LTJG JOHN G. BURGESS, USN

Class 1930

Born May 6, 1907

Died February 2, 1935

Age 27

Hometown Minneapolis, Minnesota

Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1930 Lucky Bag:

JOHN GRAFTON BURGESS

Jack Burgie

2 P.O.; Crew 4, 3, 2, N 3, 2; Crenshaw Cup; Boxing Squad 4, 1; Pep Committee 1; Lucky Bag Staff; Gymkhana 4.

IT IS not surprising that Jack, ever on the go and bubbling over with life, ended his Prep school days and decided to make the Naval Academy his next stop. Being too important to wait a year for an appointment, he headed for Hampton Roads and became a real sailor. The Prep class offered him no difficulty and we next see him embarking on a four-year cruise as a middle. They have been happy years and they could be nothing else for one so alive and full of fun. His unfailing sense of humor made Plebe year a series of funny experiences, when anyone else would call some of them anything but funny.

“Burgie,” being of ideal build for a coxswain, decided to show the boys just how a crew should be run. He did it so well that he made the varsity shell Youngster year. Since his first day out he has with unfailing enthusiasm lived in a world of shells and oars. His chief joy in life is telling some six-footer what a model oarsman should be.

As a classmate Jack has been always ready to do his utmost to help anyone in any way whatever, academically or otherwise, and as a roommate he has bee indispensable. Good luck, Jack, ’tis a lucky crowd that will get you for a shipmate.

Loss

From Naval History and Heritage Command:

Lt. (jg)s John Grafton Burgess and Oscar Willis Pate killed when FF-1 plane crashed and burned near Millsap, Tex. 2 February 1935.

John was a member of Fighting Squadron (VF) 3B, flying from USS Ranger (CV 4).

From researcher Kathy Franz:

John’s plane was one of three land fighter planes being ferried from San Diego to the naval air factory at Philadelphia for overhauling. When the other two planes changed course in a dense fog, John’s plane became separated. Bystanders heard the plane but could not see it until it plunged to the ground in flames.

Enlisting in the Navy after graduating from Blake School, John entered the Great Lakes Naval Training School, then the Naval Academy Prep School, and was chosen from 100 others to enter the Naval Academy. In 1928 he was coxswain on the crew which competed in the national intercollegiate regatta at Poughkeepsie, New York.

John was the only child of John Burgess, vice president of the Northwestern National Bank and Trust Company of Minneapolis. He was also survived by his mother.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Oscar Pate, Jr. ‘27 was also lost in this crash.

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.