LTJG CARL A. R. LINDGREN, USN
Lucky Bag Yearbook
From the 1928 Lucky Bag:
CARL ALBIN RUDOLPH LINDGREN
Class Football (4, 3, 2); Class Baseball (4, 3); Boxing A-Squad (4, 3, 2, 1), Navy Numerals (4, 3), bNAt; Christmas-Card Committee (1); Company Representative (3, 2); Two Stripes.
IT must have been an inherited love for the water that lured “Lindy” out of the tall grass up in Minnesota. After prepping for a time at a school near Tiajuana he arrived at the Academy as wooden and innocent as any Plebe. “Lindy” not only knew gymnasium Swedish, but he also speaks the language. Plebe Year he was frequently called on to demonstrate both, and he was always ready to amuse someone with his recitations of the popular Academy verse: " Tis I, The Duke."
Socially Swede is a go-between, but he can be expected to escort to some of the hops. His greatest experiences in this line were his Youngster Year femme, his Annapolitan friend, and his trip with Binney to New York.
In athletics “Oley” has been very consistent, though not unusually successful. Boxing under the tutelage of Spike Webb is his forte; the rest of the time he devotes to class football and baseball.
We are assured that Swede’s future has a lot in store for him if he displays the same perseverance throughout life that he has shown at the Naval Academy. He has his heart set on aviation; he is “airy” enough for it; and his will will get him there and his pluck will carry him through.
Loss
From Naval History and Heritage Command:
Lt. (jg) Carl A. R. Lindgren and Radioman 2 class Arthur Austin Freeman died when SU-2 from VS-2B crashed into the sea 10 miles west of La Jolla, Calif. 19 Feb. 1935.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Carl’s plane was attached to an observation squadron of the carrier Saratoga. He was returning from routine maneuvers to North Island with two other planes. On board was his radioman Arthur A. Freeman. Their plane suddenly seemed to break out of control and plunge 500 feet down into the sea. Destroyers Hovy, Hatfield and Dahlgren, several planes and small boats immediately searched the area, but their bodies were not found.
Carl attended school in White Rock, South Dakota, which is just nine miles from Monson, Minnesota. He also lived in Big Stone, Minnesota.
Carl’s father was Jacob Albin Lindgren, a grain buyer from Sweden, who died in 1908. His mother was Anna, his sister was Ethelyn, and his brothers were Edwin and Albin Jacob. The family moved to Monson, Minnesota by 1910. His parents are buried in Graceland Cemetery, Boisberg, Minnesota.
Photographs
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.
July 1928
October 1928
January 1929
April 1929
July 1929
October 1929
January 1930
April 1930
October 1930
January 1931
April 1931
July 1931
October 1931
January 1932
April 1932
October 1932
January 1933
April 1933
July 1933
October 1933
July 1934
October 1934
January 1935
Carl is one of 15 members of the Class of 1928 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
