Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1939 Lucky Bag:

WILLIAM JEFFERSON WALKER

Bill, W.J., Jefferson

Gym 4, 3, 2, 1, GNT; Battalion Football 2, 1; Musical Club 3; Boat Club 2, 1; M.P.O.

Bill’s a true Southerner who entered the Naval Academy tired and hasn’t had a chance to rest. Although “Bunk Drill” is perhaps his favorite sport, he has found time to go to the gym and develop that “body beautiful” enough to become one of the Academy’s best parallel bar performers. In the fall he indulges in football and is generally considered the bulwark of the Fourth Batt line. Not inherently brilliant in his studies, he always manages to pull down a 3.2 or better without staying off his bed during study hour. Jeff is a snake of the first order and hardly ever misses a hop, even when way behind in his sleep. Although his big blue eyes slay all women, he is true to only one (sorority).

Loss

William was lost on September 24, 1943 when his patrol plane crashed during a night landing at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Harvey Point, North Carolina.

Other Information

From Wikipedia’s entry on Patrol Squadron (VP) 212:

24 September 1943: The squadron suffered its first operational losses when Lieutenant William J. Walker, the squadron executive officer, and five members of his crew were killed in a crash while attempting a night landing at NAAS Harvey Point in stormy weather.

From researcher Kathy Franz: “In 1930, his father Avery was a manager of a life insurance company, mother Jessie, and sister Virginia.”

William was survived by his wife, Carmen; they were married sometime earlier in 1943. He is buried in South Carolina.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

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.