Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1950 Lucky Bag:

SILAS CLINTON HART, JR.

Spawned in the land of the blue grass, the finesse of Southern hospitality was inbred in Si when he joined us. Even Army influence at VMI couldn’t dull his insistence on the perfection which made him a mainstay on our Varsity Golf squad. Though an artist also of football and basketball, a shoulder injury hampered continued participation at Navy. Never outdone among draggers, Si’s record spoke for his feminine perfection. Although sometimes outdone by P-works, he was still our best problem solver. Come what may, his personality, matched only by his size, coupled with his Kentucky polish, will place him with our best when the reckoning comes.

Loss

From the now-defunct website USNA 1950:

Si attended one year at VMI before entering the Academy. After graduation he served as assistant navigator aboard USS Salem. Following flight training at Pensacola and Corpus Christi, he was assigned to VC-4 at Atlantic City flying night missions in F4U Corsairs. He was killed making an instrument approach to the Naval Air Station, Atlantic City, NJ, on a flight from Key West, FL

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

“Silas won letters in football, basketball, and golf at the Naval Academy. He graduated in 1945 from Elizabethtown High School where his father had been a football coach. In high school and at V.M.I., Silas played football and basketball.

Silas is buried in Kentucky.

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Neil Armstrong, III ‘50, James Bowers ‘50, and John Harvey ‘50 were also a member of the 22nd Company.