CRAIG SPOWERS, ENS, USN

Craig Spowers '41

Date of birth: May 25, 1917

Date of death: October 31, 1941

Age: 24

Lucky Bag

From the 1941 Lucky Bag:

CRAIG SPOWERS

East Orange, New Jersey

When Craig came to the Naval Academy, one love from his civilian days was retained and amplified: an ardor for sailing. Having sailed the East Coast between Sandy Hook and Cape Cod in a yawl, Gloucester fishing sloop, and the schooner Tanya, this recreation superseded all the athletics that he had participated in during high school years. Those other athletics had been abandoned with the advent of the tobacco habit; which is characteristic of Craig's "double-or-nothing" personality—a nature which is somewhat perplexing in its homogeneity and eccentricities. Craig is a staunch exponent of a "little bit of Old New York," coming from the near Jersey side—East Orange. "Knickerbocker town," and all its elements appeal to him—from McSorley's Ale House to the Rainbow Room. Craig has accumulated a number of nicknames through the years: "Gonk" (of which he is most proud), "Monster," and "Speedy" being a few. His natural flare toward the immaculate; his constructive criticism, and tolerant cynicism; and his characterizing nicknames: by these do we know him.

Boat Club 4, 3, 2, 1.

The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.

CRAIG SPOWERS

East Orange, New Jersey

When Craig came to the Naval Academy, one love from his civilian days was retained and amplified: an ardor for sailing. Having sailed the East Coast between Sandy Hook and Cape Cod in a yawl, Gloucester fishing sloop, and the schooner Tanya, this recreation superseded all the athletics that he had participated in during high school years. Those other athletics had been abandoned with the advent of the tobacco habit; which is characteristic of Craig's "double-or-nothing" personality—a nature which is somewhat perplexing in its homogeneity and eccentricities. Craig is a staunch exponent of a "little bit of Old New York," coming from the near Jersey side—East Orange. "Knickerbocker town," and all its elements appeal to him—from McSorley's Ale House to the Rainbow Room. Craig has accumulated a number of nicknames through the years: "Gonk" (of which he is most proud), "Monster," and "Speedy" being a few. His natural flare toward the immaculate; his constructive criticism, and tolerant cynicism; and his characterizing nicknames: by these do we know him.

Boat Club 4, 3, 2, 1.

The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.

Loss

Craig was lost when USS Reuben James (DD 245) was sunk by a torpedo attack from German submarine U-552 near Iceland on October 31, 1941.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Craig graduated in 1936 from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. “Gonk.” Football (2, 3); Basketball (2, 3, 4); Fire committee (3, 4); Junior Council (3); Baseball (2).

There was no next of kin listed, but he was survived by his parents and an older brother.

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.