Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1928 Lucky Bag:

WILLIAM SATTERLEE PYE, JR.

Bill Sat

Gymkhana Cast (2); Chess Club (3, 2); Star (4); Masquerader Cast (2, 1); Class Tennis (4); Swimming Class (3, 2), Plebe Varsity, Numerals (4); Lucky Bag Staff (3, 2, 1); Class Baseball; Two Stripes.

SAT, as his name implies, has never had any trouble with the Academic Department. He starred Plebe Year, and has stood well in the class ever since, although his study hours have been taken up chiefly by Lucky Bag work, informal entertainment committees and plans, and short story writing; these stories having been written mostly under the impulse of the moment. Occasionally he has been moved to write poetry for the Log, but these spasms are few and far between. Although he is not an athlete, he could hardly be called a member of the Radiator Club.

His highest attainments have been winning the hearts of certain members of the fair sex, masquerading, and organizing small jazz orchestras. In addition, he is quite an accomplished musician, being able to play almost any kind of a stringed instrument.

Several misinterpretations of the Little Blue Bible have awarded Bill the privilege of wearing a Black N with a small constellation of seven stars above it, but that only remains in his memory as days of pleasant rest and oblivion.

Loss

William was lost on September 30, 1938 when his aircraft collided with another and crashed into the sea off the coast of Southern California.

Other Information

From Find A Grave:

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) W. S. Pye, USN, was designated Naval Aviator #3709 in 1930. Graduated U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1928.

Lieutenant Pye and Aviation Cadet Charles Frederick Erickson, USNR, members of Fighting Squadron (VF) Three, died when their carrier-based fighter aircraft, operating from the aircraft carrier USS SARATOGA (CV-3), collided off the So. Calif. coast. LT Pye’s body was never recovered.

LT Pye’s widow was the former Miss Della Douglass Pease.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Born in Maryland, William was the youngest member of the 1928 graduating class and finished seventeenth in the class of 175 members.

In the fall of 1929, William attended the Chemical Warfare School in Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland.

He married Delia Douglas Pease on November 7, 1933, in All Saints’ Church, Chevy Chase, Maryland. At the time, William was member of the Gibson Island Club and the Army and Navy Club of Washington. Their daughter was Lucinda, and their son Stephen was only three weeks old when his father died.

In March, 1936, William participated in The Navy Relief Show play entitled “The Drunkard.” Performances were held for Naval Academy officers, instructors, midshipmen and their guests.

William was one of five navy fliers who split a $100,000 grand prize offered in a nation-wide puzzle contest in August, 1937. William R. Staggs, cadet on the U. S. S. Ranger, won the $100,000 first prize in the Old Gold puzzle contest.

Per The San Bernardino County Sun, August 26, 1937: Staggs’ surprise was complete. . . . when he sufficiently recovered . . . he said he and four fellow fliers had entered the contest together. They submitted separate entries, and at the end of the contest all five were tied with perfect scores.

Each then was asked to submit a letter concerning the contest, and it was Stagg’s letter which won him the $100,000.

Two of the four who worked the puzzles with Staggs, as relaxation after strenuous hours of flying, were on hand to congratulate him as he pocketed the check.

They were Aviation Cadet C. Addision Pound, Jr., and Lieut. (JG) J. D. Lamade [(‘32)]. The other two who worked the puzzles with Staggs were Lieut. (JG) Joe Jaap [(’32)] and Lieut. (JG) W. E. Pye, Jr., son of Rear Admiral Pye of the Atlantic fleet.

[After taxes, Staggs pocketed $59,050].

William’s father was a Vice Admiral and 1901 US Naval Academy graduate who retired with 44 years of service, including acting Commander in Chief of the US Pacific Fleet and president of the Naval War College.

William has a memory marker in Arlington National Cemetery, with his brother, on their parent’s headstone.

Photographs

From The Los Angeles Times on October 1, 1938

Related Articles

His brother, John Pye ‘39, was lost in January 1945 when USS Swordfish (SS 193) was sunk in combat.

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.