Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1936 Lucky Bag:

William Terrill Hulson

Bill

Football 4, 2, 1. N; Crew 4; N Club; Choir; Musical Club; Glee Club; One Stripe

“There’s a good ol’ boy!"— that laudatory phrase or its equivalent has never failed to be forthcoming when Huls’ name is mentioned. Even-tempered, unassuming, a boy with something good to say to every one, Huls has established a host of real friends. One towards whom the lovely gals are wont to cast a second look, Huls gets along in their society. However, the always present thoughts of an O.A.O. have kept him from losing his heart in the East; a tale that’s told by a look at the splendid picture on his locker door. Being athletically inclined his talents have been devoted to football for four years. With a flair for finding good fun in everything, one who possesses sound ideas, an ambition, and a congenial nature, Huls is a prince as a friend and wife.

Loss

William was lost on September 3, 1940 when his F2A-1 crashed near Dana Point, California. He was a member of Fighting Squadron (VF) 3 at NAS San Diego. (Aircraft type and other details from an email from naval aviation historian Richard Leonard on December 29, 2017.)

Other Information

From the Class of 1936’s “Golden Lucky Bag,” published in 1986 (via Marianne Bradley, daughter of LCDR John Ellis ‘36, USN (Ret.)):

Mrs. Alfred W. (Jeanne) Gardes
325 Eighth Street
Coronado, California 92118

After serving in California and Ranger, and as a Communication Watch Officer on Commander Aircraft Battle Force Staff, Bill was ordered to flight training. Before reporting to Pensacola, he married Jeanne Mock of Redlands, California, in June 1938. He received his wings in February 1940 and was ordered to Fighting Squadron 3 at NAS San Diego. Bill flew training and operational missions off Saratoga until he was lost in the crash of his fighter plane at sea a few miles off Point Loma on 23 September 1940.

Bill is survived by his widow, Jeanne, who later married Captain Alfred W. Gardes, Jr., USN (Ret), a former classmate of Bill’s who graduated with the USNA Class of 1937.

William and his wife arrived in Coronado in late February 1940 following completion of his pilot training in Florida.

His wife’s obituary:

Jeanne was born in Cambridge Springs, PA and raised in Redlands, CA. She attended Scripps College for three years before transferring to Stanford University where she graduated with a degree in Psychology. In 1938 she married William Hulson, a Naval aviator. Bill died in an accident in 1940. Jeanne was commissioned an Ensign in the Naval Reserve at the outbreak of WWII, serving at the WAVE training base in New York. When she married Lt. Commander Alfred Gardes in 1943, they entered history as the first pair of naval officers to wed. They were married for 57 years until his death in 2000.

William is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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.