LTJG OLIN R. MINER, USN

Class 1920

Born March 5, 1898

Died March 17, 1924

Age 26

Hometown Fresno, California

Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1920 Lucky Bag:

Olin Rice Miner

Major

Honors: One Stripe; Rifle Squad.

SAY, ‘Major,’ got a boat for this afternoon?" The chance is that the “Major” has, for while he never has quite convinced us that he ’d rather sail a boat than eat, he does like to put a cat-boat or a half-rater thru its paces.

Books have never bothered him but he is conscientious and uses his time to the best advantage, although he will take an hour off every now and then and join “Heinie” in a slumber party. It is the practical stuff that Olin spoons on most and he has used nearly all of the opportunities given him to actually do anything to good purpose, for it is his firm belief that theoretical stuff is all right in the books.

The “Major” likes to use those long legs of his, and it was seldom that the first liberty party to leave the ship Youngster cruise didn’t include Olin all dolled up for a cross-country walk. A stop for a grape juice on the dock, another farther on, and if he could but find a berry patch or an orchard, “Major” considered it truly a perfect day. Somehow he had the faculty of finding the best places to go and he soon had quite a following on his weekly trips.

The “Major” has extended Democracy in the Navy until it includes the women. He likes them all but seldom raves about any of them.

He has a choice wit and the ability to express it in cartoon, as witness his pages in the Lucky Bag.

Olin is in the Navy with a purpose—to make good, and if his three years here can be taken as an indication, he’ll do it.

The Class of 1920 was graduated in June 1919 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Olin was lost on March 17, 1924 when the plane he was aboard crashed near Pensacola, Florida. The other man aboard his plane, Charles Porter ‘20, was also killed.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Charles and Olin’s plane struck another plane at an altitude of about 1,500 feet and crashed to the ground. The other plane’s occupants, Lieut. Henry Mullinnix ‘16 and Lieut. T. G. Fisher (’18) were able to right their plane and suffered only minor abrasions. Several planes were flying in formation undergoing spotting practice.

In 1920, Olin was in Key West on USS Shawmut. He listed his home address as the Bank of California, San Francisco.

To carry out Naval orders, Olin applied for a passport in 1922. He was to go to Belgium and France on the U.S.A.T. Cantigny in February. Olin was 6 feet and ½ inches tall with blue eyes, brown hair, small moustache, and had two V shaped scars on his left index finger. In May, he married Cleome Carroll in Paris.

His father Clarence Jennings Miner was an oculist born in Ohio 1864-1933. He was a member of the Medical Corps of the British Royal Air Force during WW I. He practiced in the Philippines, China and the Dutch East Indies. Olin’s mother, Maxine “Mattie” Alice (Crozier), married at age 15 and taught contract bridge.

Olin’s brother Clarence was born in 1897, and in 1900, the family lived in Fresno. In 1907, his brother Leonard was born in the Philippines. Olin, his mother, and brothers lived in Geneseo, Illinois, in 1910. When Olin died in 1924, his mother lived in Gainesville, Georgia. In 1930, Leonard and his mother lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and by 1935, they were living in Chicago.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

His passport photo, 1922.

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.