Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1936 Lucky Bag:

Phillip Grant Wild, Jr.

P.G.

Baseball 4, 2, 1; Battalion C.P.O.

Being a loyal son of his native state, P.G. said, “I’m from Missouri and you’ll have to show me,” so not content with reading about the Naval Academy, he left Missouri U. and came to Bancroft on the Severn to get the inside dope on Uncle Sam’s school for pampered pets. Never bothered by academics, Oscar turned toward Cosmo, Argosy, and the rest. A great lover of music and always singing, Phil, with his baritone voice, became official third Batt. crooner. Where you find him, chow is within arm’s reach—a red mike yet has a locker door covered with femme’s pictures—likes baseball and a teller of the tallest of tall fish stories. Phil is a welcome guest in every room, but you’ll find him where the most is going on.

Loss

Phillip was lost when USS Edsall (DD 219) was sunk on on March 1, 1942 by Japanese surface and air forces. He was the ship’s engineering officer.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Phillip attended Spickard schools and the Missouri School of Mines at Rolla.

Survivors included his mother, two sisters, a brother, and his two-year-old daughter Judith Lynn. His late father had served two terms as Grundy County’s representative in the State Legislature.

From the Class of 1936’s “Golden Lucky Bag,” published in 1986 (via Marianne Bradley, daughter of LCDR John Ellis ‘36, USN (Ret.)):

Mrs. William M. (Mardi) Ringness
18841 Kinbrace Street
Northridge, California 91326

Children: Judith Wild Harrington.
Grandchildren: Two.

After graduation, “P.G.” reported to the battleship Colorado in the Pacific where he served for three years. In 1939 he married Marjorie Virginia Cowman of Long Beach, California, and shortly thereafter, the Wilds sailed for Manila where, on 5 September 1939, “P.G.” reported for duty in the destroyer Edsall, an old four-piper that had been attached to the Asiatic Fleet since 1925. These were the days when the Asiatic Fleet visited Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tsingtao, and Chefoo while service wives from Manila followed the fleet. In 1940, however, with tension rising in the Far East, dependents were evacuated from the Philippines.

When the war broke out on 7 December 1941, Edsall was at Balikpapan in the Dutch East Indies. After searching for survivors of the British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse, she joined the cruiser Houston at Surabaya to escort a convoy to Darwin, Australia. On 20 January 1940, Edsall, in company with three Australian corvettes, sank the Japanese submarine I-124 off Darwin.

On 27 February 1942, while Edsall, with the destroyer Whipple, was escorting the seaplane tender Langley from Fremantle, Australia, to Java, nine enemy bombers attacked. Langley was hit and abandoned and the surviving crew members were rescued by the two destroyers. Two days later, on 1 March 1942, Edsall was headed for Tjilatjap, Java, when she was caught in the gunfire of two large Japanese warships and was sunk with all hands. Lost with “P.G.” was his classmate, Dick Meyers.

“P.G.” was one of the most likeable members of the class who always had a cheery word for everyone he met. In the savage fighting of the first months of the war, he was one of the valiant few who fought the enemy in Asian waters against vast odds. His widow, Mardi, is now married to Captain William Ringness, USN (Ret) (USNA ‘39).

His wife was listed as next of kin. Phillip 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.