ALEXANDER GROVES, II, LTJG, USN

Alexander Groves, II '37

Date of birth: September 12, 1915

Date of death: August 2, 1940

Age: 24

Lucky Bag

From the 1937 Lucky Bag:

ALEXANDER GROVES, II

Webster City, Iowa

"Alex" "Sandy"

Seventeen years passed on the plains of Iowa furnish little foundation upon which one may draw pictures of a sea-faring life, but Sandy gambled the Academy against scholarships just to prove that sailors are made, not born. His eager interest in the Navy and in what makes the wheels go 'round has proved his contention. Crew and his mandolin have helped him to more than fill the bare spaces of the daily routine. By his constant desire to do his best in everything, he has laid a strong foundation on which to build to the greatest heights in the Service.

Lightweight Crew 4, 3, 2, 1, NA. Radio Club. Mandolin Club. Christmas Card Committee. Two Stripes.

ALEXANDER GROVES, II

Webster City, Iowa

"Alex" "Sandy"

Seventeen years passed on the plains of Iowa furnish little foundation upon which one may draw pictures of a sea-faring life, but Sandy gambled the Academy against scholarships just to prove that sailors are made, not born. His eager interest in the Navy and in what makes the wheels go 'round has proved his contention. Crew and his mandolin have helped him to more than fill the bare spaces of the daily routine. By his constant desire to do his best in everything, he has laid a strong foundation on which to build to the greatest heights in the Service.

Lightweight Crew 4, 3, 2, 1, NA. Radio Club. Mandolin Club. Christmas Card Committee. Two Stripes.

Loss

Alexander was lost on August 2, 1940 when his aircraft crashed near Pensacola, Florida. He was a student naval aviator.

Other Information

From Find A Grave:

from Doris Neel Groves on January 30, 1945:
"Following a short leave (after graduation from USNA) he was assigned to duty on the U.S.S. Marblehead in Asiatic waters until March 1940. During this period he was awarded a citation for Intelligence reports and one for bravery by the Commander in Chief, Admiral Yarnell. "On the night of September 26, 1938, noting what appeared to be one of the Chinese occupants of the capsized sampan, you — with disregard for own safety, dived into the foul waters of the Whangpoo River — in effort to safe a life. The Commander in Chief commends you," etc.
In April 1940, Lieut. Alexander Groves II transferred to Pensacola, where he was making fine progress until August 2nd; while leading a formation his plane went out of control and crashed. His broken body rests in the family lot in Graceland Cemetery, Webster City, Iowa.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

He was nominated to the Naval Academy by Representative Fred C. Gilchrist of Laurens.
Father was R. W. of Webster City, Iowa. His sister Caroline was visiting him at the time of the accident.
He fell from an altitude of about 800 feet two miles north of Corry Field.

He was promoted to LTJG on June 3, 1940.

Photographs

From Des Moines Tribune on March 18, 1932

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.