Cleveland.

He enlisted in the Navy at the beginning of World War II. He was attached to the USS Minneapolis and participated in six naval engagements in the Pacific. He also served in French Morocco and later for three years was a pre-flight engineering instructor at Pensacola and the U. S. Navy photo school in 1952. Last December 13, he was assigned to the Navy’s “fleet air wing staff” at Alameda. The staff was scheduled to go to Korea last April. He received his wings in 1947.

He was survived by his widow Alice and two sons, Ward S., and Kurt G.

Orville is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

From The Daily Mail on October 20, 1953

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Julian Greer ‘27 and Leland Stegemerten ‘49 were also lost in this crash.